Golden Joystick Awards 2007 Announces Shortlists

PRESS INFORMATION: STRICTLY EMBARGOED UNTIL 2pm WEDNESDAY, 1 AUGUST 2007

The Oscars of the gaming world, the Golden Joystick Awards will today announce the shortlists for each of the 17 categories in the 25th anniversary year of the UK's oldest and biggest gaming award ceremony. Since 1 July, gamers worldwide have been voting for games on the Golden Joystick Awards longlists* at www.goldenjoystick.com and, with more votes being cast than ever before, the second round of shortlist** voting begins today. The Golden Joystick Awards is also proud to announce that David Mitchell, star of Channel 4's brilliant Peep Show and feature film Magicians, is set to host this year's award ceremony.

As all three super consoles now available to gamers, the 25th anniversary of the Golden Joystick Awards coincides with the most exciting time in video gaming history ever. With 2006 proving to be the 'year of the handheld', it remains to be seen what will emerge triumphant from this year's Golden Joystick Awards. The sheer muscle of the recently launched Sony Playstation 3 grabbed the attention of gamers in last year's awards as it received the 'One To Watch' accolade but the innovation of the Nintendo Wii console and Microsoft's Xbox 360 are both proving popular amongst UK gamers.

As most games publishers continue to release titles across all platforms, 2007 is shaping up to be a software showdown. The shortlist for this year's 'One's To Watch' category is entirely populated by highly anticipated game releases including Metal Gear Solid 4, Halo 3 and Grand Theft Auto IV. Unsurprisingly, both the Nintendo Wii and Playstation 3 feature in the 'Innovation Award' shortlist along with the Xbox Live Arcade and Playstation's alternative The Playstation Network, while the 'Mobile Game of the Year' category is generating a lot of voting traffic and is being hotly contested by a number of titles in this, the newest of the GJA categories. Elsewhere in the awards, despite the availability of the super consoles, both the Playstation 2 and PC are still proving to be popular gaming platforms and there are some interesting developments in the 'Ultimate Game of the Year' shortlist, that heavily features expansive, fantasy game titles such as World of Warcraft: The Burning Crusade and Gears of War. The Golden Joystick Awards 2007 shortlists in full are as follows:

