NEWS - Sunday, April 27, 2003
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 License’ 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. 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 license 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)Source: http://www.xboxaddict.com/
