Bizarre Creations wins Develop's Grand Prix Award

Bizarre Creations has won the coveted Grand Prix at the Develop Industry Excellence Awards for its work on Xbox 360 racing game PGR3.

The Liverpool-based studio also received the Best Use of Online award, recognising the success of Xbox Live Arcade title Geometry Wars: Retro Evolved and PGR3's online integration.

The Awards ceremony, which took place at Brighton's Hilton Metropole hotel in front of an audience of 450 leading industry figures, also named Sony Publishing Hero of the Year and recognised the platform holder for its work in collaboration with Relentless on Buzz - which netted the Innovation and New Console IP awards.

It was also a good night for Criterion - now part of EA - which received the In-House Development Team award and another gong for Art & Sound.

Other Awards recognised achievements in handheld games, for which Grand Theft Auto: Liberty City Stories developer Rockstar Leeds was recognised, studio improvement (Rebellion) and intellectual property use (Atari's Fahrenheit won best new IP for PC, while Ubisoft received an award for its use of the King Kong licence).

It was also a night to celebrate the work of much-loved industry figure Charles Cecil, who was awarded "Development Legend" for his work on adventure games including the Broken Sword series.

On the whole, it was a good night for a range of developers, and capped off a promising start to the Develop Conference, which enters its third day this morning in Brighton.

The full list of awards follows:

STUDIOS CATEGORY sponsored by nVIDIA

NEW UK/EUROPEAN STUDIO
BIGBIG STUDIOS

MOST IMPROVED STUDIO
REBELLION

MOBILE GAMES STUDIO sponsored by Nokia Ngage
GAMELOFT

HANDHELD GAMES STUDIO
ROCKSTAR LEEDS

INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY CATEGORY

NEW CONSOLE IP
BUZZ (SONY COMPUTER ENTERTAINMENT EUROPE EXTERNAL DEVELOPMENT/RELENTLESS)

NEW PC IP
FAHRENHEIT (QUANTIC DREAM)

BEST USE OF A LICENCE
KING KONG (UBISOFT)

INNOVATION, SERVICES AND TECHNOLOGY CATEGORY

BEST USE OF ONLINE
BIZARRE CREATIONS (GEOMETRY WARS: RETRO EVOLVED)

ART & SOUND
CRITERION (BURNOUT REVENGE/BLACK)

INNOVATION
SONY COMPUTER ENTERTAINMENT EUROPE EXTERNAL DEVELOPMENT/RELENTLESS (BUZZ CONTROLLERS)

TOOLS PROVIDER
NATURALMOTION

SERVICES & OUTSOURCING
SIDE UK

RECRUITMENT COMPANY
OPM RESPONSE

INDUSTRY LEADERS CATEGORY

PUBLISHING HERO
SONY COMPUTER ENTERTAINMENT EUROPE

IN-HOUSE DEVELOPMENT TEAM
CRITERION

INDEPENDENT DEVELOPER
TRAVELLER'S TALES

DEVELOPMENT LEGEND
CHARLES CECIL

THE GRAND PRIX AWARD
BIZARRE CREATIONS

The Develop Industry Excellence Awards recognise excellence in every facet of the UK and European development business, and are judged in secret by a jury of 50 independent industry experts.

Stick with GamesIndustry.biz this week for ongoing coverage of the Develop Conference.