Wrap Up: MCV Pacific Awards

With a new year ahead of us, we take a quick re-cap of the inaugural MCV Pacific Awards from 2011.

JB Hi-Fi took out the Australian / New Zealand retailer of the year award, continuing to forge its own consumer base across multiple home entertainment media, and beating out the spectacular effort put in by EB Games in hosting the EB EXPO on the Gold Coast in October.

Our journalist of the year was Gamespot AU's Laura Parker, who has been fiercely and dilligently reporting on regionally specific gaming issues for years, continually proving herself standout amongst some tough competition.

Publisher of the year was Ubisoft, the always engaged and active member of Australia / New Zealand's games industry pushing forth with another year of proactive involvement, locally benefitial initiatives and continued hard work to strengthen the local games sector.

All Interactive Entertainment beat out some longer-standing opponents for distributor of the year, having only recently branched out into publishing and scoring Bethesda as a massive boost to this fledgling new enterprise from the father-son team behind All Interactive Distribution.

Our educational institution of the year was Qantm College, which took the title over some very worthy competition including some very important work for the industry from Bond University's Dr Jeff Brand and the consistently engaging Academy of Interactive Entertainment.

Kotaku has been making massive strides in the last few years in this region, with the industry seeming to agree, giving it out media outlet of the year award. The haphazard reputation of Kotaku's reporting from years ago is dead and buried with a new reign under Mark Serrels pushing the site into the position of one of Australia / New Zealand's most reputable sources for gaming news.

Game of the year went to none other than the groundbreaking L.A. Noire from Sydney's Team Bondi, which put Australian game development on the map in a big way with revolutionary new technology being implemented with a deft touch and a mastery simply absent in almost all of game development anywhere.

Finally, Halfbrick took out developer of the year, against a sea of successful indie outfits and stalwart cornerstones of the Australian development scene. Fruit Ninja, Jetpack Joyride and more catapulted Halfbrick into the limelight this year, but the developer has been hard at work for over a decade in Brisbane, now thriving and giving back to its community more than ever, and looking forward to possibly its brightest year yet in 2012.

Those were our winners for 2012, be sure to check out the individual award pages for a more detailed look at each of the winners' achievements, and a big thank you to our voting panel, everyone who nominated in any category, and to all our readers for helping make the first MCV Pacific Awards as successful as they have been.

To register for the MCV Pacific News Digest, head to the registration page: http://www.mcvpacific.com/user/index/register/journey/register

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