The Sun Family Game of the Year

Wii Sports

Guitar Hero II

LEGO Star Wars II: The Original Trilogy

Viva Piñata

Virtua Tennis 3

Mario Party 8

Sims 2 Pets

Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix

Rayman Raving Rabbids

Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End

Bliss Girls' Choice Award

Guitar Hero II

Viva Piñata

Okami

Cooking Mama

Virtua Tennis 3

Sims 2 Pets

SingStar Pop Hits

Crackdown

Buzz!: The Mega Quiz

Rayman Raving Rabbids

BBC 1Xtra Soundtrack of the Year

Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess

Guitar Hero II

The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion

Need for Speed Carbon

Grand Theft Auto: Vice City Stories

God of War II

Gears of War

The Lord of the Rings Online: Shadows of Angmar

World of Warcraft: The Burning Crusade

Okami

Grand Theft Auto: The Trilogy

Nuts All Nighter Award

Gears of War

WoW: Burning Crusade

Wii Sports

Grand Theft Auto: Vice City Stories

Pro Evolution Soccer 6

Resistance Fall of Man

The Lord of the Rings Online: Shadows of Angmar

Battlefield 2142

Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six Vegas

Company of Heroes

Handheld Game of the Year

Grand Theft Auto: Vice City Stories

Pokémon Diamond/Pearl

Final Fantasy III

Metal Gear Solid: Portable Ops

Killzone: Liberation

Pro Evolution Soccer 6

Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney Justice For All

Tekken: Dark Resurrection

Puzzle Quest: Challenge of the Warlords

Chili Con Carnage

Innovation Award

The Nintendo Wii

PlayStation 3

DirectX 10

Wii Sports

Halo 3 Beta

Steam

Xbox Box Live Arcade

The PlayStation Network

Wii Play

Crackdown

Mobile Game of the Year

Final Fantasy

Lemmings Return

Sims 2 Pets

3D Space Invaders

Lost Planet: Extreme Condition

Transformers

UEFA Champions League 2006-2007

Before Crisis - Final Fantasy VII

World Series of Poker Texas Hold'em

Orcs & Elves

Nintendo Game of the Year

The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess

Wii Sports

Resident Evil 4 Wii Edition

Pokémon Diamond/Pearl

Call of Duty 3

Final Fantasy III

Mario Strikers: Charged Football

LEGO Star Wars II: The Original Trilogy

Dragon Ball Z: Budokai Tenkaichi 2

Red Steel

Ones To Watch Award

Grand Theft Auto IV

Assassin's Creed

Crysis

Halo 3

Super Smash Bros. Brawl

Metal Gear Solid 4

Super Mario Galaxy

Fallout 3

Bioshock

Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning

Online Game of the Year

EVE Online: The Path to Kali

World of Warcraft: The Burning Crusade

Gears of War

The Lord of the Rings Online: Shadows of Angmar

Resistance: Fall of Man

Mario Strikers Charged Football

Guild Wars: Nightfall

Battlefield 2142

Grand Theft Auto: Vice City Stories

Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six Vegas

PC Game of the Year

World of Warcraft: The Burning Crusade

The Lord of the Rings Online: Shadows of Angmar

Command & Conquer 3: Tiberium Wars

S.T.A.L.K.E.R. Shadow of Chernobyl

Company of Heroes

Football Manager 2007

Guild Wars Nightfall

Battlefield 2142

Test Drive Unlimited

The Elder Scrolls IV: Shivering Isles

Medieval II: Total War

Supreme Commander

Gothic 3

Neverwinter Nights 2

Playstation Game of the Year

God of War II

Final Fantasy XII

Resistance: Fall of Man

Okami

MotorStorm

Guitar Hero II

Grand Theft Auto: Vice City Stories

Grand Theft Auto: The Trilogy

The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion

Call of Duty 3

Pro Evolution Soccer 6

Killzone: Liberation

Metal Gear Solid 3: Subsistence

F.E.A.R.

Canis Canem Edit

Xbox Game of the Year

Gears of War

Guitar Hero II

Forza Motorsport 2

Crackdown

The Elder Scrolls IV: Shivering Isles

Call of Duty 3

Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six Vegas

F.E.A.R.

Viva Piñata

Test Drive Unlimited

Saints Row

The Darkness

Virtua Tennis 3

Lost Planet: Extreme Condition

Pro Evolution Soccer 6

Publisher of the Year

Nintendo

Ubisoft

Rockstar Games

Electronic Arts

Microsoft Game Studios

Sony

Codemasters

THQ

Square Enix

Konami

Capcom

Atari

Take Two Interactive / 2K Games

Activision

Sega

Retailer of the Year

Amazon.co.uk

Play.com

Game

Gamestation

Gameplay

HMV

EB Games

Virgin Megastores

Gameseek

UK Developer of the Year

Rockstar North

Codemasters

Lionhead

Rare

Team 17

Free Radical

Criterion

Sony London

Bizarre Creations

Traveller's Tales

Evolution Studios

Realtime Worlds

Sports Interactive

FireFly Studios

Llamasoft

Ultimate Game of the Year

Gears of War

World of Warcraft: The Burning Crusade

The Lord of the Rings Online: Shadows of Angmar

The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess

God of War II

Final Fantasy XII

Resistance: Fall of Man

Grand Theft Auto: Vice City Stories

MotorStorm

Guitar Hero II

Wii Sports

Guild Wars Nightfall

Okami

Test Drive Unlimited

Company of Heroes

The final results of the Golden Joystick Awards 2007 will be unveiled at the glitzy award ceremony, held at London's Park Lane, Hilton hotel on Friday, 26th October 2007. Having started life performing with the famous Cambridge Footlights, host David Mitchell has become a household name in British comedy thanks to the huge success of Peep Show and the many sketch show series that he, and long term comedy partner, Robert Webb, have written and starred in. Once again, the entire night will be webcast live through computerandvideogames.com and, for the first time ever, on the gamesradar.com websites.

Officially the world's oldest and most respected games award ceremony, the Golden Joystick Awards this year celebrates its 25th anniversary. Held for the first time in 1982, the Golden Joystick Awards have been honouring innovation in gaming since the days when Atari, Commodore and Spectrum ruled the earth. Now, as the world enjoys a golden age of video gaming there has never been a period when the pastime was more popular. Once considered the pursuit of bedroom geeks and younger kids, video gaming is finally poised to break through to the mainstream and has become one of the biggest entertainment industries in the UK, equalling the film industry in economic value. The Golden Joystick Awards 2007 are set to be the definitive guide to what's exciting the world's rapidly growing gaming community.

VOTE NOW AT www.goldenjoystick.com

***ENDS***

For further information on the Golden Joystick Awards please contact:

Dan Walsh @ The Incubator

T: +44 (0) 20 8744 80 60

M: +44 (0) 7775 770 379

E: dan@incubator-music.com

NOTES TO EDITORS:

*Every game released between the 31st July 2006 and the 1st August 2007 is eligible for the Golden Joystick Awards' longlist. Voted for entirely by gamers, the only time the Golden Joystick Award committee are involved in the process is when deciding which categories games should be represented in

**The shortlist will comprise the top 10-15 (depending on category) games as voted for by gamers. The shortlists will be announced on August 1st 2007 and gamers will have a second opportunity to vote for the

overall winning game

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