THE BEST VIDEOGAMES JOURNALISM HONOURED IN GAMES MEDIA AWARDS NOMINATIONS LIST

Friday 31st August/... The very best examples of video game journalism have today been unveiled by Intent Media, organisers of the forthcoming Games Media Awards.

Covering all aspects of games journalism from blogs to mainstream publications, the Games Media Awards finalists have been collated from an open, industry-wide nominations system which ran through until August 1st 2007.

Anyone with an interest in videogames journalism could nominate, and those with the highest votes in each category are today confirmed as finalists.

The Games Media Awards take place on October 11th 2007, at the Soho Revue Bar, London. The event will be attended by around 200 games journalists. The GMA Gold Sponsors are Microsoft, PlayStation, Nintendo, Electronic Arts, Take 2 and Vivendi Games. The Silver Sponsors are EA Sports, Koch Media.

The event will also host a very special journalist-only Guitar Hero III competition.

The event will be free to attend for all qualifying games journalists. A strictly limited number of tickets will be available to buy for those within the media or videogames industries.

The GMA finalists list reveals the breadth and quality of games writing, from those covering the medium professionally, to those doing it for the love, reigniting some old rivalries along the way.

Journalists from FHM and Loaded vie with Nuts, Live Magazine and Stuff for the honour of best lifestyle magazine games writer, whilst the Guardian boasts two nominations in the national newspaper category, which also includes hacks from The Sun, The Independent and The Times.

In the broadcast media category, Radio One's coverage is up against Radio Five Live's, along with Gamer TV, Re:Loaded and Gamers.

In the specialist section, magazines from each individual format are honoured (apart from PC, as there are only two dedicated PC gaming publications), with one being crowned overall magazine of the year (which can include PC Gamer and PC Zone).

Online, fierce rivals Eurogamer, Gamespot, IGN, Joystiq, Kotaku, Games Radar, Spong and Computer and Videogames all compete for various honours, whilst blogs Destructoid, Game Over Yeah, UK: Resistance and Wonderland duke it out for best in their field.

Finally, the podcast category pits professionals and amateurs together for the ultimate accolade.

And Kieron Gillen has been shortlisted as one of the best videogames journalists out there, which will annoy many.

The overall winners will be decided by a panel of over 100 industry experts.

"The nominations were hotly contested, with some obvious encouragement from certain publications and sites, which shows how well regarded the Games Media Awards are already," says Stuart Dinsey, managing director, Intent Media, organiser of the Games Media Awards. "Now the finalists have been revealed, we expect the real lobbying to commence. The event itself is shaping up fantastically, and with attendance free to all qualifying media, we expect it to be a raucous evening."

Tickets will be issued over the coming weeks. If you're a qualifying games journalist and you want to be sure of your place, please mail your name, position, email address and postal address to gmas@bhpr.co.uk. Ticketing information will be announced next week. Those who want to pre-register interest can do so by dropping a line to dave.roberts@intentmedia.co.uk.

The finalists list in full:

Mainstream Media

Games Writer on a National Newspaper

Greg Howson (The Guardian)

Jonathan Weinberg (The Sun)

Nigel Kendall (The Times)

Rebecca Armstrong (Independent)

Steve Boxer (The Guardian)

Games Writer on a Lifestyle Magazine

Chris Burke (Loaded)

Daniel Booth (Nuts)

Rob Waugh (Live Magazine)

Simon Munk (FHM)

Will Findlater (Stuff)

Games Writer on a Mainstream Website

Darren Waters (BBC)

David Clack (FHM)

David McComb (Empire Online)

Mark Gilbert (News Of The World)

Stephen Daultrey (Maxim)

Regional Games Column

David Crookes (Bolton Evening News)

Ewan Ross (Liverpool Echo)

Steve Lawson (Daily Record)

Steve Wollaston (Midland Weekly Media)

Steven Fox (Metro)

Best Games-Dedicated Broadcast on Mainstream TV or Radio

Johnny Minkley (Radio One)

Game On (BBC Five Live)

Gamer.TV (Bravo)

Matt Cuttle (Gamers)

Re:Loaded (Channel M)

Specialist Games Media (Print)

PlayStation Magazine

Play (Imagine)

Official PlayStation Magazine (Future)

PSM3 (Future)

PSU3 (Imagine)

PSW (Future)

Xbox Magazine

360 (Imagine)

360 Gamer (Uncooked)

Official Xbox 360 Magazine (Future)

X360 (Imagine)

Xbox World 360 (Future)

Nintendo Magazine

NGamer (Future)

nRevolution (Imagine)

Official Nintendo Magazine (Future)

Multi Format Magazine

GamesMaster (Future)

gamesTM (Imagine)

Edge (Future)

Retro Gamer (Imagine)

Overall Games Magazine

Jury to state one magazine from their nominations above, or a PC games magazine.

Best Writer on a Specialist Magazine

Darren Jones (Retro Gamer, Imagine)

Jon Blyth (PC Zone, Future)

Kieron Gillen (PC Gamer, Future)

Martin Mathers (Official Nintendo Magazine, Future)

Tony Mott (Edge, Future)

Specialist Games Media (Online)

Games Website - News

Eurogamer.net

Gamespot.co.uk

Joystiq.com

Kotaku.com

Spong.com

Games Website - Reviews & Features

Eurogamer.net

GamesRadar.co.uk

ComputerAndVideoGames.com

IGN (UK)

Spong.com

Games Podcast

Cheap Ass Gamer's CAGcast

Gamespot

Gamesweasel

One Life Left

PC Gamer

Non-Commercial Website or Blog

Destructoid

Game Over, Yeah

Idle Thumbs

UK: Resistance

Wonderland

Best Writer in Specialist Digital Media

Alex Colby (Gamespot UK)

Andy Robinson (CVG online)

Gary Cutlack (UK R)

Ryan King (oxm.co.uk)

Tom Bramwell (Eurogamer)