The 3rd Annual Game Developers Choice Awards were held as part of the GDC and Nintendo fared quite well.The 3rd Annual Game Developers Choice Awards were held tonight in San Jose as part of the ongoing Game Developers Conference. As with the earlier AIAS Awards, Nintendo did quite well with Animal Crossing picking up a Game Innovation Spotlight Award and Metroid Prime picking up three awards; Rookie Studio of the Year, Excellence in Level Design, and the coveted Game of the Year.
While the coronation of the Game of the Year was exciting, the highlight of the night was definitely the honoring of Gunpei Yokoi with the Lifetime Achievement Award. Last year's honoree, Yuji Naka, did an excellent job in presenting the award to Yokoi's family with a touching speech that highlighted Yokoi-san's career and credited him as a respected rival that helped push Sega developers to work that much harder during the fierce Nintendo/Sega battles of the 80s and early 90s. Congratulations to all of tonight's winners, particularly the Yokoi family, and thanks to the International Game Developers Association for putting on a good award show for game developers by game developers.