Microsoft leads industry with highest number of nominations in Best of Electronic Entertainment Expo 2003 Awards

Microsoft Game Studios leads all videogame publishers with 13 nominations for Xbox and PC games competing in the prestigious Game Critics: Best of E3 2003 Awards.  This recognition punctuates the company's strong showing at the recent Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3), the video game industry's annual convention in Los Angeles.

Microsoft is also the only publisher with a clean "sweep" of game category nominations - a Microsoft-published or Xbox-exclusive title was nominated in each of the 14 game-related categories.

For the second year in a row, two Xbox exclusive titles are nominated in the Best of Show category: Microsoft's "Halo 2" and THQ's Xbox-exclusive "Full Spectrum Warrior." "Fable," another Microsoft-published title, and "Full Spectrum Warrior" are the only console games to be nominated for Best Original Game category.  All three of these Xbox exclusives are also nominated for Best Console Game.

Microsoft Game Studios' PC titles help round out Microsoft's game category home run.  "Halo" is nominated for Best PC Game, while the recently released "Rise of Nations" is nominated for Best Strategy game.  "Microsoft Flight Simulator 2004: A Century of Flight" and "Mythica" received nominations for Best Simulation and Best Online Game respectively.

For a full list of nominees, visit the official site at http://www.e3awards.com/nom.html.

The Game Critics Awards are the only independent E3 awards, voted on by editors from nearly 40 leading outlets that cover games -- including the top magazines, online sites, newspapers, and television programs.