Nintendo were the big winners at the annual MCV games Industry Excellence awards last night, scooping up gongs in an impressive four categories. LittleBigPlanet got the respeck’ it deserved too.

UK games awards can be pretty parochial affairs, particularly in the retail categories where there really aren’t that many candidates of any size or note to choose from. Nevertheless this is the seventh year that the Industry Excellence awards have been held and they seem to get a little bigger and glitzier each time. To wit some 600 of the UK gamesbiz’s shinest suits turned out for last night’s back-slapathon at London’s The Brewery. Here’s who went home with the sorest shoulders:

RETAIL
Star Store: Gamestation – Birmingham New Street
Retail Innovation: HMV Gamerbase
Store Manager: Mike Barnes & Pearl Robinson (GAME Oxford Street)
Online Retailer: Play.com
High Street Retailer: GAME

PR & MARKETING
PR Team: Nintendo
Games Campaign: Wii Fit
New Games Brand: Little Big Planet
Marketing Team: Nintendo
Marketing Innovation: New Xbox LIVE Experience

PEOPLE & INDUSTRY
UK Development Team: Rockstar North
Distribution Team: Centresoft
Sales Triumph: Fallout 3 - Bethesda
Sales Team: Sega
Games Publisher: Activision Blizzard

SPECIAL AWARDS
MCV Retail Advisory Board - Special Recognition: Andy Yates (Nintendo)
Grand Prix: EA Sports

A big night for Nintendo, then. No surprises, really, given the bumper year they’ve just had – particularly with Wii Fit still dominating the charts. It’s nice to see the New Xbox LIVE Experience get a mention too. Ditto LittleBigPlanet, which beat off stiff competition from the likes of Professor Layton and, erm, Race Driver: GRID. But Fallout 3 scooping the prize for Sales Triumph? No disrespect intended, but surely there were more deserving contenders?

Finally, the EA Sports brand, which was recognised not just for its performance over the last 12 months but for its “decades of success”. Good grief, we feel very old all of a sudden...