How a company earns awards for games that are not yet released to the general public is a mystery to everyone, though if you can trust the critics you might be happy to hear that Nintendo's Wii earned "best of show" recently, among lots of other praise from critics during it's time in the showcase. On top of raving about the new controller design that is perhaps the most unique one to hit the market since the video game console game out, they were also very excited about the release of "Spore", a game from EA that Will Wright, from The Sims, designed.
With lower R&D required for games on the Wii (supposedly) and various other titles for the Wii getting acclaim, Nintendo must be feeling pretty good about their decision to take their time in development. Now it's a question of availability, and how well people receive it.