The most-nominated titles include BioWare Austin's MMORPG Star Wars: The Old Republic, which grabbed six nominations, as well as multiple nominations for diverse titles including OMGPOP/Zynga's addictive social mobile app Draw Something, Playfish/EA's Facebook treatment of one of gaming's biggest franchises, The Sims Social, Blizzard Entertainment's record-breaking PC online-integrated title Diablo III, Tiny Speck's quirky casual MMO Glitch, and more.
The range of nominees this year highlights the constantly evolving online game ecosystem, which is particularly reflected in the Awards' top prize categories, Best Live Game and Best New Online Game.
In the Best Live Game category, recent but strong online contenders Rift (Trion World) and League of Legends (Riot Games), the latter of which was nominated in the same category at last year's Awards, compete against titles including fan favorite CityVille (Zynga) and cornerstone title World of Warcraft (Blizzard Entertainment). Best New Online Game nominees include the aforementioned Star Wars: The Old Republic, which runs against OMGPOP's much buzzed-about Draw Something and F2P mobile standout Rage of Bahamut (Cygames/Mobage), among others.