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The British Academy of Film and Television Arts handed out its 2010 Video Games Awards in London this evening, but it was a resident of Gotham City who came away the big winner. Although Uncharted 2 bagged yet more trophies -- Best Action Game, Best Use of Audio, Best Story and Best Original Score -- Rocksteady's Batman: Arkham Asylum came away as the Academy's choice for Best Game of 2009.

Other notable winners include Flower (Artistic Achievement), LittleBigPlanet PSP (Best Handheld Game) and Wii Sports Resort (Best Family Game). You can see the full list of winners by category after the break. Congrats, Bats!

Whew, that was a close one. We were really hoping to get another opportunity to purchase Batman: Arkham Asylum again, but it seemed Rocksteady and Eidos had planned to keep the game's Game of the Year edition exclusively overseas. Fortunately, it seems they've changed their minds -- an Eidos press release just confirmed that the expanded version of the game (which includes four extra challenge maps and 3D support) will be getting a stateside release.

Whether you missed out on 2009's surprise superhero smash hit, or whether you were just disappointed by its lack of extra dimensions, you'll be able to get your fix when Batman GOTY ships sometime in May.

Not only does the Game of the Year edition of Batman: Arkham Asylum add TriOviz 3D, it comes with Batman and Joker-themed 3D glasses. They're not exactly what you would imagine Batman and/or the Joker wearing to watch something in 3D, but they are decorated in the style of the two characters. They're like one of those old Halloween costumes with the picture of the character you're supposed to look like printed on the front.

In case you haven't heard about this Arkham Asylum thing until now, you can see a trailer for the Game of the Year edition after the break. You'll be able to pick it up on March 26 -- but only if you're in Europe, Asia, or Australia, as those are the only regions for which this edition has been announced.

Uh, remember how we kind of got your hopes up with the promise of Batman in 3D earlier today? Well, we hope you North American readers didn't rush to your local game emporium to pre-order the "Game of the Year" edition, as you probably would have gotten laughed at. Warner Bros. confirmed to Joystiq that Batman: Arkham Asylum Game of the Year Edition -- with the 3D feature -- is only coming to Europe, Asia and Australia.

We also learned that, no matter what territory you live in, 3D is not a feature that's being added to existing copies of the game. If you want all three dimensions, you're going to have to pony up for the GOTY edition. This may seem tough now, but if you, Charlie Bucket-style, convince yourself that it's better just by itself (the third dimension standing in for golden Wonka ticket here, of course) we're sure you'll pull through.

If you were planning to ignore the Batman: Arkham Asylum "Game of the Year Edition" (perhaps you're still stinging from the disappointing collector's release) you may not want to stop caring just yet. While we're unexcited by the promise of "six additional maps" on the disc (there are six available for download at the moment -- we have to assume those are the same ones), we're intrigued by CVG's report that the box will include special glasses for use with a newly added TriOviz 3D effect.

The TriOviz tech, if you're unfamiliar, works with regular HD and SD sets, and doesn't rely on red and blue lenses, meaning colors are preserved. We'd love to give it a shot, but not so much that we'd re-buy Arkham Asylum to do so. Here's hoping there's a way for us early adopters to check out this new dimension of institutional insanity.

[Update: Sadly, it sounds like this isn't gliding into North America.]

We're going to need you to find some way to weasel out of that lunch date you have planned for tomorrow. See, the $12.49 you were planning on spending on that cucumber and cream cheese panini with Italian cream soda? It's about to go towards a much more virtuous cause: Purchasing Batman: Arkham Asylum through Games For Windows' Games on Demand platform, which until March 1, will only cost you $12.49.

It may not be as delicious as the aforementioned sandwich, but it will take you longer to finish. Unless you're the world's slowest eater. Or the world's fastest game-tape solver. Or if it's the world's biggest panini.

Holy strategic acquisition, predictable Batman reference! Warner Bros. Home Entertainment Group has announced its purchase of a majority stake in Rocksteady Studios, the developer responsible for towing Batman's star vehicle out of a muddy Gotham ditch. Rocksteady's Batman: Arkham Asylum debuted in 2009 to critical applause and has since shipped over three million copies.

