Apple knows how to set records when it comes to sales, and now it has another honorary distinction: claiming a Guinness World Record alongside the game Angry Birds. Guinness named the iPhone 4 the fastest selling portable game system after selling 1.5 million units on launch day. iPhone 4 was released on June 24, 2010.

"The release of the iPhone has not just changed the mobile industry, but the video game world too,"Gaz Deaves, Guinness World Records' gaming editor, said in a statement to the LA times. "With the never-ending App Store selection and an intuitive device, Apple has created a gigantic new space for itself in the casual games genre that literally brings entertainment to users wherever they may be."

Voting for the Game of the Year category of the 2011 Canadian Videogame Awards is still open to the public for one more day. Voting is open to the public until midnight, Friday, May 13th. The five Game of the Year finalists are Assassin's Creed Brotherhood, Dead Rising 2, FIFA 11, Mass Effect 2, and Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell: Conviction. You can make your selection here. The site apparently allows visitors from outside the country vote.

Awards organizers also announced that tickets are still available for the event that takes place next Wednesday (May 18). The show will be hosted by Victor Lucas and his team from the TV show The Electric Playground. Video Games Live will also be back this year to provide the musical entertainment AND Nintendo will be offering attendees a special opportunity to play The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time 3D for Nintendo 3DS.

Congratulations to The Escapist, who managed to snag three Webby Awards including Best Games-Related Website, People's Voice Best Games-Related Website, and People's Voice Best Lifestyle Website. Why would we mention The Escapist here? After all this is a site about games and politics. Because it is one of the best games-related web site on the Internet and regularly featured in our daily newsletter for its irreverent commentary, sharp wit and the occasional story relevant to what we do here. We'll close out this congratulatory post with some commentary from co-founder Russ Pitts:

Finalists for the Canadian Videogame Awards have been announced. The winners of this year's awards in 12 categories will be revealed in Vancouver on May 18 at the Centre for the Performing Arts. Assassin's Creed Brotherhood and Mass Effect 2 lead the pack with 7 nominations each. Other notable nominations include Dead Rising 2, Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell: Conviction and FIFA 11.

The general public can vote for Canadian Game of the Year at www.canadianvideogameawards.com. The CVA's are sponsored by Kinect for XBOX 360, G4 Canada, Sony PlayStation, Nintendo 3DS, Entertainment Software Association of Canada, The Georgia Straight and the Canadian Studios of Electronic Arts.

Full list of finalists in various categories can be found below:

While the organizers of the Grammys might have eliminated well over 30 categories to streamline its awards this year, one category that remains is video games. Speaking to IndustryGamers, Bill Freimuth of The Recording Academy said that this is a first step in getting video games their own special category.

"I think this could be viewed as a first step in the direction of video games getting their own category," said Bill Freimuth of The Recording Academy to IndustryGamers. "Many people from the game community have been asking us to create a special category for games over the years, but the main reason we haven't is because we have received very few entries from game publishers."

Red Dead Redemption was the big winner at the Game Audio Network Guild (GANG) Awards at GDC in San Francisco last week, scooping up four awards in various categories including audio of the year, music of the year, best interactive score, and best dialogue. The game was nominated in ten different categories. The game also managed to sweep the GDC Awards last week.

Battlefield Bad Company 2 won Sound Design Of The Year and Best Use Of Multi-Channel Surround, while Bizarre Creations' last game, James Bond 007: Blood Stone, won Best Original Instrumental and Best Original Vocal.

A full list of all this year's winners are below:

Rockstar Games' Red Dead Redemption was a big winner at last night's Game Developers Choice Awards, along with Minecraft, Cut the Rope, Mass Effect 2, and Limbo. Red Dead Redemption picked up the Game of the Year award, Best Game Design, and Best Technology. Minecraft was named Best Debut Game, Best Downloadable Game, and won an award for Innovation. Limbo won for Best Visual Art, while Mass Effect 2 earned an award for Best Writing, and Cut The Rope won Best Handheld Game.

