"This is incredible," said Epic's CEO Michael Capps at the 10th Annual Interactive Entertainment Awards, held at the DICE Summit in Las Vegas.
"Getting sales is great, making the game we wanted and having people buy it and enjoy it is fantastic. But having our peers say it's the best game of the year? That's insane. We beat the Wii."
Gears of Wars sweeps AIAS event claiming eight awards
The company won eight awards, including Overall Game of the Year and Console Game of the Year, beating off rival titles The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess, Wii Sports and Eldar Scrolls IV: Oblivion.
"The thing is," added lead designer Cliff Blezinsky, "being on the outside of this industry looking in as a kid, and wanting to be part of it, and then being able to be here and get an award from all of these talented people who've been in the business for so long, finally to be a part of it, to be recognised like this is absolutely unbelievable. We could not be honoured more."
In the award show's green room, GamesIndustry.biz asked the duo if, given the success of Gears of War, the company planned to continue what EA Montreal's Alain Tascan had recently called the 'zero innovation strategy.'
"Gears was about implementation," Capps responded. "This is a game we're proud of implementing well. There was some innovation - Cliff was responsible for some pretty sexy new stuff. But I think this was about making it right, making it fun. Everything in there was fun."
"I think there's a lot of iteration and a lot of polish that went into the game," Blezinsky added.
"I've actually heard a compliment from people saying it has a learning curve. Which, as a designer, that actually means the game has some cool new features in it."
Capps took the opportunity to promise even bigger things from the company's next project, Unreal Tournament.
"We're going to f**king knock your socks off," he promised. "Gears looked good, but that's like the old game on Unreal 3 [engine]. Unreal Tournament looks good."
Other winners of the AIAS awards included Bethesda Softworks' Eldar Scrolls IV: Oblivion (Computer Game of the Year), the Nintendo Wii (Outstanding Innovation in Gaming) and Sony's LocoRoco (Children's Game of the Year).
The full list of winners follows:
Overall Game of the Year Gears of War (Epic Games/Microsoft Game Studios)
Console Game of the Year Gears of War (Epic Games/Microsoft Game Studios)
Computer Game of the Year Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion (Bethesda Softworks/2K Games)
Outstanding Innovation in Gaming Wii Sports (Nintendo/Nintendo)
Handheld Game of the Year Brain Age: Train Your Brain in Minutes a Day (Nintendo/Nintendo)
Outstanding Achievement in Animation Gears of War (Epic Games/Microsoft Game Studios)
Outstanding Achievement in Art Direction Gears of War (Epic Games/Microsoft Game Studios)
Outstanding Achievement in Soundtrack Guitar Hero 2 (Harmonix/Activision/Red Octane)
Outstanding Achievement in Original Music Composition LocoRoco (Sony Computer Entertainment/Sony Computer Entertainment)
Outstanding Achievement in Sound Design Call of Duty 3 (Treyarch/Activision)
Outstanding Character Performance - Male Gears of War (Epic Games/Microsoft Game Studios)
Outstanding Achievement in Character Performance - Female Viva Piñata (Rare/Microsoft Game Studios)
Outstanding Achievement in Story and Character Development The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess (Nintendo/Nintendo)
Outstanding Achievement in Game Play Engineering Wii Sports (Nintendo/Nintendo)
Outstanding Achievement in Online Game Play Gears of War (Epic Games/Microsoft Game Studios)
Outstanding Achievement in Visual Engineering Gears of War (Epic Games/Microsoft Game Studios)
Outstanding Achievement in Game Design Wii Sports (Nintendo/Nintendo)
Sports Game of the Year Tony Hawk's Project 8 (Neversoft Entertainment/Activision)
Strategy Game of the Year Company of Heroes (Relic/THQ)
First-Person Action Game of the Year Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six: Vegas (Ubisoft Montreal/Ubisoft)
Fighting Game of the Year Fight Night Round 3 (EA Sports/Electronic Arts)
Racing Game of the Year Burnout Revenge (Criterion Games/Electronic Arts)
Role-Playing Game of the Year Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion (Bethesda Softworks/2K Games)
Children's Game of the Year LocoRoco (Sony Computer Entertainment/Sony Computer Entertainment)
Action/Adventure Game of the Year Gears of War (Epic Games/Microsoft Game Studios)
Massively Multiplayer Game of the Year Guild Wars: Nightfall (Arena Net/NCsoft)
Family Game of the Year Guitar Hero 2 (Harmonix/Activision/Red Octane)
Simulation Game of the Year Microsoft Flight Simulator X (Microsoft Game Studios/Microsoft Game Studios)
Downloadable Game of the Year Bookworm Adventures (PopCap/PopCap)
Mobile Game of the Year Orcs and Elves (Fountainhead Entertainment/Electronic Arts Mobile)