FINAL FANTASY XII™ WINS MOST AWARDS; GEARS OF WAR AND OBLIVION BOTH SCORE TRIFECTA WINS IN DESIGN, ART, AND SOUND; NINTENDO® SETS NEW ALL-TIME RECORD AS DEVELOPER AND WINS MOST AWARDS (8) THIS YEAR AS PUBLISHER;

Atsushi Inaba, Cliff Bleszinski, and Shigeru Miyamoto Win Multiple Awards; Dan Houser sets new record; Inaba, Tracy Rosenthal-Newsom, and Yoshinori Kitase enter NAViGaTR™ history.

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May 21, 2007 --- The winners of the 2006 NAViGaTR Awards were announced today, revealing the winners in 48 categories.  Multiple awards went to Atsushi Inaba, Cliff Bleszinski, and Shigeru Miyamoto, only half the number of multiple winners last year. 

The awards are presented by the National Academy of Video Game Testers and Reviewers Corp.™, a non-profit media organization with over 1,150 voters honoring the best of the interactive entertainment industry in the fields of art, technology, and production for calendar year 2006. 

Though tied for third place over-all in terms of most awards won, the game Okami won Game of the Year over five-time winner Gears of War and six-time winner Final Fantasy XII. 

Okami won for Animation in a Game Engine, Art Direction in a Game Engine, Outstanding Original Adventure Game, and Game of the Year. 

Final Fantasy XII won for Animation in a Game Cinema, Art Direction in a Game Cinema, Direction in a Game Cinema, Sound Editing in a Game Cinema, Original or Adapted Song, and Outstanding Role Playing Game Sequel. 

Gears of War won for Camera Direction in a Game Engine, Game Design, Lighting/Texturing, Use of Sound, and Outstanding Original Action Game. 

Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion also won 4 awards (Outstanding Costume Design, Outstanding Sound Effects, Outstanding Lead Performance in a Drama – Sean Bean, and Outstanding Graphics, Technical), and Guitar Hero II won 3 awards (Outstanding Control Precision, Outstanding Song Collection, and Outstanding Music or Performance Game). 

Gears of War and Oblivion are the only games this year to win awards for design, art, and sound. 

Wrapping up the multiple award winners are Bully, Company of Heroes, Lego Star Wars II: The Original Trilogy, Neverwinter Nights 2, Wii Sports, and the Nintendo Wii console with two (2) awards each. 

Publisher Tallies

This year, Nintendo holds the publisher record with 8 wins.  Following behind are Microsoft and Square Enix with 6 wins each.  Capcom won 5 awards, and Bethesda Softworks won 4 awards.  RedOctane and THQ each won three awards, while LucasArts, Atari, and Rockstar each won two awards.  Winning single awards as publishers were Sony, 2K, Konami, Namco, Telltale, Electronic Arts, GameTap, and Valve. 

Last year, Sony set a publishers’ record by winning 11 awards in a single year.  The record was previously held by Ubisoft, which won 10 awards for the year 2003. 

Developer Tallies

This year, Square Enix holds the developer record with 7 wins.  Nintendo follows close behind with 6 awards, while Clover and Epic tied for 5 awards each.  Bethesda Game Studios won 4 awards as a developer, and Harmonix won 3 awards.  Obsidian, Relic, Rockstar, and Traveller’s Tales each won 2 awards. 

Since the inception of the NAViGaTR Awards, Nintendo and Square have each won 18 awards to date as developers, surpassing Sony’s cumulative total of 16 awards last year.  Also surpassing Sony this year is Rockstar, with a grand total of 17 awards to date. 

Individual Tallies

This year, Cliff Bleszinski (a.k.a. CliffyB) won 2 awards for Gears of War.  Also, Tracy Rosenthal-Newsom and Yoshinori Kitase earned a third NAViGaTR award in their respective careers, thus taking their places among a group of only twenty-six (26) people to have won three (3) or more awards to date. 

