Trade prepares for tonight’s MCV Awards

Nearly 40 companies are set to fight it out for the big prizes at tonight’s games industry’s trade awards at The Brewery, London.

Over 600 trade execs are expected to attend the Awards, which kick off at 6pm with pre-drinks from sponsors Codemasters and Gem.

Attendees will then be invited a drinks reception sponsored by Atari Ghostbusters, before the main event.

Electronic Arts leads the way with seven finalists slots, whilst HMV, Activision, Microsoft and Nintendo boast five each.

GAME, Ubisoft and CHIPS have a chance in four categories. New names are featured too, such as The Hut, Lovefilm, Bethesda, Gameplayer, Rising Star, D3P, Media Molecule and Music Box Leisure.

Most awards are based on teams, apart from the MCV Retail Advisory Board Special Recognition accolade, which rewards an individual for service to the games retail sector. The RAB Finalists this year are Darren Bowen (Ubisoft), Andy Yates (Nintendo), John Clark (Sega), Mark Howsen (Sony Computer Entertainment) and Jonathan Grimes (Microsoft).

The event partner is DeepSilver/Ride To Hell, with PartnerTrans an Award sponsor, too. Nintendo sponsors the Retail category of prizes.