Legendary Sega developer Yu Suzuki won a Pioneer Award for his work on such classic titles as Outrun, Space Harrier and the Shenmue series. EA co-founder and current Digital Chocolate CEO Trip Hawkins presented a Lifetime Achievement Award to Populous and Fable designer Peter Molyneux.

The full list of award winners are below:

Frictional Games' survival horror game, Amnesia: The Dark Descent, was honored with three awards at the IGF awards last night in San Francisco. Amnesia won awards for Excellence in Audio, Technical Excellence, and the $10,000 Direct2Drive Vision award.

Mojang's indie hit Minecraft took home the biggest honor of the night - the Seumas McNally Grand Prize. Minecraft also won the audience award - chosen by votes at IGF.com.

The IGF Nuovo Award went to Messhof for the low-res fencing simulation Nidhogg.

Below is a full list of 2011 IGF Award Winners:

The British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA) announced nominations for 2010 GAME British Academy Video Games Awards. Assassin’s Creed Brotherhood and Call of Duty: Black Ops lead the pack with nominations for Action, Artistic Achievement, Multiplayer, Technical Innovation, and Use of Audio. Assassin’s Creed Brotherhood has also been nominated for Best Game and Gameplay, while Call of Duty: Black Ops has been nominated for Story. Meanwhile, Heavy Rain and Mass Effect 2 received nominations for Artistic Achievement, Best Game, Gameplay, Original Music, Story. Heavy Rain is also nominated for Technical Innovation.

The 14th Annual Interactive Achievement Awards were handed out last night at a gala event in Las Vegas, with Red Dead Redemption taking home five honors including Outstanding Achievement In Art Direction, Outstanding Achievement In Gameplay Engineering, Outstanding Achievement In Character Performance, Outstanding Achievement in Game Direction, and Action Game of the Year.

Mass Effect 2 was honored with several awards including Outstanding Achievement In Story, Role-Playing/Massively Multiplayer Game of the Year, and (the biggest award of them all) Game of the Year.

Heavy Rain was honored for Outstanding Achievement In Visual Engineering, Outstanding Innovation in Gaming and Outstanding Achievement in Original Music Composition.

Finally, indie darling Limbo was honored with awards for Outstanding Achievement in Sound Design and picked up the Adventure Game of the Year award.

The full list of winners below:

Ubisoft's third game in the popular Assassin's Creed series has won the Writers Guild of America award for games writing. The award winner was announced on Saturday night at a gala event and faced some stiff competition from such games as Fallout New Vegas, Star Wars: The Force Unleashed 2, Prince of Persia: The Forgotten Sands, and Singularity.

Assassin's Creed Brotherhood was written by Ubisoft's Patrice Desilets, Jeffrey Yohalem, Corey May, Jeffrey Yohalem, Ethan Petty, Nicholas Grimwood, and Matt Turner.

You may recall that, prior to this weekend's awards ceremony, there was some controversy about the requirements to be eligible for the honor. Some developers and publishers complained about the requirements of the award such as having to pay for a $60 membership to the guild's Videogame Writers Caucus, and having to submit a script to judges. 

The Writers Guild of America is speaking out about criticism that video game writers have to pay money and sign up for a membership to win the Writers Guild Award for games. In an editorial on GameIndustry.biz, the chair of the Writers Guild of America's Videogame Writers Caucus, Micah Wright claims, "you do not have to be a member of our guild to win our award."

"We ask that all entrants join the Videogame Writers Caucus (VWC), but that is not the same thing as being a member of the WGA," says Wright.

The problem is, the VWC does require a $60 annual fee, which buys a membership. The money does give the submitter access to free film screenings and a subscription to the WGA's Written By Magazine, but it's still a fee.

Turn 10 and Microsoft's Forza Motorsports 3 is the winner of this year's Accessible Mainstream Game of the Year award from the AbleGamers Foundation. Every year the AbleGamers Foundation selects one mainstream video game title that offers the best accessibility to players. According to AbleGamers, "recipients must demonstrate excellence in accessibility by including options that allow for gamers with a wide range of disabilities to fully enjoy the game."

