December gathering appears in nintendo.fi

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One of our December sponsors Amo Oy (Nintendo) decided to put IGDA Finland gathering in the news of nintendo.fi site. Last time we were mentioned in nintendo.fi was when we showed off some DS Lite action in our gathering.This time it was the Wii that broke the news barrier. We also broke the news barrier with December gathering in igda.org frontpage!

nintendo.fi article: http://www.nintendo.fi/?file=424

Jackpot for Finnish Developers in IGN Best of 2006 Awards!

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This year Finnish developers have really hit a homerun on IGN Best of 2006 Awards. Finnish developed games gathered an impressive 9 wins across all categories on all platforms. In addition, Finnish developed games managed to gather another 8 mentions as Runner-Ups for a total of 17 nominations! Digital Chocolate also won the Best Developer in Wireless - in no small part thanks to Sumea, I'm sure. With the overall category winners still to be announced, I have a feeling there might still be more to come at least on the Wireless platform (Wireless Game of the Year?) ...

Congratulations to all winners: Sumea, Bugbear, Rovio & Universomo!

Here are the stats: (unofficial compilation - my apologies for any possible mistakes!)

* By Game (Nominations : category wins / Runner-Up positions) *

5 : 2 / 3 - Tornado Mania (Sumea) 4 : 2 / 2 - Flatout 2 (Bugbear) 2 : 2 / 0 - Nightclub Empire (Sumea) 2 : 1 / 1 - Mafia Wars Yakuza (Sumea) 1 : 1 / 0 - Mini Golf Magic (Sumea) 1 : 1 / 0 - Rollercoaster Rush (Sumea/Universomo) 1 : 0 / 1 - Beach Ping Pong (Sumea) 1 : 0 / 1 - Darkest Fear (Rovio) 17 : 9 / 8 - TOTAL

* By Company (Nominations : category wins / Runner-Up positions) *

12 : 7 / 5 - Sumea ( + Developer of the Year) 4 : 2 / 2 - Bugbear 1 : 1 / 0 - Universomo 1 : 0 / 1 - Rovio 18 : 10 / 8 - TOTAL (*1)

*1: Rollercoaster Rush has been awarded to both Sumea & Universomo in this one, that's why numbers are bigger when calculated per company. *2: 1 more Digital Chocolate game made it to Runner-Up, but it was not developed in Finland, so I didn't count that in.

- Jyri Ranki, Lead Coordinator

A report from Digiexpo 2006

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Digiexpo was held from 3. - 5.11 in Helsinki and, at least on Saturday, turned in an impressive crowd of entertainment electronics enthusiasts. Microsoft, Sony, and Nintendo all had their booths set up in to lure prospective buyers to try out their latest wares.

Gears of War booth

Microsoft was showcasing several upcoming Xbox 360 titles on the show floor, but the most high profile one was Epics soon to be released Gears of War, which had an impressive stand separate from the other games. Electronic Arts was out in full force on the showfloor with a behemoth of a booth. Eager gamers got to test Need For Speed: Carbon for the 360 among other titles.

EA Games booth

Nintendo booth

Wii gaming

Nintendo had a small booth, where people could try out a few Wii and DS titles. As expected, the Wii games stole the show and the lines grew pretty long. The Zelda: Twilight Princess line was the longest and most people who got to play the game, took their sweet old time with it.

Playstation show

Playstation show

The Sony booth was swamped with eager gamers, waiting to get some alone time with the PS3 and its launch games. Sony held The Playstation Show through out the weekend a few times a day. They showcased the basic functionality of the PS3 there and the presenter played a few quick rounds of MotorStorm and Insomniacs FPS title Resistance: Fall of Man.

by Tommi Hartikainen