Game Developers Choice Awards to Bestow 2008 Lifetime Achievement Award on Computer Strategy Game Legend Sid Meier

Civilization and Pirates! Creator to be Celebrated by His Peers at the 2008 Game Developers Choice Awards Ceremony, February 20 at GDC

PRNewswire
SAN FRANCISCO
Jan 8, 2008

SAN FRANCISCO, Jan. 8 /PRNewswire/ -- CMP's 2008 Game Developers Choice Awards, the highest honors in game development acknowledging excellence in game creation, will honor computer strategy game luminary Sid Meier with a Lifetime Achievement Award at this year's ceremony taking place at the Game Developers Conference (GDC). The Lifetime Achievement Award recognizes the career and achievements of developers such as Meier who have made an indelible impact on the craft of game development, as he has with the creation of a number of genre-defining titles including Civilization and Pirates! Presented by GDC and Webby-award winning Gamasutra.com, the awards ceremony is held in conjunction with the Independent Games Festival and will be hosted on Wednesday, February 20, in the Esplanade Room in the South Hall of San Francisco's Moscone Center. For complete details, please visit http://www.gamechoiceawards.com/.

"Sid Meier has served as one of our industry's greatest role models for more than 25 years, creating fun and intelligent games for a diverse public long before it was popular," said Jamil Moledina, executive director of the Game Developers Conference. "Now that the rest of the industry is actively targeting the broader audience, it's fitting to honor him with our highest award and thank him for his continuing example of inspiration for the video game community."

Meier began his career as a founding partner of MicroProse Software. Recognized around the world as the "Father of Computer Gaming," Meier has been honored with virtually every award in the industry. Sid's legacy IP such as F-19, Sid Meier's Civilization, Railroad Tycoon and Sid Meier's Pirates! are revered as some of the greatest games ever made. As Founding Partner and Director of Creative Development at Firaxis, Meier continues to deliver blockbuster hits like Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri and Sid Meier's Civilization IV. Meier has also been honored with several awards including an induction into the Computer Museum of America's Hall of Fame in 2002.

This year, the editors of Gamasutra.com, newly in charge of award management, worked in association with a distinguished Advisory Committee that included Clint Hocking (Ubisoft), Raph Koster (Areae), Ray Muzyka (BioWare), Ryan Lesser (Harmonix) and Brian Reynolds (Big Huge Games) to pick the Special Award winners following audience nominations. For further information about the Choice Awards, please visit http://www.gamechoiceawards.com/. For further information about GDC and to register for attendance, please visit http://www.gdconf.com/.

About the Game Developers Conference (http://www.gdconf.com/)

The Game Developers Conference (GDC) is the world's largest professionals-only game industry event. Presented every spring in San Francisco, it is the essential forum for learning, inspiration, and networking for the creators of computer, console, handheld, mobile, and online games. The GDC attracts over 16,000 attendees, and is the primary forum where programmers, artists, producers, game designers, audio professionals, business decision-makers and others involved in the development of interactive games gather to exchange ideas and shape the future of the industry. The GDC is produced by the CMP Game Group, a division of CMP.

About CMP (http://www.cmp.com/)

CMP (http://www.cmp.com/) is a media and marketing solutions company serving the technology industry. With the leading online, event and print brands in all technology market categories, and with services and tools that reach beyond traditional advertising, CMP shapes and influences the technology industry worldwide. CMP publishes highly respected media brands such as TechWeb, InformationWeek, ChannelWeb, CRN, EE Times and TechOnline; produces major industry events such as Interop, Web 2.0 Expo, XChange, Game Developers Conference and the Embedded Systems Conferences; and provides business information and marketing services such as the International Customer Management Institute, Semiconductor Insights and Second Life consulting for technology marketers. CMP is a subsidiary of United Business Media (http://www.unitedbusinessmedia.com/), a global provider of news distribution and specialist information services with a market capitalization of more than $3 billion. For more CMP news, go to cmp.com/news.

SOURCE: CMP Game Group

CONTACT: Sibel Sunar, sibel@fortyseven.com, or Brian Rubin,
brian@fortyseven.com, both of fortyseven communications, +1-323-658-1200, for
CMP Game Group; or Loria Ryan of CMP Game Group, +1-415-947-6287,
lryan@cmp.com

Web site: http://www.cmp.com/