BAFTA Games Awards Nominees Announced

Highlights

Baldur’s Gate 3 leads BAFTA nominations with 10 nods.
Year 2023 brought hits like Hi-Fi Rush and Tears of the Kingdom, shaking up the gaming world.

The British Academy of Film and Television Arts, commonly known as BAFTA, has revealed the nominations for the 2024 ceremony, with Baldur’s Gate 3 unsurprisingly leading the way. This year marks the 20th annual BAFTA Games Awards, a night that many will hope to be a celebratory silver lining after a particularly troubling 18 months of studio closures and layoffs.

For the vast majority of gamers, 2023 was a remarkable year. A combination of pandemic-related delays, surprise announcements, and unexpected successes all culminated to offer one of the most stacked and impressive yearly releases schedules in recent history. The trend began in January with the simultaneous announcement and release of Tango Gameworks’ Hi-Fi Rush, which has picked up 5 BAFTA nominations, the most for any Xbox game released last year. May’s Tears of the Kingdom was a safe bet for Game of the Year, but the security of that gamble was brought into question by Baldur’s Gate 3, which came out of early access a month earlier than expected and soared to one of Steam’s highest ever concurrent player counts. Critical darling Alan Wake 2, alongside the incredibly popular Marvel’s Spider-Man 2, kept the seemingly endless cycle of quality video games going further into the year.

Every BAFTA Game Of The Year Winner

Since 2004, BAFTA has been awarding various honors to select video games, including the prestigious Game of the Year award.

Baldur’s Gate 3, Spider-Man 2, and Alan Wake 2 lead total nominations with 10, 9, and 8 respectively. Hosted by Lucy James, a senior video producer at GameSpot, the forty-minute nomination presentation began with an explicit disclaimer about how challenging working in the video games industry currently is. James addressed those “affected by recent studio closures, project cancelations, redundancies,” promising that they are “in our thoughts today.” It is in stark contrast to The Game Awards, which took place last December and was criticized for not acknowledging a year of constant layoffs. Geoff Keighley’s Game Awards also drew ire for rushing developers off the stage, forcing winners to share their speeches after the fact on social media.

Judging by prior shows, it would not be unreasonable to assume Baldur’s Gate 3 will come away with the top prize. However, the BAFTAs have been known to steer away from the wave of public opinion, demonstrated last year when Vampire Survivors beat out Elden Ring and God of War Ragnarok to win Best Game. Although BAFTAs are decided by the organization’s membership and selected figures, there is one award that allows the public to have their say.

The EE Players’ Choice Award nominees are Baldur’s Gate 3, Cyberpunk 2077, Fortnite, Lethal Company, Marvel’s Spider-Man 2, and The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom. Voting is open now and will remain so until April 8, with the winners announced on April 11. Baldur’s Gate 3‘s passionate community has seen it come out of various fan-voted awards victorious, but some will be hoping for indie Lethal Company to take home the prize after it dominated streaming and multiplayer gaming towards the end of last year. Lethal Company quickly became Steam’s top-rated game when it was released into early access.

BAFTA Game Award Nominations 2024

ANIMATION

ALAN WAKE 2 Development Team – Remedy Entertainment Plc./Epic Games
HI-FI RUSH Development Team – Tango Gameworks/Bethesda Softworks
HOGWARTS LEGACY Development Team – Avalanche Software/Warner Bros. Games
MARVEL’S SPIDER-MAN 2 Development Team – Insomniac Games/Sony Interactive Entertainment
STAR WARS JEDI: SURVIVOR Nathan Dunlap, David Nam, Thomas Cannell – Respawn Entertainment/Electronic Arts
SUPER MARIO BROS. WONDER Development Team – Nintendo EPD/Nintendo

