With World of Warcraft as a trophy, it wouldn't have been long before recognitions soon followed Vivendi's online multiplayer division, Blizzard Entertainment. And now that the MMORPG is the hottest game over PC, kudos goes to the man who pioneered it: Blizzard's head honcho, Mike Morhaime. In that respect, the Academy of Interactive Arts and Sciences (AIAS) hopes to honor this achievement with a special treat.

It was revealed today that Sony Computer Entertainment Honorary Chairman Ken Kutaragi will be receiving the lifetime achievement award on February next year from the Academy of Interactive Arts and Sciences or AIAS.

Ken Kutaragi needs no further introduction, having been dubbed as the "Father of the PlayStation brand". He directly supervised and designed the creation of all known PS consoles to date. The full story after the jump!

Japan has it. Australia, the Land Down Under, has it. America, on the other hand, has to make do with playing Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, Twilight Princess-style. Well, not anymore.

Heads up, Zelda fans!

Ocarina of Time will be debuting this Monday, February 26, for 1,000 Wii Points. The N64 original, being considered by most a masterpiece, will finally be available for North American fans. It should be up and ready for download at 9 a.m. Pacific Time.

Ocarina of Time is actually the fifth game in The Legend of Zelda saga and was the firs one released on N64. The Academy of Interactive Arts and Sciences (AIAS) regarded it as 1999 Game of the Year.

Thanks Mattroid for the heads up!

Joseph Olin, president of The Academy of Interactive Arts and Sciences, has faced controversy over the past two years due to the exclusion of Resident Evil 4 and Okami in the final awards votes.

Not including Okami does of course seem a bit off, especially if the body holding the awards was established to promote games as a valid art form. Okami not a finalist? Not artistic enough? Well, the thing is, to be eligible to be listed as a finalist, the Academy requires that the publisher of the game be an Academy member.

The controversy here, of course, is that Capcom has publicly called this Academy policy nothing more than buying an award. The fuel that turned the fire into an inferno was when God of War's David Jaffe told the crowd at DICE, "Thank God for Capcom. We're probably going to be able to pick up some awards tonight."

IGN reports that here's Olin's take on the whole issue:

The issue of Capcom's participation in the [awards] is an election by Capcom not to be a member of the Academy, ...Most of the other professional organizations [in other mediums] have membership fees and awards participation fees. Ours are minimal. End of story. They should not be a hurdle. It would be unfair to all the other publishers, all the other developers, all the independent game makers who have been Academy members for [up to] ten years... to let Capcom [be exempt].

As for Okami not making it as one of the finalists, here's Olin's defense:

The peer panelists, of which we have close to 400, determine which games they want to recognize. It's not like we give them a list of games they must award. Okami was considered this year... Okami did not make it as a finalist in some of the key categories this year as determined by the voters. It wasn't determined by rule. If it had been named a finalist, Capcom would [then be asked to become a member of the Academy].

Okay, fine. We get the reasoning, again we ask the question (this time to the 400 peer panelists): Why not Okami?

The highly successful action shooter grabbed the most awards at the 10th Annual Interactive Achievement Awards held in Hard Rock Cafe, Las Vegas last February 8. The ceremony is hosted by the Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences (AIAS).

It is a peer-driven and peer-based awards honoring outstanding products, talented individuals and development teams that have made a contribution to the advancement of the game industry.

Trailing just behind the Epic Game's Gears of War is Nintendo's Wii Sports, which managed to grab three awards. Minoru Arakawa, former president of Nintendo of America, was also honored for the first time with a Lifetime Achievement Award.

Honored with him were Howard Lincoln, chairman emeritus of Nintendo of America, and Danielle Bunten Berry, game pioneer. The former received a Lifetime Achievement Award and the latter was inducted to the AIAS Hall of Fame.

Joseph Olin, president of AIAS, said, "Last night, we recognized the brightest and most innovative in video games in what can be considered as one of the best years the video game industry has seen."

Click on Full Article to view the list of winners and their respective categories.

As everybody probably knows by now, the recent AIAS awards received flak from Capcom for failing to acknowledge truly notable games and members of the industry, simply because they aren't members the AIAS and have therefore not paid the requisite membership fees that the non-profit organization requires.

AIAS released a statement of their own to counter Capcom's, saying that they are still sticking by their members-only policy, and that nothing that Capcom will say can change that. Since then, Capcom has made no comment on the issue.

However, for those who are curious about what AIAS' exact response was, Gamers Reports has the full version. Interesting points in the statement would be the clarification that "to receive an award, the publisher must be an AIAS member." Another point is that their membership rates begin "at US$ 1,000 and the fee structure has not increased in eight years," while they add that "the requirement for membership is not dissimilar from other industry associations."

Read the full statement after the Jump!

A couple of days ago, we posted an article about Capcom's reaction to their non-inclusion in the AIAS Awards. Now it's time to shed some light on AIAS' side. According to PSXExtreme, AIAS rules state that Capcom must become a member of the organization - and that means paying some fees - or they "can't be eligible for any nominations or awards the AIAS chooses to hand out." Ok, so we guess this is what Capcom meant when they said companies have to "buy" their way into the AIAS.

