The 6TH IMGA took place in 2009.
Here are all the games awarded that year.
That year saw the participation of worldwide known Angry Birds. Rovio did a lot of improvements on the game in the months following their nomination. Along with other developers, CEO Mikael Hed came to the final judging sessions to present the game.
Despite its success, Angry Birds did not win anything. Why did Konami’s Wire Way got selected instead of Angry Birds is simply because the majority of the jury members did not think the latter was bringing anything new in terms gameplay, art or technology. An interesting fact is that Rovio mentioned the IMGA nomination on their iPhone page.
Nokia launched its N-Gage in 2004, the gaming service in 2008 and on 30 October 2009 announced that they will no longer produce any new N-Gage devices and even close the service at the end of 2010. Many of IMGA nominees were available on the device such as One Sequel, Ovi Map Racing, Bruce Lee Dragon Warrior, Dance Fabulous, Zen Bound or Dirk Dagger.
On June 8 2008, Steve Jobs announced the launch of the iPhone at the Apple WWDC (Worldwide Developers Conference). The only game showed during the event was 5th IMGA People’s Choice winner: Kroll.
Many companies before Apple had been working on a smartphone dedicated to gamers. Nokia started in 2004 with its famous N-Gage, followed by the Gizmondo and then by Sony Ericsson’s Experia Play and SK Telecom’s Ocean2. Apple’s success was almost immediate because they took away the barriers of both the operators and the fragmentation, allowing a better, faster download of games, plus a user-friendly interface and dozens of apps.