Marseille, France – 30 January 2013 – The nominees for the 9th Annual International Mobile Gaming Awards (IMGA) have been announced. 52 different countries were represented by the 600 games submitted. This year with the expertise of 15 jury members consisting of both press and industry leaders, 57 games were nominated in six different categories and will move on to the final round of judging.

According to Maarten Noyons, IMGA's founder, "this year's submissions have been quite exceptional. We have never seen such a broad spectrum of games genres in the submissions. For two days the jury has reviewed hard core triple A games, poetic indie games, educational games and a growing number of narrative games. Developers worldwide are bringing ever-increasing standards of quality and originality to gamers across the globe. All 57 nominated games are worth exploring".

The categories have changed from last year and are the following:

- Excellence in Innovation, given to the games that utilize technology or gameplay in new and exciting ways.

- Excellence in Visuals, for the games that went above and beyond in the graphics department.

- Excellence in Gameplay, an award that celebrates the games whose core game mechanics kept us coming back for more and didn’t allow us to put the game down.

- Excellence in Storytelling, for the stories that pulled us in beyond the gameplay itself.

- Best Social Game, the game we keep playing with our friends or through social networks.

- Best Serious Game, for titles where a game was used to bring attention to a specific topic or brought gaming mechanics to an activity or learning process. These could be educational, historical, political, or even health focused.

The People’s Choice award, which is voted by the general public enables anyone to vote for his or her favorite game by visiting  www.imgawards.com. On March 28th winners within all categories will be announced at the awards ceremony held in San Francisco. The winners will receive over 1 million Euros of free television advertising across Europe, courtesy of ProSiebenSat1 and their media partners.