Dan Houser, Shigeru Miyamoto, Fumito Ueda, and Takashi Tezuka have won the most awards to date.  Dan Houser has won eight (8) awards for his widespread work in the Grand Theft Auto® series, as well as one award this year for the original property “Bully,” giving him a total of nine (9) awards and retaining his record for most wins. 

Shigeru Miyamoto has won eight (8) awards to date.  With the exception of last year’s win for Innovation in Game Play, Miyamoto has won only for roles as a producer in Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga, Mario Kart: Double Dash!!, Super Mario Sunshine, Paper Mario: The Thousand Year Door, and lastly, Wii Sports, Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess, and Eternal Darkness: Sanity’s Requiem --- the only non-Mario games in the group.  This year marks the first time Mr. Miyamoto has won for a Zelda game. 

Fumito Ueda and Takashi Tezuka have won five (5) awards to date.  Ueda has won 2 awards for ICO™ and 3 awards for Shadow of the Colossus™ in the areas of animation and design.  Takashi Tezuka has won for Animal Crossing®, Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga, Mario Kart: Double Dash!!, Super Mario Advance 4: Super Mario Bros. 3, and Super Mario Sunshine. 

Jamie King, Jeremy Pope, and Leslie Benzies have each won four (4) awards for producing the Grand Theft Auto® series, including two genre awards and two Game of the Year awards. 

Tracy Rosenthal-Newsom has won for the games Frequency, Karaoke Revolution, and Guitar Hero II. 

Yoshinori Kitase has won for Final Fantasy X, Kingdom Hearts, and Final Fantasy III. 

Hajime Sugiyama has won 3 awards --- two for ICO’s camera and lighting, plus a technical graphics award for Colossus. 

Atsuko Fukuyama has won 3 awards --- two for Animation in a Game Engine (Ico™ and Shadow of the Colossus™), as well as an award for Colossus’ character design. 

Bruce Oberg has earned his third award for programming on the Sly Cooper series. 

Keita Takahashi has won three awards for the Katamari series. 

James Worral has also won three (3) awards for writing and design in the Grand Theft Auto® series. 

Akira Yamaoka has won three awards for his work on the Silent Hill® series, winning in the categories of Sound Effects, Use of Sound, and Original Musical Score. 

Mathieu Laforce has won three awards.  His first two awards were for Graphics, Technical and Lighting & Texturing Effects for Tom Clancy’s Splinter Cell™ in 2002, and his third award was for Lighting & Texturing Effects for Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time™ in 2003. 

Rik Schaffer has won three awards, including two for Sound Effects in Call of Duty and Doom 3, as well as one for Sound Editing in a Game Cinema for Doom 3. 

Programmers Ben Wallace, Bernie Freidin, Charles Gough, Chris Butcher, Mat Noguchi, Matt Segur, Eamon McKenzie, and Stefan Sinclair have all won three awards for the first Halo®. 

Of those who have won at least three awards, Shigeru Miyamoto, Takashi Tezuka, Tracy Rosenthal-Newsom, Yoshinori Kitase, Dan Houser, Mathieu Laforce, Atsuko Fukuyama, Fumito Ueda, Hajime Sugiyama, and Rik Schaffer are the only people that have won awards for work in multiple franchises. 

The general voting body of more than 1,150 journalists and writers includes contributors for such varied outlets as About.com, Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Austin American-Statesman, NBC, CNN, CNN.com, CNNmoney.com, Chicago Sun-Times, Computer Gaming World, Contra Costa Times, Digital Journal, ElectricPlayground.com, FHM, GamersTemple.com, GamingTarget.com, Gannett News Service, Gear, HappyPuppy.com, Kids & Computers, LA Weekly, Los Angeles Times, National Post, New York Times, Marquee, PC Gamer, Philadelphia Inquirer, PlanetPong.com, Salon, San Jose Mercury-News, USA Today, USAToday.com, Wired News, Wizard Magazine, WOW Weekly, ZDNet, Detroit Free Press, National Public Radio, Public Radio International, Play Magazine, Electronic Gaming Monthly (Ziff-Davis Media), Evergeek Media, The Ottawa Citizen, The Vancouver Sun, The Regina Leader-Post, EclipseMagazine.com, and hundreds more.