Video Games Awards: 'Gears of Wars 3' delayed, 'Mass Effect 3' announced, winners declared

In an unexpected development that has taken the gaming world by a storm, one among the 'Most Anticipated Game' nominees at the Video Games Awards (VGA) 2010, 'Gears of Wars 3', has hit a roadblock. Just hours ahead of the expected announcement on the latest edition of Gears of War at Spike TV's 2010 Video Game Awards, the publisher Microsoft delivered the news that the announcement was postponed.

I have just learned of a decision to postpone our planned Gears of War news from Epic Games for the Spike Video Game Awards this weekend, Microsoft's Larry Hyrb revealed on his blog.

I wanted to share this with you and let you know that while these are never easy decisions, we can tell you that what we have to share for the franchise in 2011 will definitely be worth the wait and we look forward to working with our partner at Spike on sharing this world premier news when it is ready.

'Gears of War 3' was one among the 'Most Anticipated Game' category at the VGA 2010 along with 'Batman: Arkham City' (Warner Bros Interactive Entertainment/Rocksteady Studios), 'BioShock: Infinite' (2K Games/Irrational Games), and 'Portal 2' (Valve/Valve).

This announcement has also prompted several disappointed posts on an Xbox Live forum.

Not surprising, MS has stopped caring about their core audience for a while now, complained Angry Silverbul from Canada.

Charging the game publisher of delaying the announcement to hype the news and the game, XDG Desolation wrote, This is a good reason not to announce, tease, and hype an announcement, and just announce it when you/they/the involved parties are actually ready to do it.

However, the spirit of anticipation did not seem to fade.

Hype be damned. I like surprises anyway, added the American gamer.

II Fr0zen lI, also from United States wrote, It seems like everything with Gears 3 gets delayed first lol. Im sure there is a good reason and im still looking forward to it!

2010, a great year for the dawn of gaming

This year-end announcement has raised hopes that 2011 will also be a good year for Xbox gamers. 2010 has been a great year for the publisher and Xbox 360 with 'Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2' selling out 4.7 million copies on the opening day to rack up 310 million dollars in sales in US and Britain combined. 'Call of Duty: Black Ops' released last month sold an astounding 5.6 million copies to become the seventh best-selling game in the US history. With these games' success, Xbox 360 also turned into the best-selling console hardware system for the month of November 2010 with 68 per cent surge in sales. The gaming industry, as a whole, also recorded historic physical retail sales.

According to an industry research firm, the NPD Group US game sales for the month of November stood at $2.95 billion, a 9 percent increase in overall sales of non-PC hardware, software, and accessories. Combining this with PC games, the total was $2.99 billion, amounting to an impressive 8 percent rise over November 2008.

'Mass Effect 3' announced

Meanwhile, developer BioWare and publisher Electronic Arts announced the release of 'Mass Effect 3', the latest installment to the hit sci-fi videogame franchise 'Mass Effect', on Saturday night at the Spike Video Game Awards 2010 (See trailer). The third chapter in the series picks up where 'Mass Effect 2' ended and is scheduled for release sometime around the holidays in 2011. The cast, including main character Commander Shephard, will remain the same.

The Mass Effect series has not only gained commercial success but also enjoys critical acclaim. Released in January, 'Mass Effect 2', available for the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 consoles, is reported to have sold more than 2 million copies.

And the winners are...

The Spike TV's 2010 Video Game Awards was held at the LA Convention Center on Saturday, December 11 in Los Angeles. The following is the list of winners honored at the annual industry awards ceremony:

Game of the Year: Red Dead Redemption (Rockstar Games/Rockstar San Diego)
Studio of the Year: BioWare
Character of the Year: Srgt. Frank Woods: Call of Duty Black Ops
Best Xbox 360 Game: Mass Effect 2 (Electronic Arts/BioWare)
Best PS3 Game: God of War III (Sony Computer Entertainment/SCE Studios Santa Monica)
Best Wii Game: Super Mario Galaxy 2 (Nintendo/Nintendo)
Best PC Game: StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty (Blizzard Entertainment/Blizzard Entertainment)
Best Handheld Game: God of War: Ghost of Sparta (Sony Computer Entertainment / Ready At Dawn Studios)
Best Shooter: Call of Duty: Black Ops (Activision/Treyarch)
Best Action Adventure Game: Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood (Ubisoft/Ubisoft Montreal)
Best RPG: Mass Effect 2 (Electronic Arts/BioWare)
Best Multiplayer Game: Halo: Reach (Microsoft/Bungie Studios)
Best Individual Sports Game: Tiger Woods PGA Tour 11 (Electronic Arts/EA Tiburon)
Best Team Sports Game: NBA 2K11 (2K Sports/Visual Concepts)
Best Driving Game: Need For Speed: Hot Pursuit (Electronic Arts/Criterion Games)
Best Music Game: Rock Band 3 (MTV Games/Harmonix)
Best Soundtrack: DJ Hero 2 (Activision/FreeStyleGames)
Best Song in a Game: 'Far Away' by José González (Red Dead Redemption)
Best Original Score: Red Dead Redemption (Rockstar Games/Rockstar San Diego)
Best Graphics: God of War III (Sony Computer Entertainment/SCE Studios Santa Monica)
Best Adapted Video Game: Scott Pilgrim vs. The World: The Game (Ubisoft/Ubisoft Montreal/Ubisoft Chengdu)
Best Performance by a Human Male: Neil Patrick Harris as Peter Parker/Amazing Spider-Man (Spider-Man: Shattered Dimensions/Activision)
Best Performance by a Human Female: Tricia Helfer as Sarah Kerrigan (StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty/Blizzard Entertainment)
Best Downloadable Game: Costume Quest (THQ/Double Fine Productions)
Best DLC: Red Dead Redemption - Undead Nightmare (Rockstar Games/Rockstar San Diego)
Best Independent Game: Limbo (PlayDead)
Most Anticipated Game: Portal 2 (Valve/Valve)