EMA announces Video Game nominees

Madden NFL 07, Gears of War receive most nominations

By Jennifer Netherby -- Video Business, 4/26/2007

APRIL 26 | Guitar Hero II and World of Warcraft are among the nominees for the Entertainment Merchants Assn.’s 2007 Video Game Home Entertainment awards, the group announced today.

EMA expanded from three categories to 18 this year to recognize games on a variety of platforms and in different genres. The group nominated 85 games for awards. Categories include best graphics, most innovative game and game of the year as well as top games for each format and in genres such as shooter/military, children’s and RPG/strategy.

Guitar Hero and World of Warcraft will compete against Gears of War, God of War 2: Divine Retribution and Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess for game of the year.

Most nominated games are: Madden NFL 07 and Gears of War (four noms each)

Nominees for Xbox 360 game of the year are: Call of Duty 3 (Activision), Dead Rising (Capcom), Gears of War (Microsoft), Lost Planet: Extreme Condition (Capcom) and Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six Vegas (Ubisoft)

Nominees for PlayStation 3 game of the year are: Call of Duty 3 (Activision), Madden NFL 07 (Electronic Arts), Marvel: Ultimate Alliance (Activision), MotorStorm (Sony Computer Entertainment America) and Resistance: Fall of Man (Insomniac Games).

Nominees for Nintendo Wii game of the year are: Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess (Nintendo), Rayman: Raving Rabbids (Ubisoft), Super Monkey Ball: Banana Blitz (Sega), Trauma Center: Second Opinion (Atlus) and WarioWare: Smooth Mooves (Nintendo).

Winners will be announced at EMA’s Video Game Retailers’ Council Event May 22.

“As the games have become even more innovative and creative, they have engaged the interest of millions of consumers,” EMA president Bo Andersen said. “The retailers who sell and rent videogames are very excited to honor the outstanding products in the marketplace.”