Voting Opens For Zeebys: First Annual Casual Game Awards

All Game Players Are Invited to Vote Now and Help Choose Winners

News by GamesIndustry.biz Contributor

Published on Jan. 12, 2007

January 12, 2007 - San Francisco, CA. Gamezebo and the Casual Games Association today announced the nominees for the first annual Zeebys, honoring the best of the burgeoning casual games industry. Additionally, online voting is now open for the Zeebys people's choice awards, allowing any casual game player to vote for their favorite games across a wide range of categories at http://www.zeebys.com/.

"Casual Games are a multi-billion dollar industry in the U.S. and around the world, and this unique, accessible art form demands a tailor made form of recognition," said Gabe Zichermann, Chairman of the awards committee. "And, for the first time, a games industry awards program has been centered on the votes of the people, rather than just a peer reviewed process."

Any casual game player from any walk of life can vote for their favorite game in the Zeebys awards by visiting http://www.zeebys.com/ and completing the simple voting form. Only one vote is permitted per person, but any casual game player is eligible. Voting Ends on January 31, 2007. Votes will be tallied and the winners announced at the CGA Europe: West Amsterdam Conference, on February 8, 2007. At that time, winners of the peer-selected Zeebys Craft Awards will also be announced.

There are 6 categories for the Zeebys People's Choice Awards, including the prestigious Casual Game of the Year, for which the nominees are:

Bookworm Adventures, PopCap Games

Cake Mania, Sandlot Studios

Diner Dash 2: Restaurant Rescue, PlayFirst

Delicious Deluxe, Zylom

Lumines II, Q Entertainment

Luxor 2, Mumbo Jumbo

Mystery Case Files: Prime Suspects, BigFish Games

Mystery Case Files: Ravenhearst, BigFish Games

Super Collapse 3, GameHouse/RealNetworks

Virtual Villagers, BigFish Games

A complete list of nominees and categories is included below, and complete award rules and participants can also be found at http://www.zeebys.com/.

For More Information:

Joel Brodie, Gamezebo

joel@gamezebo.com

650.387.5179

About Gamezebo ( http://www.gamezebo.com)

Gamezebo is the leading editorial Web site and community for people passionate about casual games. Gamezebo features reviews, previews, strategy guides for the latest and greatest in casual games, as well as industry insider editorials and interviews. Gamezebo is founded by Joel Brodie, formerly head of Business Development at Yahoo Games and a pioneer in the casual game space. Our elite team of contributors has written for such publications as USA Today, CNN, Yahoo! Video Games, New York Times, and more, and all have one thing in common --- we love casual games.

About The Casual Games Association ( http://www.casualgamesassociation.org/)

The Casual Games Association is focused on providing educational resources and community support for the entire gaming industry for the purpose of bringing developers, publishers and distributors together to achieve our common goal of growing the industry. If our developers, publishers and distributors all have strong relationships with each other - it will help us create a community which will be able to deal with the ups and downs of business and create leaders with strong ties across the value chain.

COMPLETE LIST OF NOMINEES

Puzzle

Lumines II

Luxor 2

Mystery Case Files: Prime Suspects

Super Collapse 3

Talismania

Word & Trivia

Big Kahuna Words

Bookworm Adventures

Family Feud Online

Scrabble

Shangri La Deluxe

Arcade & Action

Cake Mania

Delicious Deluxe

Diner Dash 2

Feeding Frenzy 2

Star Defender 3

Card, Board & Mahjong

Dream Vacation Solitaire

Jewel Quest Solitaire

Mah Jong Adventures

Mahjong Fortuna 2

Slingo Quest

Strategy & Simulation

Cute Knight

Kudos

Plantasia

Virtual Villagers

Westward

Best Casual Game of the Year