MCV AWARDS: Middle aged or different age?

Ten years of MCV Awards and, yep, things have changed. Even the most leaden-footed industry will have evolved in that time. But there was a sense last night of more shifts than usual over these past 12 months – and not just to a new venue.

As the curtain rose to The Specials’ far from mawkish re-work of Enjoy Yourself, It’s Later Than You Think, a feeling swept across the room… not just time passing, but a sense of moving on. Is the games industry getting older, middle aged perhaps, or is it in the midst of a Doctor Who-style regeneration?

Things look set to change faster than ever before. Some people, companies even, are disappearing from view, never to return again.

The industry will drive on, of course, and innovation has always been what we’re about. The current console cycle is the longest ever, let’s not forget that. Remember the past, run to the future.

And ground breakers were rightly applauded last night – such as the double-winning Skylanders from Activision, the emergence of ShopTo and Steam, the social campaign that drove Dead Island and the fantastic Nintendo Shop in good old John Lewis, Oxford Street.

Bethesda, EA, Centresoft, 505, Ubi, Amazon, Games Centre and Turtle Beach have also lead the way over the past year. Winning an MCV Award in 2012 was perhaps harder than ever before. Huge congratulations to them.

A symptom of that shifting feeling in the market was perhaps betrayed by the fact that format holders Nintendo, Sony and Microsoft didn’t win anything directly, although of course they were all part of the successes above.

And finally, hats off to Rose Buahin, who won the Special Recognition Award from our retail voters. She helped launch Batman: Arkham City for WBIE and PSVita for Sony in the past year, and no one knows more about the effort and invention that is required when working with retail these days.

As ever, the MCV Awards were a great night. Now that we’ve enjoyed ourselves, let’s see what unfolds at E3 and beyond…