"Microsoft is honored and delighted to accept the Accessible Game of the Year Award from AbleGamers for Forza Motorsport 3," said Aaron Kornblum, Director Security Policy, Interactive Entertainment Business, which includes Xbox and Xbox Live. "We believe that making technology as accessible as possible will enable people throughout the world to realize their full potential, regardless of their abilities."

The 2011 Game Developers Choice Awards will honor Peter Molyneux, co-founder of Bullfrog Productions and founder of Lionhead Studios, with the Lifetime Achievement Award for his contributions to the "art and science of games."

Though Molyneux has taken his fair share of lumps in recent years for over-promising on his Fable series, he has nonetheless had an influence on the industry for decades by creating innovative and fun games such as Theme Park, Syndicate, Populous, Magic Carpet, Black & White, and Dungeon Keeper.

Molyneux was chosen as this year’s Lifetime Achievement recipient by the Game Developers Choice Awards Advisory Committee, which includes game industry notables such as Doug Lombardi (Valve), Mark Cerny (Cerny Games), Harvey Smith (Arkane), Raph Koster (Metaplace), Julien Merceron (Square Enix), John Vechey (PopCap), and Clint Hocking (LucasArts).

Finalists for the 11th annual Game Developers Choice Awards have been named today, with indie developed Xbox Live Arcade game Limbo leading the pack. Other nominations include Red Dead Redemption, Mass Effect 2, Call of Duty: Black Ops, Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood, Costume Quest, God of War III¸ Heavy Rain, Monday Night Combat, Minecraft, and Super Meat Boy.

The complete list of nominees for the 11th Annual Game Developers Choice Awards are as follows:

Organizers of the Independent Games Festival announced the eight Student Showcase winners for the thirteenth annual presentation of its awards. This year's showcase honors students from DePaul University, Digipen University of Technology, School of Arts and Design Kassel, and Future Games Academy, among others.

This year's Student Competition saw more than 280 game entries across multiple platforms including PC, console, and mobile. IGF organizers said that the number of entries for this year increased by 47 percent over last year.

University of Toronto computer science researcher Aaron Hertzmann (also a professor) has an obsession that has managed to land him the 2010 Steacie Prize for Natural Sciences. He earned the honor last month, along with a check for $10,000, because of his work related to computer algorithms and natural human movement.

"We can all walk around in the world and we don’t think about it … but to make a robot or (animated) character walk and really obey the laws of physics is really hard," said Hertzmann.

Hertzmann has been conducting research in computer animation for 15 years. He has spent the last seven of those years at the University of Toronto, working on creating controllable lifelike movements, and on rendering techniques used in painting and drawing.

The Academy of Interactive Arts and Sciences announced today that it would induct BioWare co-founders Dr. Ray Muzyka and Dr. Greg Zeschuk into its hall of fame. The duo responsible for some of the greatest role-playing game series ever made (Baldur's Gate, Neverwinter Nights, Mass Effect, and Dragon Age - to name a few) will also speak at AIAS' 2011 D.I.C.E. event.

Epic Games president Mike Capps will present the award to the duo on February 10 at the Interactive Achievement Awards at the D.I.C.E. summit in Las Vegas.

UK-based Family Gamers has selected the winners of its Winter Family Gamers Awards. The awards are divided up based on PEGI rated, age-appropriate games for various age groups such as Infants, Juniors, Students, Workers, Parents and Seniors.

All of this season's nominees are eligible for the Family Gamer Game of the Year Award, which are chosen by the public. Voting on that award begins December 12 and ends on January 31.