Jamie Walker, studio director of Rocksteady Games, expressed pride in the deal -- the cost of which has not been disclosed. "We are proud to strengthen our association with WBIE, a world class publisher that we have enjoyed working with since we began developing Batman: Arkham Asylum," he said. In addition, games director and excellent sniper position Sefton Hill noted, "The Rocksteady team is very much looking forward to creating more great games based on widely recognized Warner Bros. brands like Batman."

What Warner license will Rocksteady revive next? Whatever it is, it'll have to wait until construction is completed on the unnamed Arkham Asylum sequel.

[Update: Square Enix Europe (Eidos) has confirmed that it still retains a 25.1 percent stake in Rocksteady.]

The BAFTA awards represent a rare opportunity to get the thrill of watching your favorite high-profile games rack up more plaudits long after the end of the year. They also represent the opinions of the British Academy of Film and Television Arts, but whatever. The nominations for the 2009 awards have been released, with mostly unsurprising games occupying the "Best Game" category -- Batman, Assassin's Creed II, Modern Warfare 2, Left 4 Dead 2, Joystiq.com Game of the Year 2009 Uncharted 2 -- and FIFA 2009.

In the "people's choice" GAME Awards, all of the Best Game nominees but Left 4 Dead 2 make repeat appearances, joined by The Beatles: Rock Band, GTA Chinatown Wars, The Legend of Zelda: Spirit Tracks, Street Fighter IV, and Wii Sports Resort. "Everyone's" tastes are much more diverse! See more nominations for specific genres and achievements at the BAFTA site. The winners will be revealed in an award ceremony on March 19.

The GDC organizers have just announced a few more of the Game Developers who will be Conferring at next month's event. Eidos Montreal art director Jonathan Jacques-Belletete will offer some rare info about the upcoming Deus Ex 3 in his talk, "The Successes and Failures of Creating a Near-Future Cyberpunk Setting with a Renaissance Twist in Deus Ex 3", while new Grasshopper Manufacture hire (and former Silent Hill producer and composer) Akira Yamaoka will present a retrospective of his career at Konami.

Other new lectures include Rocksteady's David Hego on the art direction of Batman: Arkham Asylum and ngmoco's Neil Young on "Things to Unlearn Moving From Traditional Development to the New Digital World". GDC will take place in San Francisco from March 9-13.

Do you live in the UK and dream every night about the possibility of one day voting on a people's choice game of the year award? Right, us neither, but if you're into that kinda thing, UK retailer GAME is holding the second annual GAME British Academy Video Games Awards at the London Hilton on March 19 and you can vote for the awards show's top "honour." Sure, you can't actually buy tickets and attend or anything crazy like that (the event is live-streamed online, in fairness), but you still have just over a month to put in your vote for one of the 10 games in the running -- games that were chosen from a list comprising "the top selling games of the year sold in GAME stores."

At the very least, voters will automatically be entered into a contest to win a "Sony Home Entertainment Package," so, if nothing else, there's always the possibility of winning a Sony ... something (or somethings). Click through or glance a few inches up for the people's choice award contestant list.

According to Square Enix's financial report covering the first nine months (ending this past December) of its fiscal year, the company is going to finish its annual business cycle with plenty of glistening gil. Overall, the company's profits are up 48 percent from the same period last year, and it forecasts a profit of ¥10 billion (which is far less shocking when converted to $112 million) for the fiscal year ending in March 2010.

The company's games division saw limit breaker sales and profits during the period due to Dragon Quest IX, Final Fantasy XIII, Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days and Batman: Arkham Asylum -- which it obtained as part of the Eidos buyout. Square Enix's games group saw sales of ¥72 billion ($806 million, a 97 percent increase over last year), along with a profit of ¥18 billion ($202 million, a 99 percent increase during the same time). Kupos to you, Square Enix.

We're in the thick of awards season, and video games are no exception. The Academy of Interactive Arts and Sciences has announced its finalists for the 13th Annual Interactive Achievement Awards ("The 'Racties" -- we're kidding but that's what they should be called), and, as you might have guessed, award hog Uncharted 2: Among Thieves leads the pack with 15 nominations. The rest of the nominees include more of the usual suspects from 2009: Assassin's Creed II with 10 noms, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 with nine and Batman: Arkham Asylum with eight. This year's awards also features three new categories, including Outstanding Achievement in Game Design and Portable and Social Networking Games of the Year.

