Rockstar Takes Home Multiple Develop 2008 Awards

Grand Theft Auto IV developer Rockstar North has triumphed in four separate categories at this year’s Develop Industry Excellence Awards. The winners of the sixth annual event were announced at the ongoing Develop Conference in the UK, with Nintendo and Splash Damage also picking up major awards. The only company to be given multiple awards, the Scottish developer won the Visual Arts, Audio Accomplishment, Technical Innovation and Best In-House Developer accolades for its latest critically and commercially successful title. Rockstar Games as a whole also won the special Grand Prix award for its contributions to the industry. David Braben’s Frontier Developments was awarded the Best New IP award for noted WiiWare release LostWinds, while Traveller’s Tales won Best Use of a License for Lego Indiana Jones: The Original Adventures and Enemy Territory: Quake Wars developer scooped best Independent Developer. Kuju studio Doublesix was named as the best new UK/European studio and Ideaworks3D the best mobile phone studio. Richard Jacques Studios won for creative outsourcing, while translation firm Babel Media took home the Services award and NaturalMotion/Image Metrics won the Technical Innovation award for their work on Grand Theft Auto IV. Epic Games was given the best Tools Provider award for Unreal Engine 3.0, while Nintendo was named as Publishing Hero. Crackdown developer Realtime Worlds got the Business Development award following its recent successful drive for investment capital. OPM was named best recruitment company. “This year's 16 different prize-winners prove that despite international pressures games studios across the UK are thriving,” said Michael French, editor of Develop. "2008's prizes were hotly-contested, reflecting the creative strength of developers across Europe. Our congratulations to all the winners and the other finalists who continue to make games development the most exciting creative industry on the planet."