Here are this season's top games:

Infants (3 to 6 yrs) - Diego's Build and Rescue - DS

Juniors (7 to 11 yrs) - Kinect Sports 360 - Kinect

Students (12 to 17 yrs) - Gran Turismo 5 - PS3

Workers (18 and over) - Fable III - Xbox 360

Two games funded by London-based Channel 4 have been honored with British Interactive Media Association Awards. Zombie Cow's sex education game, Privates won in the games category, and Littlecloud's political awareness title The Curfew won in the Educational & Outreach and Motion Graphics category. Littlecloud had six nominations in various categories, and Zombie Cow garnered three.

"It was nice just to be nominated for three BIMA awards (Games, Originality and Effectiveness)," Zombie Cow's Dan Marshall on the company web site. "but to walk away with the one we honestly thought we had no chance of winning was a shock second only to the completely-true story of being charged five pounds for a can of 'Red Stripe Lager' at the bar. Honestly! Five pounds!"

Recently the Entertainment Merchants Association (who you may know best for their upcoming Supreme Court battle against the state of California) handed out honors to publishers and retailers for their contributions to the game industry as part of its GamePlan Summit (thanks to Gamasutra). Honorees include Best, GameStop, and Gamefly, among others.

Activision and GameStop took away the most honors: Activision was honored for Best Use of Social Networks (for Modern Warfare 2), Best Packaging (Modern Warfare 2), and Best Publisher’s Marketing Campaign (Modern Warfare 2). GameStop was honored for Best Game Department, and Best Retail Promotion and Marketing.

Videogame industry group TIGA was the recipient of a pair of awards at the UK’s annual Trade Association Forum Best Practice Awards.

TIGA grabbed the prestigious Trade Association of the Year 2010 in addition to the Member Recruitment Award. The group was also a finalist in three additional categories—Sector Representation Award, Website of the Year Award and Annual Report of the Year.

TIGA head Richard Wilson stated, “We are absolutely delighted by these awards and commendation. It is a huge honour to be awarded Trade Association of the Year and something we have worked very hard to achieve.”

Wilson also thanked the TIGA team, specifically Lorna Evans, Nisha Valand, Eva Field, Vanessa Joyce and Suzi Stephenson, for “all their hard work and dedication.”

Anyone looking forward to the 2010 ELAN Awards will have to look a little bit farther forward. A short press release from the organizers of the event announced that the show had been delayed because of an ongoing negotiation with an undisclosed broadcast partner.

The fourth annual ELAN Awards were tentatively scheduled for "July 2010" and set to take place in San Francisco. We assume that this delay won't push the awards out of San Francisco, nor will it negatively impact the July 2010, but we'll see. More from the press release issued today:

The British Academy of Songwriters, Composers and Authors announced the winners of 55th annual Ivor Novello Awards. In amongst various awards you'll find "Best Original Video Game Score," which was awarded to Sony Computer Entertainment Europe and Guerrilla Games for Killzone 2.

Killzone 2 was nominated for best video game score alongside Savage Moon: Waldgeist and Total Empire: Total War. Killzone 2's soundtrack was composed by Joris de Man and recorded at the Abbey Road studios in London.

The Ivors celebrate the work of songwriters, composers and music publishers. Having a video game category is a step in the right direction for all involved and a testament to gaming's influence in mainstream culture. The Ivor Novello awards were held at the Grosvenor House Hotel in London yesterday. I leave you with some kind words about video games from Ivors committee director Mark Fishlock:

As part of its annual awards, the National Academy of Video Game Testers and Reviewers Corp. will honor the founder of GamePolitics with a special award.

Dennis McCauley, who also wrote for the Philadelphia Inquirer in addition to manning the helm here, will be receiving a special Honorary Award for his “contributions to the gaming community and gaming journalism.”

Additionally, 209 nominees were announced across 47 categories for awards designed to pay respect to the interactive entertainment industry’s best in the fields of art technology and production. Sony led the way with 47 total nominations, followed by Electronic Arts with 28, Activision with 20 and Eidos with 18.

Game of the Year nominees include Batman: Arkham Asylum, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, and Uncharted 2: Among Thieves. Batman: Arkham Asylum also led the way among games in total nominations, with 17, followed closely by Uncharted 2’s 16 nominations.

