(Press release)
Game development studio Firemint was honored with four awards from leading handheld gaming web site Pocket Gamer at a ceremony held at the annual Game Developers Conference last night.
Held in honor of mobile and iPhone games and developers, the Pocket Gamer Awards 2010 recognized winners in several categories as well as celebrating four years of Pocket Gamer coverage of the industry. Firemint received awards in four categories, including the coveted iPhone Game of the Year and Best iPhone Developer awards:
Best Casual/Puzzle iPhone Game: Flight Control
Best Free iPhone Game: Real Racing GTI
iPhone Game of the Year: Flight Control
Best iPhone Developer: Firemint
The highly addictive gameplay in Flight Control challenges players to touch aircraft and drag a path to the correct landing zone while avoiding collisions. Flight Control has been a major App Store success, with over 2 million copies sold, as well as receiving wide games industry acclaim for its elegantly simple gameplay that launched a new genre of“line drawing” games.
Real Racing GTI is the limited content, free version of Firemint Real Racing, one of the most acclaimed games on the platform. Firemint Real Racing is a pro racing game featuring highly realistic graphics, but its intuitive“pick up and play” handling means anyone who can drive a real car can race in Real Racing. Real Racing GTI was developed in partnership with Volkswagen Group of America, and served as the official launch vehicle for the 2010 Golf GTI in North America. Real Racing GTI has been downloaded over 5 million times, and has led to an increase in sales of the full version of the game, with players buying the full version Firemint Real Racing to gain access to more cars and tracks.
In the four years since launching, Pocket Gamer has published over 18,000 articles including more than 10,000 news items and over 3,500 game reviews at http://pocketgamer.com. The site covers games on all handheld platforms, including mobile phone, iPhone, Sony PSP and Nintendo DS.
Accepting the awards, Firemint Community Manager Alexandra Peters said “We’re incredibly grateful for this wonderful recognition. We’d like to sincerely thank Pocket Gamer, and congratulate them on four fantastic years– we’re looking forward to many more to come!”