A triumphant Epic Games has swept the AIAS Awards, boasting that the company beat the Nintendo Wii for recognition by games industry peers.
"This is incredible," said Epic's CEO Michael Capps at the 10th Annual Interactive Entertainment Awards, held at the DICE Summit in Las Vegas.
"Getting sales is great, making the game we wanted and having people buy it and enjoy it is fantastic. But having our peers say it's the best game of the year? That's insane. We beat the Wii."
The company won eight awards, including Overall Game of the Year and Console Game of the Year, beating off rival titles The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess, Wii Sports and Eldar Scrolls IV: Oblivion.
"The thing is," added lead designer Cliff Blezinsky, "being on the outside of this industry looking in as a kid, and wanting to be part of it, and then being able to be here and get an award from all of these talented people who've been in the business for so long, finally to be a part of it, to be recognised like this is absolutely unbelievable. We could not be honoured more."
In the award show's green room, GamesIndustry.biz asked the duo if, given the success of Gears of War, the company planned to continue what EA Montreal's Alain Tascan had recently called the 'zero innovation strategy.'
"Gears was about implementation," Capps responded. "This is a game we're proud of implementing well. There was some innovation - Cliff was responsible for some pretty sexy new stuff. But I think this was about making it right, making it fun. Everything in there was fun."
"I think there's a lot of iteration and a lot of polish that went into the game," Blezinsky added.
"I've actually heard a compliment from people saying it has a learning curve. Which, as a designer, that actually means the game has some cool new features in it."
Capps took the opportunity to promise even bigger things from the company's next project, Unreal Tournament.
"We're going to fucking knock your socks off," he promised. "Gears looked good, but that's like the old game on Unreal 3 [engine]. Unreal Tournament looks good."
"This is incredible," said Epic's CEO Michael Capps at the 10th Annual Interactive Entertainment Awards, held at the DICE Summit in Las Vegas.
"Getting sales is great, making the game we wanted and having people buy it and enjoy it is fantastic. But having our peers say it's the best game of the year? That's insane. We beat the Wii."
The company won eight awards, including Overall Game of the Year and Console Game of the Year, beating off rival titles The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess, Wii Sports and Eldar Scrolls IV: Oblivion.
"The thing is," added lead designer Cliff Blezinsky, "being on the outside of this industry looking in as a kid, and wanting to be part of it, and then being able to be here and get an award from all of these talented people who've been in the business for so long, finally to be a part of it, to be recognised like this is absolutely unbelievable. We could not be honoured more."
In the award show's green room, GamesIndustry.biz asked the duo if, given the success of Gears of War, the company planned to continue what EA Montreal's Alain Tascan had recently called the 'zero innovation strategy.'
"Gears was about implementation," Capps responded. "This is a game we're proud of implementing well. There was some innovation - Cliff was responsible for some pretty sexy new stuff. But I think this was about making it right, making it fun. Everything in there was fun."
"I think there's a lot of iteration and a lot of polish that went into the game," Blezinsky added.
"I've actually heard a compliment from people saying it has a learning curve. Which, as a designer, that actually means the game has some cool new features in it."
Capps took the opportunity to promise even bigger things from the company's next project, Unreal Tournament.
"We're going to fucking knock your socks off," he promised. "Gears looked good, but that's like the old game on Unreal 3 [engine]. Unreal Tournament looks good."
