Spike TV Announces 2011 'Video Game Awards' Winners

Hosted by star of NBC's "Chuck" and avid gamerZachary Levi, executive produced by Emmy® Award winner Mark Burnett and featuring cutting edge in-show augmented reality and world premiere footage from hotly anticipated releases, Spike TV's ninth annual "Video Game Awards" (#VGA) proved to be a night to remember.  Industry giants gathered as the network celebrated the outstanding artistic and technical achievements in the world of gaming over the past year during the two-hour global event which premiered LIVE on Spike TV, MTV 2 and Spike.com Saturday, December 10 at 8:00 PM ET / 5:00 PM PT from Sony Studios in Los Angeles. Internationally, the "VGAs" were seen in over 100 countries and territories around the world. 

A host of the most influential members of the gaming industry, as well as stars from the worlds of sports, television, music and movies gathered at the biggest night in video games, and watched Bethesda Studios release "The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim" receive the highest honor a game can receive when it took home the coveted Vector Monkey after being named Game of the Year.  "The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim" also won Best RPG, and garnered Studio of the Year honors for Bethesda Game Studios. 

Other multiple award winners included "Portal 2" which won in five prominent categories, including Best PC Game and Best Multiplayer, and "Batman:  Arkham City," which won four  Vector Monkeys, including awards for Character of the Year for the Joker, Best Xbox 360 Game and Best Action Adventure Game.

"The Legend of Zelda" creator Shigeru Miyamoto made a surprise appearance to accept the first ever Video Game Hall of Fame Award on the groundbreaking franchise's behalf. "We always push ourselves," said Miyamoto, "and we're grateful you notice."

Additional honors included the second ever Gamer God Award, which was bestowed upon Blizzard Entertainment, the creators of the "World of Warcraft," "Starcraft" and "Diablo" series.  Original founders Michael Morhaime, Allen Adham and Frank Pearcewere all on hand to accept the prestigious award.

The "VGAs" debuted never-before-seen world premieres of the most anticipated games of 2012 and beyond, including Naughty Dog's "The Last of Us," the surprise reveals of "Command & Conquer: Generals 2," "Alan Wake American Nightmare," Epic Games' "Fortnite," "Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance," "Tom Clancy's Rainbow 6 Patriots," "Transformers: Fall of Cybertron," "BioShock Infinite" and the winner for Most Anticipated Game "Mass Effect 3."

This year's show included presenters and appearances by major stars from all over the entertainment world, including Charlie Sheen, Brooklyn Decker, Seth Green, Felicia Day, LL Cool J, Jason Biggs, Seann William Scott, Tony Hawk, will.i.am, Hulk Hogan, Stacy Keibler, Bellator stars Eddie Alvarez and Michael Chandler, Blake Anderson, Adam Devine, Anders Holm and game designers Cliff Bleszinski of Epic Games and Hideo Kojima of Konami.  The show also featured a performance by Grammy Award winning rock duo The Black Keys, and Grammy Award nominated dance music innovator deadmau5, who helped transform the show with his visual representation of sound into a real life video game experience.  Additionally, NFL Hall of Famer Jerry Rice was on hand to announce the results of the vote for Digital Cover Athlete of the forthcoming "NFL Blitz" from EA Sports, with Ray Rice of the Baltimore Ravens selected by fans who cast their ballot at vga.spike.com during the show.

A full list of winners is included below:

GAME OF THE YEAR
The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim

STUDIO OF THE YEAR
Bethesda Game Studios

CHARACTER OF THE YEAR
The Joker – Batman:  Arkham City

VIDEO GAME HALL OF FAME AWARD
"The Legend of Zelda"

GAMER GOD AWARD
Blizzard Entertainment

BEST XBOX 360 GAME
Batman: Arkham City

BEST PS3 GAME
Uncharted 3: Drake's Deception

BEST Wii GAME
The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword

BEST PC GAME
Portal 2

BEST HANDHELD/MOBILE GAME
Super Mario 3D Land

BEST SHOOTER
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3

BEST ACTION ADVENTURE GAME
Batman: Arkham City

BEST RPG
The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim

BEST MULTI-PLAYER
Portal 2

BEST INDIVIDUAL SPORTS GAME
Fight Night Champion

BEST TEAM SPORTS GAME
NBA 2K12

BEST DRIVING GAME
Forza Motorsport 4

BEST FIGHTING GAME
Mortal Kombat

BEST MOTION GAME
The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword

BEST INDEPENDENT GAME
Minecraft

BEST ADAPTED VIDEO GAME
Batman: Arkham City

BEST SONG IN A GAME
"Build that Wall (Zia's Theme)" by Darren Korb – Bastion

BEST ORIGINAL SCORE
Bastion

BEST GRAPHICS
Uncharted 3: Drake's Deception

BEST PERFORMANCE BY A HUMAN MALE
Stephen Merchant as Wheatley – Portal 2

BEST PERFORMANCE BY A HUMAN FEMALE
Ellen McLain as GLaDOS – Portal 2

BEST DOWNLOADABLE GAME
Bastion

BEST DLC
Portal 2 Peer Review

MOST ANTICIPATED GAME
Mass Effect 3

GAMETRAILERS.COM TRAILER OF THE YEAR
Assassin's Creed: Revelations – E3 2011 Trailer

EA SPORTS NFL BLITZ DIGITAL COVER ATHLETE
Ray Rice

For additional information about other "VGA" world exclusives and announcements, fans can log onto VGA.spike.com and get updates via Twitter @SPIKE_TV, as well as the hashtag #VGA. 

Nominees for Spike TV's 2011 "VGAs" were determined by the VGA Advisory Council, made up of a group of some of the most well-respected video game journalists from media outlets including Entertainment Weekly, USA Today, Game Informer Magazine, Kotaku, Joystiq, GameSpot, IGN and WIRED.

Mark Burnett, Casey Patterson and Carol Donovan served as executive producers of Spike TV's 2011 "VGAs."

The presenting sponsors for the 2011 "VGAs" were the all-new Chevy Sonic, Dr Pepper TEN, KFC Hot Wings and KRAFT Macaroni & Cheese Dinner. Energizer® Ultimate Lithium is the associate sponsor, with AXE and Mission Impossible-Ghost Protocol serving as digital sponsors.

Spike TV is available in 99.8 million homes and is a division of Viacom Media Networks.  A unit of Viacom (NASDAQ: VIA, VIAB), Viacom Media Networks is one of the world's leading creators of programming and content across all media platforms. 

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