Shocking news from the British Academy of Film and Television arts this week, with not one BAFTA awarded to Rockstar's magnum opus Grand Theft Auto 4 at this year's gaming awards ceremony in London's swanky Park Lane Hilton last night.
Instead, it was Nintendo and Activision walking away with all the glory this year, with the Academy's praise being heaped on Call of Duty 4 and Super Mario Galaxy.
Plus, despite Rockstar being robbed, it was good to see some glamour injected into the gaming industry with 'shamed' celeb Jonathan Ross on hand to offer the coveted BAFTA fellowship to Atari founder and Pong inventor Nolan Bushnell.
Inner nerds on display
According to the Daily Mail, Ross was happily displaying his 'inner nerd' by attending the gaming BAFTAs. According to other rumours, both Ross (according to his recent Twitter updates) and TV pundit Charlie Brooker are both now in line for some voice-over work on Peter Molyneux's Fable 3!
"Goodnight all. Must go to bed. Got asked to do voice in Fable 3 tonight. Subarashi. Oyasuminasia. Woss out," Ross comments in a recent update, adding that, "Charlie Brooker said he would do a voice for it too! Great fun!!"
Back at the ceremony Steven Spielberg claimed his third BAFTA mask for Boom Blox in the Casual category, beating Guitar Hero, LittleBigPlanet, Singstar Vol 2, Wii Fit and Buzz! Quiz TV.
Activision's Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare owned the night winning the gongs for Gameplay, Story & Character and was also the public's game of choice, winning the GAME Award of 2008 with 60,000 gamers casting their votes this year.
The golden age of gaming
Affable Irish comic Dara O'Briain hosted the awards (no word from the Mail on his 'inner nerd' though!) claiming that we were living in the 'golden age' of videogames.
Perhaps most satisfyingly, for gamers, EA's Dead Space won the BAFTA mask in both sound categories (Use of Audio and Original Score); the Artistic Achievement award went to MediaMolecule for LittleBigPlanet; the Technical Achievement BAFTA went to Will Wright's magnificent Spore; the Strategy award to Sid Meier's Civilization Revolution and Valve's Left 4 Dead took the BAFTA in the Multiplayer category.
Also pleasantly surprising was the fact that the Best Game award went to Nintendo for the sublime Super Mario Galaxy.
A great night for the games industry. A disappointing night for the boys at Rockstar North.
