The International Mobile Gaming Awards (www.imgawards.com) is opening its sixth edition.

In six years the competition has become the Mobile Entertainment Industry’s leading showcase for groundbreaking innovations, exceptional quality and new trends in mobile entertainment, whether made for N-Gage, iPhone, Flash, Android, Microsoft, Java, Linux, BREW, or any other platform.

Developers can submit their games on line NOW at www.imgawards.com and compete in an international arena with top studios and individual developers from all over the world. Awards will be given out in the following categories:

• The International Mobile Gaming Excellence in Design
• The International Mobile Gaming Excellence in Connectivity Award
• The International Mobile Gaming Excellence in Game Play Award
• The International Mobile Gaming Best Real World Game
• The International Mobile Gaming Best Casual Game Award

The following awards will also be presented:

• The International Mobile Gaming Grand Prix
• The International Mobile Gaming Operators’ Choice Award
• The International Mobile Gaming People’s Choice Award

Deadline for entries is 18 January 2010. The IMGA recognises the newest, the most exciting and the most innovative games so only those games published after 1 September 2009 are eligible. Concepts and demos for games are also eligible if the entrants can provide a playable demo or a finished game before February 8 2010 in time for the second judging round.

The awards will be handed out at the GSMA’s Mobile World Congress.

For the second year, the IMGA is looking for games using localisation technologies, such as GPS. “Last year’s launch of the new category Real World Games was clearly a success and will be continued. We think that these games have a great future. We expect many innovators to enter amazing games and demos in this category. Our collaboration with NAVTEQ and their Global LBS Challenge® will help us increase the number of entrants in this category.”

NAVTEQ will return as a judge to the 6th IMGA as well as handing out the "Best Real World Game" award at the IMGA awards ceremony during Mobile World Congress in Barcelona on February 17, 2010. As part of the collaboration with NAVTEQ, IMGA would like to encourage game developers to participate in both the IMGA and the 2010 NAVTEQ Global LBS Challenge with their location-enabled games.

In the last six years the IMGA has reviewed over 1,200 games originating from over 52 countries including the USA, Ukraine, Israel, Italy, the Netherlands, New Zealand, China, the Czech Republic, Brazil and Belgium. Participants include PhD students, researchers, artists, individual developers and the top 10 leading mobile games publishers and developers in the world. The IMGA is now considered to be one of the most important competitions in the Mobile Entertainment Industry. The IMGA’s mission is to reward and recognize the best innovators and the most creative developers of mobile games in the world.

More information about IMGA: www.imgawards.com