A voting body of 640 journalists and writers picked the nominees. Winners will be announced on February 27.

Congratulations Dennis!

At the White House yesterday, President Barack Obama lauded a California non-profit which publishes a PC game designed to help children and teens cope with cancer.

As reported by the San Mateo Daily Journal, Obama recognized HopeLab and its game Re-Mission as an example of the kind of social innovation that is worthy of support from both the public and private sectors. Praising the work of HopeLab and three other non-profits during a ceremony in the East Room of the White House, the President said:

If we work together — if we all go all-in here — think about the difference we can make. Think about the impact we could have with just the organizations represented in this room.

A White House press release praised HopeLab and its game:

HopeLab is dedicated to finding solutions that have broad impact, and works closely with tweens, teens and young adults to create fun, innovative products that meet their needs. Among them is Re-Mission, HopeLab's groundbreaking video game for young people with cancer. Data show that that Re-Mission improves treatment adherence and other key health outcomes... HopeLab is also developing products to combat sedentary behavior in children as a way to fight the effects of childhood obesity.

C-SPAN video of the ceremony is available here. More details of the event are available via HopeLab's Twitter account.

As noted on the House of Commons website, Conservative MP Edward Vaizey (left) introduced an early day motion last week to recognize BAFTA nominees and winners, including Little Big Planet, Fable II and Race Driver: GRID.

A vocal backer of the UK video game industry, Vaizey also took the opportunity to criticize the Labour Government for not providing what he views as a sufficient level of support to the British game biz:

[Moved:] That this House notes the importance of the video games sector to the UK economy; congratulates the winners and nominees at this year's Bafta Video Games Awards; notes in particular the success of UK developed games, including Media Molecule's LittleBigPlanet, Codemasters'  and Lionhead Studios' Fable II, all of which won awards...

 

applauds this recognition of the continued success and significance of video games despite the complete lack of support from Government; regrets the fact that this lack of support from Government has seen the UK fall from being the third largest producer of video games in the world to the fifth largest; and urges the Government to devise a clear and supportive strategy for the UK video games sector as part of the Digital Britain review.

GP: Vaizey's name is popping up on GamePolitics with enough regularity that we've added a tag for him in our category list.

As GamePolitics has reported, the City of San Diego is honoring the 10th anniversary of the publication of Everquest by declaring Monday, March 16th as Sony Online Entertainment Day.

Today's edition of GU Comics has some fun with the news.

To see the punchline, click here...

The Washington State Senate has passed a resolution commending Penny Arcade founders Jerry Holkins and Mike Krahulik as creative types, businessmen and philanthropists. The legislative body also noted the 10th anniversary of the popular site.

Both Holkins and Krahulik hail from Spokane.

From the resolution:

WHEREAS, Jerry Holkins and Mike Krahulik recently celebrated the comic's 10th anniversary;
and WHEREAS, In 2004, Jerry Holkins and Mike Krahulik launched the first annual Penny
Arcade Expo, a gaming festival... and WHEREAS, The Penny Arcade Expo attracts thousands of tourists from around the globe to visit the city of Seattle...

 

WHEREAS, In 2003, Jerry Holkins and Mike Krahulik created the Child's Play Charity, an organization which raises contributions of money and toys to donate to Children's Hospitals worldwide; and WHEREAS, Child's Play Charity has raised over 4.5 million dollars for sixty different Children's Hospitals since it was established...

GP: Well-deserved!

Via: Kotaku

We understand that the Evercrack addicts will be too busy questing to attend the festivities, but...

The City of San Diego is marking the 10th anniversary of the Everquest launch by naming March 10th as Sony Online Entertainment Day, reports Massively:

[SOE CEO] John Smedley will be on hand to accept this very nifty award from San Diego City Councilmember Carl DeMaio. 10 years of being online is a hell of an achievement for any MMO.

 

Now, the burning question we want to know is if Councilman DeMaio ever had to corpse-run, too?