And the top five PSN downloads were...

Sony's annual PlayStation Awards recipient list rarely contains surprises. The awards are handed out based off sales, and since we know the sales figures for most games in advance, it's easy to figure out which games will walk away with the Platinum (sales of 1 to 2 million) and Gold (sales of 500,000 to 1 million) prizes.

This year's awards were no different, when it comes to retail games at least. Announced by Sony today, the sole Platinum winner was the PSP the Best budget version of Monster Hunter Portable 2nd G (Capcom, PSP). Gold winners included Yakuza 3 (Sega, PS3), Resident Evil 5 (Capcom, PS3), and Dissidia Final Fantasy (Square Enix).

Looks like downloaders took a liking to Sony's unique trash-themed puzzle game, Gomibako.

Sony added a new section to the awards this year, providing a chance at some rare insight into its PSN download business. The company awarded "PlayStation Store Special Award 2009" awards to the top five downloaded games on the network.

And the winners are:

• Gomibako (Sony, PS3)
• Minna de Spelunker (Irem, PS3)
• Misato Katsuragi's Reporting Plan (Namco Bandai, PS3)
• Bomberman Ultra (Hudson, PS3)
• Battlefield 1943 (Electronic Arts, PS3)

The above list is ordered by release date, as listed in Sony's press release.

The download award covered just new PS3 and PSP titles released between November 1, 2008 and October 31, 2009. Game Archive games were excluded.