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EA Sports’ Fifa Franchise Honored With Outstanding Contribution Unique Stephen Fry Robot Presents ‘Best Handheld Game In Association With T3’ Award
Bethesda’s groundbreaking single player role-playing game, The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim has triumphed at the hmv GamesMaster Golden Joystick Awards, picking up an impressive three awards in the 30th anniversary year. As well as picking up the most prestigious accolade of the day, the ‘Ultimate Game of the Year in association with GamesMaster’, Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim also picked up nods for the ‘Best RPG in association with MSN’ and the ‘Top Gaming Moment in association with the Daily and Sunday Mirror’ for the Throat of the World sequence. Taking place at the Park Plaza hotel in London and hosted by comedy hero and self-confessed gaming nut Ed Byrne, the hmv GamesMaster Golden Joystick Awards welcomed the great and good of the games industry to celebrate the very best in games, brands and moments from the past year, as well as previewing some world exclusive content from some of the most anticipated new releases.
EA Sports’ long running football simulation franchise FIFA was honored with the ‘Outstanding Contribution’ award, one of the few awards of the night not to be voted for by the gaming public, while last year’s edition of the franchise, FIFA12, picked up the ‘Best Sports Game in association with talkSPORT’. The critically acclaimed Batman Arkham City was the recipient of the first award to be presented on the day, the ‘Best Action / Adventure Game in association with Digital Spy’.
Headline sponsors hmv presented Rockstar games with the ‘One To Watch in association with hmv’ award for the highly anticipated Grand Theft Auto 5, which is due for release imminently, while Electronic Arts were called to the podium for a third time to pick up the ‘Best Shooter in association with Gioteck’ for the third installment of their Battlefield franchise.
Gamers from across the world were able to watch all the action from the 30th hmv GamesMaster Golden Joystick Awards live on the voting site thanks to an exclusive streaming deal with YouTube, who also sponsored a very special award to recognize the achievements of some of the most influential gaming channels on the hugely popular video platform. The inaugural ‘YouTube Gamer Award’ was presented to the masterminds behind the very funny Yogscast channel.
Elsewhere in the awards, Rovio celebrated a third win in successive years for the Angry Birds franchise with Space following in the footsteps of Rio and the original Angry Birds to pick up ‘Best Mobile / Tablet Game in association with Edge Magazine’. And record-breaking MMO World of Tanks collected ‘Best MMO in association with Gamerbase’.
As well as presenting 19 awards, the hmv GamesMaster Golden Joystick Awards unveiled two world exclusive pieces of content and one online exclusive reveal. Square Enix treated the room to the world exclusive of the new trailer for next installment in the Hitman franchise before presenting the ‘Hitman: Sniper Challenge Ultimate Assassin award’ onstage. Namco revealed the latest video trailer for their Sniper title while THQ premiered the latest gameplay footage from their forthcoming Metro: Last Night release.
Stephen Fry made a surprise appearance to present Sony Computer Entertainment with the ‘Best Handheld Game in association with T3’ for Uncharted: Golden Abyss. As part of his forthcoming Channel 4 series, Stephen Fry: Gadget Man, the gadget lover brought to the stage a unique and painstakingly lifelike robot Stephen Fry, operating live by the real thing from his home. Operating the robot Stephen himself and speaking on a live link through his robot mouth, Stephen entered the history books as the very first guest presenter to present an award remotely.
The full list of awards is available in the Editor’s Notes.
James Kick, Associate Publisher of The HMV GamesMaster Golden Joystick Awards, says: “The Golden Joysticks have been bigger and better than ever – a fitting tribute to a games industry in rude health. This year voting doubled on our previous world record, smashing four million votes from international gamers keen to make their voice heard. Today’s winners represent the best of the best – here’s to 30 more years of the Joysticks.”
For more information please contacts:
Dan Walsh, Full Fat on +44 7775 770379 or dan[.]wearefullfat.com
Sean Harwood, Full Fat, +44 7921 756444 or sean[.]wearefullfat.com
About the GamesMaster Golden Joysticks
Established in 1982, the GamesMaster Golden Joystick Award is the world’s longest-running and best-known gaming awards. It’s the only annual awards voted for by gamers and a highlight of the games industry calendar. In 2011 attracted a record 2.1 million votes, breaking its own record as the World’s Most Popular Videogames Awards by Guinness World Records.
About Future plc
Future plc (futureplc.com) is an international media group and leading digital publisher, listed on the London Stock Exchange (symbol: FUTR). Founded in 1985 with one magazine, today we have operations in the UK, US and Australia creating 200 special-interest publications, apps, websites and events. We hold market-leading positions in Games, Film, Music, Technology, Cycling, Automotive and Crafts. Our most well known products include T3, Total Film, Classic Rock and Official Xbox Magazine. Our websites include gamesradar.com, bikeradar.com, musicradar.com and techradar.com (the UK’s number one consumer technology website). Future sells 2.2 million magazines each month; we attract more than 45 million monthly unique visitors to our websites; and we deliver over 100 digital editions and bespoke apps on tablet. Future exports or syndicates publications to 89 countries, making us the UK’s number one exporter and licensor of magazine content. Future was named Consumer Digital Publisher of the Year for the second year running at the Association of Online Publishers Awards 2012 and PPA Digital Consumer Publisher of the Year 2012.
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ben.bolton[.]futurenet.com 
