Epic Games' Cliff Bleszinski to Host 12th Annual Game Developers Choice Awards at GDC 2012

SAN FRANCISCO, Jan. 17, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- Epic Games' Cliff Bleszinski, one of the key visionaries behind the Unreal and Gears of War games, will take the stage during the 2012 Game Developers Conference to host the 12th Annual Game Developers Choice Awards. Pocketwatch Games' Andy Schatz, creator of 2010 Independent Games Festival Grand Prize winner Monaco will return for his fourth stint as host of the Independent Games Festival awards, now celebrating their 14th edition.  The two award ceremonies will take place on the evening of Wednesday, March 7th during GDC 2012 beginning at 6:30pm.  For the third consecutive year, leading game site GameSpot (www.gamespot.com) will exclusively live stream both award shows along with their channel on YouTube.

The Independent Games Festival was established in 1998 by UBM TechWeb's Game Network to encourage the rise of independent game development and to recognize the best independent game titles, in the same way that the Sundance Film Festival honors the independent film community.  The 12th annual Game Developers Choice Awards recognizes the creativity, artistry and technical genius of leading industry professionals and games released in 2011.

As design director at Epic Games, Cliff Bleszinski has been a key visionary behind the award-winning, multimillion-selling Unreal series, as well as Gears of War, which has become a billion-dollar franchise.  Gears of War received top honors at the 2007 Game Developers Choice Awards, and was crowned the winner of the Best Game, Best Technology and Best Visual Arts categories.  He continues to lend his creative expertise to Epic's upcoming projects for PC, mobile and console titles.  Easily one of the most recognizable faces in the business, Bleszinski gained instant fame as a teen by shipping his first commercial game, Jazz Jackrabbit, before graduating high school.  Jazz became a bestseller and remains a cult classic amongst gamers. 

Now a leader in the world of indie games, Andy Schatz founded Pocketwatch Games in December, 2004. Pocketwatch Games released the ecological sim games Venture Africa (which was nominated for the Grand Prize in the 2006 IGF) and Venture Arctic.  Schatz later developed the co-op stealth game Monaco which won the Seumas McNally Grand Prize and Excellence in Design awards in the 2010 IGF.  Returning as host, Schatz presented the IGF awards in 2007, 2008 and 2009.

"Cliff and Andy both have huge personalities and fantastic stage presence. We're excited for GDC attendees to see these two work their charm while celebrating this amazing industry," said Meggan Scavio, GM of GDC. "Partnering with GameSpot.com to live stream the IGF and Choice Awards ceremonies was a natural choice and we're thrilled to be working with them again. I'm so glad we're able to make these ceremonies available to developers unable to attend as well as fans of all the nominated games."

As is customary, this year's Choice Awards is held immediately following the Independent Games Festival Awards, and for the third year running, those not attending GDC can watch both sets of awards show live online only via GameSpot.com, the official streaming media partner to the GDCAs and IGF.

For more information about the 12th annual Game Developers Choice Awards, visit http://www.gamechoiceawards.com and for more information about the 14th annual IGF visit http://www.igf.com. For information about the 2012 Game Developers Conference visit http://www.gdconf.com.

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About GameSpot

GameSpot's (www.GameSpot.com) expert editorial team provides more than a million daily visitors with comprehensive, engaging and unbiased game information for console, PC, and portable platforms. The site was named the most influential video game media site in America in 2011 by EEDAR (Electronic Entertainment Design and Research). Its award-winning coverage includes previews and reviews on the hottest titles, breaking news, live Web casts, online tournaments, game downloads, videos, guides, hints and more. GameSpot also has one of the most active online gaming communities fueled by a free, innovative social networking service that makes it easy and fun for gamers to interact with like-minded enthusiasts. The GameSpot family includes GameFAQs, Game Rankings and GameSpot Trax, the industry's premier real-time market intelligence tool. GameSpot is a property of CBS Interactive. GameSpot is available online, on mobile phones and on the iPad. Follow GameSpot on Facebook and Twitter.

Epic, Epic Games, Jazz Jackrabbit, Gears of War and Unreal are trademarks or registered trademarks of Epic Games, Inc. in the United States of America and elsewhere. All rights reserved.

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