Sacred 2 - Best International Game of 2008

IGN posts the news that Ascaron's Sacred 2:Fallen Angel has earned the developers and cdv software two awards, including Best International Game, and five nominations in the German Developer awards for 2008:

December 9, 2008 - cdv Software Entertainment USA and Ascaron Entertainment are pleased to announce that Sacred 2: Fallen Angel has earned two awards and five nominations in the prestigious German Developer awards for 2008. The action-RPG, currently available for Windows PC and set for a March 2009 release on next-generation consoles, took home awards for "Best German Action Game" and "Best International Game for 2008"at the prestigious European video game awards show, held in Essen, Germany. Sacred 2 was also nominated in five other categories, including:

• Best Game Design
• Best Story
• Best in-game graphics
• Best sound
• Best German Game of 2008

More information.

From what I’ve read Sacred 2 is average compared to its excellent predecessor. Why all these awards? Is there something I missed? I guess it's because it may be the best out of Germany -

I will assume very few games were produced in Germany this year.

This ties into this news http://www.rpgwatch.com/forums/showthread.php?t=5968 , because it's basically the same award, only that it contains of two parts, so to say :

1. elected by the industry
2. elected by the audience

Drakensang won the "audience award", Sacred the one of the industry.

The full list is this (untranslated) :

Fachpreiskategorien

Bestes Deutsches Spiel 2008
Crysis (PC) (Crytek GmbH)

Bestes Deutsches Jugendspiel 2008 - USK max. 12
Edna Bricht Aus (PC) (Daedalic Entertainment GmbH)

Bestes Deutsches Kinderspiel 2008 - USK 0-6
Frag doch mal… die Maus! (PC) (Outline Development)

Bestes Deutsches Konsolenspiel 2008
Panzer Tactics DS (Sproing Interactive Media GmbH)

Bester Soundtrack/In-Game Sound
Drakensang (PC) (Radon Labs GmbH)

Bestes Gamedesign
Crysis (PC) (Crytek GmbH)

Beste Story & Spielewelt
Drakensang (PC) (Radon Labs GmbH)

Beste InGame-Grafiken
Crysis / Crysis Warhead (PC) (Crytek GmbH)

Bestes Deutsches Browserspiel
Das schwarze Auge: Verschwörung in Ferdok (Chromatrix GmbH)

Jurykategorien

Spezialpreis der Jury
Hamburg @ Work: Achim Quinke / Stefan Klein
Das Team der GCDC: Frank Sliwka

Förderpreis der Jury
Chimera Entertainment

Studio of the Year 2008
Crytek GmbH

Ehrenpreis de Deutschen Entwicklerpreises
Malte Behrmann

Newcomer Award 2008
1. Platz: Somersault (Enter-Brain-Ment)
2. Platz: Blake White (Games Academy / Team: Plan B)
3. Platz: Blockball (Games Academy / Team: 4 minds)

Publikumspreisträger 2008

Bestes Deutsches Adventure
Edna Bricht Aus (PC) (Daedalic Entertainment GmbH)

Bestes Deutsches Rollenspiel
Drakensang (PC) (Radon Labs GmbH)

Bestes Deutsches Strategiespiel
Die Siedler - Aufbruch der Kulturen (PC) (Funatics Software GmbH)

Bestes Deutsches Sportspiel
Fußball Manager 2008 (PC) (Bright Future)

Bestes Deutsches Casual Game
Crazy Machines II - Add-On "Zurück in die Werkstatt" (PC) (FAKT Software GmbH)

Bestes Deutsches Actionspiel
Sacred 2 - Fallen Angel (PC/XBox 360/PS 3) (Ascaron Entertainment)

Bestes Deutsches Mobile Game 2008
Gothic 3 - The Beginning (Handy Games GmbH)

Bestes Internationales PC Spiel 2008
Sacred 2 - Fallen Angel (PC/XBox 360/PS 3) (Ascaron Entertainment)

Bestes Internationales Konsolenspiel
Grand Theft Auto IV (XBox 360/PS 3) (Rockstar North)

Originally Posted by Embolus
From what I’ve read Sacred 2 is average compared to its excellent predecessor.

There are others who think Sacred 2 is clearly better. Especially since the latest patch.

Why all these awards? Is there something I missed? I guess it's because it may be the best out of Germany -

This award is as irrelevant as 99% of all awards. Most of them were only created to have something to sell (reader's / viewer's choice …) or to give the allied companies something to brag about (industry awards). Most awards only exist for marketing. I'm not aware of a single exception in the games business.
Here CDV brags about Sacred 2, although all they do is move the boxes and do some regional publishing. And they're right to do so.