BAFTA has announced the nominations for the 2020 British Academy Games Awards — the Academy’s annual celebration of the very best in games in 2019. The nominations highlight an outstanding level of creative excellence from a broad range of U.K. and international development teams.
Control and Death Stranding both received 11 nominations — the highest number of nods for a game in the history of the Awards (since 2004). Disco Elysium, the debut release from ZA/UM, follows with seven. Call of Duty: Modern Warfare, Life Is Strange 2 (episodes 2-5) and Outer Wilds each got five; Knights and Bikes and Untitled Goose Game received four nominations each; and Wattam got three.
This year’s Awards introduce several new categories: Animation, Technical Achievement, Performer in a Leading Role and Performer in a Supporting Role.
Hideo Kojima, creator of Death Stranding, will receive the Fellowship — the highest accolade bestowed by BAFTA.
Public voting is now open for the EE Mobile Game of the Year.
The Awards will be hosted by Irish comedian Dara Ó Briain (Mock the Week) and will take place on Thursday, April 2 at the Queen Elizabeth Hall on London’s Southbank as part of the London Games Festival (March 26-April 6) The Awards, including a red carpet show, will be live streamed on BAFTA’s Facebook, Twitch, Twitter and YouTube channels — see www.bafta.org/games/howtowatch for more information.
A select list of category nominees follows; the full list is available online.
ANIMATION
CALL OF DUTY: MODERN WARFARE Development Team – Infinity Ward/Activision
CONTROL Development Team – Remedy Entertainment/505 Games
DEATH STRANDING Development Team – Kojima Productions/Sony Interactive Entertainment Europe
LUIGI’S MANSION 3 Development Team – Next Level Games/Nintendo
SAYONARA WILD HEARTS Development Team – Simogo/Annapurna Interactive
SEKIRO: SHADOWS DIE TWICE Development Team – FromSoftware/Activision
ARTISTIC ACHIEVEMENT
CONCRETE GENIE Development Team – Pixelopus/Sony Interactive Entertainment Europe
CONTROL Development Team – Remedy Entertainment/505 Games
DEATH STRANDING Development Team – Kojima Productions/Sony Interactive Entertainment Europe
DISCO ELYSIUM Development Team – ZA/UM
KNIGHTS AND BIKES Rex Crowle, Moo Yu, Kenneth C M Young – Foam Sword/Double Fine Presents
SAYONARA WILD HEARTS Development Team – Simogo/Annapurna Interactive
TECHNICAL ACHIEVEMENT
A PLAGUE TALE: INNOCENCE Development Team – Asobo Studio/ Focus Home Interactive
CALL OF DUTY: MODERN WARFARE Development Team – Infinity Ward/Activision
CONTROL Development Team – Remedy Entertainment/505 Games
DEATH STRANDING Development Team – Kojima Productions/Sony Interactive Entertainment Europe
METRO EXODUS Development Team – 4A Games/Deep Silver
SEKIRO: SHADOWS DIE TWICE Development Team – FromSoftware/Activision
BEST GAME
CONTROL Development Team – Remedy Entertainment/505 Games
DISCO ELYSIUM Development Team – ZA/UM
LUIGI’S MANSION 3 Development Team – Next Level Games/Nintendo
OUTER WILDS Development Team – Mobius Digital/Annapurna Interactive
SEKIRO: SHADOWS DIE TWICE Development Team – FromSoftware/Activision
UNTITLED GOOSE GAME Development Team – House House/Panic
BRITISH GAME
DiRT RALLY 2.0 Development Team – Codemasters/Codemasters
HEAVEN’S VAULT Joseph Humfrey, Jon Ingold, Laura Dilloway – inkle/inkle
KNIGHTS AND BIKES Rex Crowle, Moo Yu, Kenneth C M Young – Foam Sword/Double Fine Presents
OBSERVATION Development Team – No Code/Devolver Digital
PLANET ZOO Development Team – Frontier Developments/Frontier Developments
TOTAL WAR: THREE KINGDOMS Development Team – The Creative Assembly/SEGA
DEBUT GAME
APE OUT Gabe Cuzzillo, Matt Boch, Bennett Foddy – Gabe Cuzzillo, Matt Boch, Bennett Foddy/Devolver Digital
DEATH STRANDING Development Team – Kojima Productions/Sony Interactive Entertainment Europe
DISCO ELYSIUM Development Team – ZA/UM/ZA/UM
KATANA ZERO Justin Stander – Askiisoft/Devolver Digital
KNIGHTS AND BIKES Rex Crowle, Moo Yu, Kenneth C M Young – Foam Sword/Double Fine Presents
MANIFOLD GARDEN Development Team – William Chyr Studio/William Chyr Studio
FAMILY
CONCRETE GENIE Development Team – Pixelopus/Sony Interactive Entertainment Europe
KNIGHTS AND BIKES Rex Crowle, Moo Yu, Kenneth C M Young – Foam Sword/Double Fine Presents
LUIGI’S MANSION 3 Development Team – Next Level Games/Nintendo
UNTITLED GOOSE GAME Development Team – House House/Panic
VACATION SIMULATOR Development Team – Owlchemy Labs/ Owlchemy Labs
WATTAM Development Team – Funomena/Annapurna Interactive
The Awards are supported by BAFTA’s official games partners Activision-Blizzard, Electronic Arts, PlayStation, SEGA Europe LTD, Tencent Games and Ubisoft Entertainment, with EE sponsoring the only award voted for by the public.
Tickets to the Awards are now available to buy at tickets.bafta.org (for the industry) and www.bafta.org/whats-on/bafta-games-awards-2020-public-tickets (for the general public).