You can find a list of selected categories and their nominees after the break, or check out the Academy's full list in PDF form. The awards will be given out at the DICE Summit on February 18 in Las Vegas, where Activision's Bobby Kotick is scheduled to keynote. We can only guess that he'll go all Kanye on the podium if Modern Warfare 2 doesn't win.

A BBFC classification for a "Game of the Year" edition of Batman: Arkham Asylum has popped up online, causing quite a stir here at Joystiq HQ. While we all agree that Batman was "a game of the year," the listing offers no clues as to what would be included in a GOTY package. So, allow us to activate detective mode:

First, there are the two DLC packs for the game to consider: the "Insane Night" Map Pack (free for everyone) and "Prey In The Darkness," available on PS3 in the US and on both PS3 and Xbox 360 in Europe. Also, those who pre-ordered the original release from GameStop received access to the challenge map "Dem Bones," while those that snagged the fancy Collector's Edition got their own unique challenge map in "Crime Alley" -- both could certainly be included in a special edition re-release. Considering all the DLC out there (but c'mon, we want more Rocksteady!), there's a valid GOTY edition in the making here. And how about a batarang upgrade, too? (That cheap plastic one just didn't cut it.)

We've turned on our 'stiq signal in the hopes of attracting Warner Bros., Eidos and Rocksteady for clarification. We'll let you know just as soon as they show up on our rooftop.

[Thanks, C.A.]

Mark Hamill has made a name for himself over the years with his game work, with high-profile roles in games like Full Throttle and Wing Commander 3. Not to mention his legendary performance as the Joker in Batman: The Animated Series, which he reprised for Arkham Asylum. But Mark Hamill already had a name, and it was "Luke Skywalker."

An interview with CVG suggests that the move was intentional. Hamill described the attitudes he faced when he started working in games. "I'm sure there's a range of opinions, from 'You're slumming it', or 'Can't you get more legitimate work?'," he said. "But that snobbishness comes with the business." He relished the opportunity to merge his animation and game careers with a return to Joker's smarmy mania. "I thought this will be one last chance to play Joker. And it was so much fun to play a character who is clearly insane."

Here's a surprise: the reason Hamill hasn't performed Luke Skywalker's voice in one of about a million Star Wars games isn't because he's not interested in reprising the role (though he isn't): nobody ever asked him to. How has that never happened? So many games have been made based on the three movies that an established video game voice actor starred in, and it just never came up?

What happens when you combine the potent Batman license, the rich backdrop of Arkham Asylum, the stellar voice-cast from Batman: The Animated Series, an unproven (and even more unknown) developer from the North London suburb of Highgate, and a once-great but down-on-its-luck publisher? The very first comment on our very first post no doubt reflected many of our concerns: "Eidos? Really?" With dozens of shoddy licensed superhero games coming before it, we all knew a video game deserving of Batman's popularity was unlikely.

So it's all the more impressive that Rocksteady's Batman: Arkham Asylum is one of the best games of the year, one of the best superhero games of all time, and one of the best licensed games ever made. With the failure of Pandemic's ambitious Dark Knight movie tie-in game still fresh in our minds, Arkham Asylum's strategy for success should have been obvious: simplicity. Instead of building an open-world Gotham City, they built an intimate (and immediately captivating) Arkham Asylum, as full of history and lore as you'd expect the comic book icon to be. There are no driving levels, no flying levels; really, there aren't any levels at all. Just Arkham Island.

The clever script, penned by longtime Batman scribe Paul Dini, propels Batman through a series of elaborate traps laid out by Mark Hamill's expertly voiced Joker, battling beefy baddies along the way with the game's excellent "FreeFlow" combat system, solving dozens of the Riddler's pesky riddles, and learning about the entire decades-deep mythology of the Batman universe, worn into every rock on Arkham Island. This isn't some licensed beat-em-up starring The World's Greatest Detective; this is a Batman simulator. Stealth, strength, and smarts (and a belt full of wonderful toys) are your tools.

Perhaps the greatest compliment one can pay to Rocksteady is this: it reached into the oft-abused Batman license, brushed off our lowered expectations, and pulled out a classic that doesn't simply trade on Batman's name but does something far more difficult: enhances it.