Restaurant City, FarmVille, Bejeweled Blitz nominated for 'Best New Social Game'

The nominees for the annual Game Developer's Choice Awards were announced today, and we were pleased to see that -- for the first time -- the honors will be extended to social games/free online games in a new category called "Best New Social/Online Game."

And the nominees are:

- Restaurant City (Playfish)

- FarmVille (Zynga)

- Bejeweled Blitz (PopCap)

- Dungeon Fighter Online (Neople Nexon)

- Free Realms (Sony Online Entertainment San Diego)

Winners are selected by a panel of judges (comprised of 500 game creators) and will be announced on March 11 at 6:30 p.m. during the 2010 Game Developers Conference in San Francisco.

We were also pleased to see PopCap's Plants Vs. Zombies also made the list -- several times -- for Best Downloadable Game, Innovation and Best Game Design. We also want to give a shout-out to Spider: The Secret of Bryce Manor for iPhone, which was nominated for Best Handheld Game. Good luck, everyone!