With Fall settling in, you can expect the usual bumper crop harvest of annual sports sims to come our way. One of these titles include Konami's Pro Evolution Soccer 2009, which has been confirmed to be released this October 17 on the PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, and the PC. Find out more about the upcoming game in our full article.

In an official announcement made not later than today, Konami Digital Entertainment GmbH revealed that the company's Pro Evolution Soccer 2008 will be featuring none other than Michael Owen, English striker and one of Newcastle United's pride and glory, on both the packaging (UK specific) and the promotional materials for the game.

Together with Cristiano Ronaldo, Owen will be combining image and skill on the UK packshots of Pro Evolution Soccer's latest installment. Barring any critical opinion of his choice for Newcastle over Liverpool, Owen still keeps a reputation level with his 178 league goals, 37 of which were for England.

"Securing Michael Owen is a real coup for Konami. Since he burst on to the scene, he has proven himself an incredible goal-scorer, netting at every level both domestic and international," said Jon Murphy, Team Leader for Pro Evolution Soccer 2008 at Konami.

Pro Evolution Soccer 2008 will be heading to the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, Windows PC over DVD, PS2, PSP and Nintendo DS by fall of 2007, featuring Konami's new Teamvision artificial intelligence system for dynamic and real-time play.

Develop has recently announced the list of finalists nominated to receive awards offered by the Develop Industry Excellence Awards. Set for the region of UK and Europe, the awards will be held during the Develop Conference & Expo to be held this year at Brighton. Again.

 

Top of the nominees list is Realtime Worlds (Crackdown), bagging a whopping seven nominations. Evolution Studios (MotorStorm), Rare (Viva Piñata), SCEE Studio Liverpool (Formula One Championship Edition), and independent developer and publisher Introversion (DEFCON) get three nominations a-piece. Other nominees include GSC Game World (S.T.A.L.K.E.R.) from Russia, EA DICE (Battlefield series) and Avalanche from Sweden, Opera from Norway, and Fishlabs from Germany.

Some of the big names nominated for the 2007 awards night include Eidos Hungary, Ubisoft France development studios, Eden Studios, and Kynogon. The fate of these nominees will be decided by a panel of almost 100 industry experts who choose only excellence over anything else. Stuart Dinsey, publisher of Develop magazine, stated:

In a period which has seen the launch of two home consoles, the continued improvement of Xbox 360 and PC software, and the mobile games market emerge as a genuine creative and commercial alternative to the more traditional games platforms, only the most excellent titles have any chance of standing out from the crowd.

Two other special awards, Development Legend and overall Grand Prix, will be given away in the awards night on July 25 to be honored to individuals, companies, or titles deserving in the eyes of the magazine's editorial staff.