September 20, 2006

Backbone Vancouver Receives Accolades for Age of Empires: The Age of Kings

Studio wins ELAN, nominated for BAFTA Game Award

Backbone Entertainment, a division of Foundation 9 Entertainment, has won recognition for its Vancouver studio’s work on Age of Empires(R): The Age of Kings(R) for Nintendo DS, published by Majesco Entertainment. The game took home the Canadian Award for the Electronic and Animated Arts in the category of best design and has been nominated for best strategy game from the British Academy of Film and Television Arts Game Awards.

“We knew we put out a top-notch game, and this recognition is a tremendous validation of all of our hard work,” said Joe Bonar, Backbone Vancouver’s studio head. “This game is just one example of the high quality products developed by our studio.”

Added Joseph Sutton, executive vice president of research & development for Majesco Entertainment: “It was a pleasure working with the talented professionals at Backbone Entertainment, and this award is certainly well-deserved.”

The Canadian Awards for the Electronic and Animated Arts (ELANS) were distributed on Sept. 14. In its inaugural year, the ELANS aim “to become the standard by which Canada and the rest of the world recognizes the amazing talent and product that Canada is delivering to an enormous and ever-growing market.”

The British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA) Game Awards will be announced on October 5 as part of the London Games Festival. The nominees were selected by a group of short-listers, who were recruited from all aspects of the gaming industry.

Backbone Vancouver is currently at work on two high-profile titles, Sonic Rivals for the PSP, to be published by Sega; and Death, Jr. & the Science Fair of Doom for Nintendo DS, to be published by Konami; as well as other unannounced projects.

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