Nintendo sweeps the board at 2003 Edge Awards

[PuPPeT]

Games industry heavyweight reveals videogaming favourites
Nintendo sweeps the board at 2003 Edge Awards

The games industry's most respected publication, Edge magazine, this month declares its pick of the crop and announces the best of all things videogames in the annual and established Edge Awards.

2002 may have been a tough year for the games industry with a number of developers facing closure and various games publishers radically scaling back, but despite these lows, Edge magazine has still managed to pick out a number of gaming highs well worth celebrating.

Categories in the Edge Awards 2003 range from 'Game of the Year' to 'Publisher of the Year', 'Developer of the Year' to 'Gameplay and Hardware Innovation of the Year', 'Surprise of the Year' and 'Disappointment of the Year'.

Overall most outstanding were Nintendo's achievements, not only scooping gongs for Metroid Prime in the 'Game of the Year' and in the 'Audio Achievement of the Year' categories, but also bagging 'Gameplay Innovation of the Year' for Animal Crossing and 'Publisher of the Year', beating off competition from Electronic Arts and Ubi Soft.

Further highlights include 'Developer of the Year', which went to Tecmo, ahead of Treasure and Retro Studios and 'Hardware Innovation of the Year', which was won by Capcom for its Steel Battalion controller.

'Best Use of a Licence' went to EA's The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers, 'Biggest Disappointment of the Year' went to Microsoft's Blinx: The Time Sweeper and 'Surprise of the Year' went to Rage's Rocky.

Joao Diniz-Sanches is editor of Edge magazine. Commenting on the outcome of the Edge Awards, he says:

"2002 was a very hard year for the games industry. Numerous games publishers and developers have been faced with cut-backs or even closure and despite all the big plans and promises for broadband console gaming, only one of the three major console manufacturers has so far made this a reality.

"But regardless of the bad news, there have been some magnificent highlights: Nintendo has shone through its inventiveness and ingenuity, the Xbox is proving itself as the hardcore gamers' platform of choice and the PlayStation2 has reached maturity, hosting an impressively diverse range of titles."

A full breakdown of the 2002 Edge Awards is available in the May issue of Edge magazine, on sale now.

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Edge Awards 2002 – a full breakdown

Game of the Year

1. Metroid Prime
Format: GameCube
Publisher: Nintendo
Developer: Retro Studios

2. Neverwinter Nights
Format: PC
Publisher: Atari
Developer: BioWare

3. Super Mario Sunshine
Format: GameCube
Publisher: Nintendo
Developer: In-house

Publisher of the Year

1. Nintendo
2. Electronic Arts
3. Ubi Soft
Developer of the Year

1. Tecmo
2. Treasure
3. Retro Studios

Gameplay Innovation of the Year

1. Animal Crossing
Format: GameCube
Publisher: Nintendo
Developer: In-house

2. Neverwinter Nights
Format: PC
Publisher: Atari
Developer: BioWare

3. The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers
Format: PlayStation 2
Publisher: EA
Developer: In-house

Graphical Achievement of the Year

1. O.TO.GI
Format: Xbox
Publisher: From Software
Developer: In-house

2. Ikaruga
Format: Dreamcast, GameCube
Publisher: ESP
Developer: Treasure

3. Panzer Dragoon Orta
Format: Xbox
Publisher: Sega
Developer: Smilebit

Audio Achievement of the Year

1. Metroid Prime
Format: GameCube
Publisher: Nintendo
Developer: Retro Studios

2. O.TO.GI
Format: Xbox
Publisher: From Software
Developer: In-house

3. GTA: Vice City
Format: PlayStation 2
Publisher: Rockstar
Developer: Rockstar North

Technical Achievement of the Year

1. MotoGP
Format: Xbox
Publisher: THQ
Developer: Climax (Brighton)

2. Street Fighter Alpha 3
Format: GBA
Publisher: Capcom
Developer: Crawfish

3. Burnout 2
Format: PlayStation 2
Publisher: Acclaim
Developer: Criterion Games

Hardware Innovation of the Year

1. Steel Battalion controller
2. GP32
3. GBA SP

Best use of a licence

The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers (PlayStation 2, EA)

Posthumous developer

Rage

Surprise of the Year

Rocky (Xbox, PlayStation 2, GameCube, Rage)

Biggest Disappointment of the Year

Blinx: The Time Sweeper (Xbox, Microsoft)

Gaming Industry Event of the Year

Edge/ 'Game On' party

Vapourware

Galleon (Xbox, GameCube)

Edge magazine is produced by Future Publishing

About Future Publishing
Future Publishing is part of The Future Network plc, which was founded in the UK in 1985. Today The Future Network publishes over 80 specialist consumer magazines worldwide and is the world's leading publisher of video games magazines. Future employs around 1,000 people in offices in the UK, US, Italy and France. The company also licenses 38 of its titles to international publishing partners, resulting in over 70 local editions in a further 27 countries. The Future Network plc is listed on the London Stock Exchange (symbol FNET).

[Shadow_Link]

Thanks for the round up PuPPeT.

Gaming Industry Event of the Year

Edge/ 'Game On' party

I wonder why?

[Perfect Stu]

I hardly see it as 'sweeping the board', but they did fare well.

I could see why some would think Metroid Prime is GOTY...but SMS as third best GOTY? Tecmo as DOTY is bewildering IMO...I've never liked their games.

And Blinx, to me, was probably the biggest disappointment. I remember how they hyped it up so much at last year's E3...I played it at my cousin's house not too long ago and I hated it.

oh, and what's 'GP32'?

[tarakan69]

I agree... but Moto GP...the best technical achievement??

That goes to Metroid... or Silent Hill 3... but that hasn't come out yet.

[Shadow_Link]

Originally posted by Perfect Stu
oh, and what's 'GP32'?

It's a 32 bit handheld that's actually got some good things going for it. (I 'think' it's more powerful than the GBA).

I agree... but Moto GP...the best technical achievement??

That goes to Metroid

Definately.

If we're looking for future contenders:

RS3
Doom 3
Resident Evil 4
Silent Hill 3
Halo 2
Fable

Those lot seem to stand out from what I've seen.

[tarakan69]

Actually Doom 3, Fable, Resident Evil... ALL look pale to WHAT Konami has done with Silent Hill 3.

It's not the polies, textures, and not even lighting system... They managed to get Full Screen Anti Ailasing mplement through software... since PS2 doesn't support it one a hardware level. This is really a technical mircale.