GMAs: Media Frenzy

The Games Media Awards have been created to reward the very best in games journalism – specialist and mainstream, in print and online.

The winners will be unveiled and celebrated at the Soho Revue Bar on the evening of Thursday October 11th. The finalists, listed over the next few pages, represent the games industry’s most important links to the consumer.

The winners are currently being decided by a panel of over 75 PR and marketing personnel representing over 40 different companies in the games business.

All (and more) will be in attendance on October 11th, guaranteeing the biggest gathering of games media of the year. Possibly of all time.

The GMAs have been backed by an impressive array of Gold Sponsors: Sony, Microsoft, Nintendo, Electronic Arts, Take 2 and Vivendi Games. Its Silver Sponsors – EA Sports, System 3, Koch Media, Guitar Hero III and 1C – will also contribute to the gaiety of the evening, with everything from luxury transport to sexy shot girls and some serious soloing.

System 3 is the exclusive sponsor of a very special award that will be presented to a Games Media Legend.

In some quarters, question marks have been raised over the validity of PRs voting for their favourite media. The concern being that they will simply reward malleability and the winners will be their lapdogs.

Early indications from the first returned voting forms suggest that this is emphatically not the case. The secret nature of the ballot is ensuring that people are voting for the media that make our industry better, not their lives easier.

When the list of finalists was announced via a press release posted on the asset site of our event partner Barrington Harvey, it was seized upon more quickly and more pervasively than any other release so far this year. The games media are well and truly up for this one. And, with less than two weeks to go, a big night is on the cards.

"Many aeons ago, back in the days of yore, I used to write games reviews (in chalk on a stone tablet) Contrary to popular opinion, games reviewers are people too. They need love. It is great that at last the industry has reawoken to the contribution made by our media and it is fantastic to be able to reward skillful penmanship and hopefully encourage more to take up the noble profession. I’m sure it will be a memorable night – now, bring on the dancing transvestites. (What do you mean, ‘it’s not that sort of club anymore’?)"

David Wilson

Head of PR, UK

Sony Computer Entertainment

"The relationship between PR and journalist is an important one that is often over looked and the results on both sides taken for granted. The GMA’s give the industry the opportunity to thank all those in the media who have helped contribute to our successes over the past 12 months. It’s also great to get together, have a few drinks and regale tales of press trip horrors and things that should most definitely ‘stay on tour’ as we all find it increasingly difficult to leave the confines of the office."

Robert Saunders

PR Manager

Nintendo