If the rules clearly state that you have to be a member to receive any kind of nominations, then why doesn't Capcom just join? They have the greenbacks, don't they? Or is the fee an insanely high amount of money? Or maybe the AIAS is actually a secret cabal of iron-fisted overlords who rule over the videogame industry with fear and terror and Capcom doesn't subscribe to their way of thinking.

No idea, really. What we do know is that Capcom isn't the only one who didn't get any nominations. Apparently, AIAS has also released a list of several other game companies - including big-name companies like Tecmo and Eidos - ineligible for awards.

A few days back, we talked about the AIAS awards which has Loco Roco, Wii Sports, Gears of War among its many nominees for a wide variety of categories. One thing that we didn't notice from the list is that no Capcom games were nominated, Dead Rising for the Xbox 360 and Okami for the PS2 were surprisingly absent from the Console Game of the Year category. This earned the ire of Capcom and in an issued statement, this is what they had to say about that:

According to the AIAS DICE website, 'Since 1998, the peer-based Interactive Achievement Awards are dedicated to recognizing the outstanding products, talented individuals, and ground-breaking development teams that have propelled the advancement of the multi-billion dollar worldwide entertainment software industry.' What the site neglects to mention is that a product, individual or development team cannot and will not be nominated for an award unless a company buys its way in to the AIAS.

Harsh as it may sound, you can't really blame Capcom for feeling that way since for the past two years, no Capcom game has been nominated for an AIAS award. Also, they really believe that finances and memberships are taken into consideration when its time to nominating a game.

Now, it's a good thing that there are two sides to any story. Speaking to GameSpot, AIAS President, Joseph Olin denied Capcom's accusations and mentioned that the only reason why the members-only rule is in place is because it allows AIAS to be a purely independent organization, and memberships are not their way of making money. He continued by saying:

As powerful a medium we are, we need an independent voice that is able to recognize singular accomplishments within the medium. The only way to do that is to involve all the various parties, ... have them put aside their natural competitive tendencies, ... and be able to speak as one voice as to what are the year's best games.

Now, it's your turn to share your thoughts on this issue. We'll keep you updated for future developments.

The Academy of Interactive Arts and Sciences (AIAS) has recently announced its finalists for the 10th Annual Interactive Achievement Awards. Their awards are considered to be one of the most prestigious and important game-related award and being a finalist is already an honor.

Anyhow, there are a lot of awards to dish out but we'll give you the more interesting and more popular categories. The Overall Game of the Year finalists are Gears of War, Wii Sports, Zelda: Twilight Princess, Guitar Hero 2, and Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion. The console game of the year almost has the same finalists as the Overall Game of the Year award, but instead of Elder Scrolls, Virtua Fighter 4 was the other finalists.

For the Outstanding Innovation in Gaming award the finalists are Wii Sports, Nintendo Brain Age, GoW, Viva Pinata, and Loco Roco. Loco Roco was also a finalist in the handheld game of the year with Elite Beat Agents, New Super Mario Bros., Brain Age, and Lego Star Wars II completing the list. Tekken: Dark Resurrection also picked up a nomination for Fighting Game of the Year.

As for the MMO category, Eve Online: Revelations, Guild Wars: Nightfall, DDO: Stormreach, and Auto Assault were deemed finalists. Surprisingly absent is Blizzard's World of Warcraft. And lastly, PC Game of the Year finalists are Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion, Company of Heroes, Battlefield 2142, Prey, and Age of Empires II: The Warchiefs.

Good luck to all the nominees. To check out the complete list of finalists and categories, click on our read link below.

Given the hustle and bustle of our daily lives, it's sometimes good to pause for a while and reflect on things that matter the most. It is also good to know that the same feeling is not unknown to industry big shots. The Academy of Interactive Arts and Sciences or AIAS announced that they will be supporting the Starlight Starbright Children's Foundation Fun Center.

In case you are not aware what this Fun Center is all about, shame on you it is actually a tool hospitals use to help reduce the anxiety and weariness young patients deal with during extended confinements. For years now, Nintendo of America has been a part of this by donating Nintendo systems alongside DVD players and flat screen monitors. In fact, NoA just donated the 5,000th Fun Center to Cedars-Sinai Medical Center.

AIAS mentioned that they will be donating US$ 1 to these centers for every member's vote for the 2007 Interactive Achievement Awards. The event will be held at the Hard Rock Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas this coming February 8. AIAS President Joseph Olin has these things to day about the matter:

We are overjoyed to support this great program that provides young patients with entertainment, excitement and even a distraction during their exhaustive treatments and long hospital stays. The gaming community understands the hardships these children face while hospitalized and is pleased to give back and be a part of such a supportive and respected organization.

There. The organization's president has already spoken. We hope that every member of AIAS cast his vote, for the children's sake.