MCV are the people who sit between geek gamer culture and the industry here in the UK. Their awards are significant. No wonder 650 retailers, publishers, developers and distributors turned up for Thursday night’s MCV Industry Excellence Awards.
We’re sure Geek Native’s complementary tickets were lost in the mail – perhaps caught up in the same volcano drama that prevented host Dom Joly from attending but allowed Marcus Brigstocke to stand in.
Microsoft did very well; the Xbox picked up the Grand Prix as well as the the Sales Team Price.
It was Activision, Modern Warfare 2‘s publisher, who picked up most of the prizes; including overall Games Publisher. Roy Stackhouse, Activision’s UK senior sales director, was given The Retail Advisory Board Special Recognition Award.
Nintendo has an amazing track record at the MCV awards. It was the 5th year in a row that the format-holder’s UK team won the Marketing Team prize. They took the newly reinstated Trade Marketing Team prize home too.
Ubisoft‘s Just Dance picked up a double; winning New Games Brand and Sales Triumph. It was suggested that Ubisoft’s sponsorship of Sky 1’s Pineapple Dance Studios as helped build the brand. This geek isn’t sure any game company would want to be associated with Pineapple Dance Studios but accepts the need to push awareness towards female and casual gamers.
GAME didn’t fair very well, making it the first time ever that the retailer has gone away empty handed, and instead HMV picked up the High Street Chain prize. Play.com won the Online Retailer. It’s this geek’s opinion that HMV’s win is perhaps due to the improvements HMV has made this year rather than any compelling advantage over GAME. After all, this household had the Halo Reach Legendary Pack pre-ordered at GAME without even checking the HMV site.
