Publishers play a major role in deciding what games get developed for whch systems. The NWR Award for Publisher of the Year goes to the firm that has put forth the most effort in consistently contributing quality games to Nintendo platforms.

Think about it: When was the last time you played a truly bad game on a Nintendo system that had the Square-Enix publishing label on it? Probably not for a while, and definitely not in 2006, which is why we're giving our first Publisher of the Year award to Square-Enix. True, they do make most of their own games, but Mario Hoops didn't sit well with enough staffers to consider them for development honors. The games they published were pretty good ones for Nintendo platforms, though, like Final Fantasy V Advance, the beautiful Final Fantasy III DS remake and Dragon Quest Heroes: Rocket Slime. Square-Enix knows how to keep the quality coming, so we'll recognize them with an award for their efforts.

Runner-up: Nintendo

People seem to forget that Nintendo doesn't develop all of the games they publish. For instance, Elite Beat Agents wouldn't have been made without the help of Nintendo's localization team. They also picked up Baten Kaitos Origins from Namco and brought it to America. Those are just two great games we have Nintendo publishing to thank for. So why didn't they win? We didn't feel like they did enough for the GameCube and GBA in 2006. Plus, there are some games in out in Japan that we're still waiting for, like Rhythm Heaven, Wii Play and WarioWare: Smooth Moves. Nintendo, we love you for always delivering on the goods, but if you want to win next year, you'd better not make us wait for games that we should have been playing months ago.

Also Nominated:

Electronic Arts