ARTISTIC ACHIEVEMENT

ALAN WAKE 2 Development Team – Remedy Entertainment Plc./Epic Games
BALDUR’S GATE 3 Development Team – Larian Studio/Larian Studio
COCOON Development Team – Geometric Interactive/Annapurna Interactive
DIABLO IV Development Team – Blizzard Entertainment/Blizzard Entertainment
FINAL FANTASY XVI Hiroshi Minagawa, Kazuya Takahashi, Naoki Kurihara – SQUARE ENIX – Creative Business Unit III/SQUARE ENIX
HI-FI RUSH Development Team – Tango Gameworks/Bethesda Softworks

AUDIO ACHIEVEMENT

ALAN WAKE 2 Development Team – Remedy Entertainment Plc./Epic Games
CALL OF DUTY: MODERN WARFARE III Matt Grimm, Eric Wedemeyer, Robbie Elias – Sledgehammer Games/Activision
HI-FI RUSH Development Team – Tango Gameworks/Bethesda Softworks
THE LEGEND OF ZELDA: TEARS OF THE KINGDOM Development Team – Nintendo EPD/Nintendo
MARVEL’S SPIDER-MAN 2 Development Team – Insomniac Games/Sony Interactive Entertainment
STAR WARS JEDI: SURVIVOR Development Team – Respawn Entertainment/Electronic Arts

BEST GAME

ALAN WAKE 2 Development Team – Remedy Entertainment Plc./Epic Games
BALDUR’S GATE 3 Development Team – Larian Studio/Larian Studio
DAVE THE DIVER Development Team – MINTROCKET/MINTROCKET
THE LEGEND OF ZELDA: TEARS OF THE KINGDOM Development Team – Nintendo EPD/Nintendo
MARVEL’S SPIDER-MAN 2 Development Team – Insomniac Games/Sony Interactive Entertainment
SUPER MARIO BROS. WONDER Development Team – Nintendo EPD/Nintendo

BRITISH GAME

CASSETTE BEASTS Development Team – Bytten Studio/Raw Fury
DEAD ISLAND 2 Development Team – Dambuster Studios/PLAION
DISNEY ILLUSION ISLAND Development Team – Dlala Studios/Disney
FOOTBALL MANAGER 2024 Development Team – Sports Interactive/SEGA Europe
VIEWFINDER Development Team – Sad Owl Studios/Thunderful Publishing
WARHAMMER AGE OF SIGMAR: REALMS OF RUIN Development Team – Frontier Developments/Frontier Developments

DEBUT GAME

COCOON Development Team – Geometric Interactive/Annapurna Interactive
DAVE THE DIVER Development Team – MINTROCKET/MINTROCKET
DREDGE Development Team – Black Salt Games/Team17 Digital
STRAY GODS: THE ROLEPLAYING MUSICAL Development Team – Summerfall Studios/Humble Games
VENBA Abhijeeth Swaminathan, Sam Elkana, Shahrin Khan – Visai Games/Visai Games
VIEWFINDER Development Team – Sad Owl Studios/Thunderful Publishing

EVOLVING GAME

CYBERPUNK 2077 Development Team – CD PROJEKT RED/CD PROJEKT RED
FINAL FANTASY XIV ONLINE Development Team – Creative Business Unit III/Square Enix
FORTNITE Development Team – Epic Games/Epic Games
FORZA HORIZON 5 Development Team – Playground Games/Xbox Game Studios
GENSHIN IMPACT Development Team – HoYoverse/HoYoverse
NO MAN’S SKY Development Team – Hello Games/Hello Games

FAMILY

COCOON Development Team – Geometric Interactive/Annapurna Interactive
DAVE THE DIVER Development Team – MINTROCKET/MINTROCKET
DISNEY ILLUSION ISLAND Development Team – Dlala Studios/Disney
HI-FI RUSH Development Team – Tango Gameworks/Bethesda Softworks
HOGWARTS LEGACY Development Team – Avalanche Software/Warner Bros. Games
SUPER MARIO BROS. WONDER Development Team – Nintendo EPD/Nintendo

GAME BEYOND ENTERTAINMENT

CHANTS OF SENNAAR Julien Moya, Thomas Panuel – Rundisc/Focus Entertainment
GOODBYE VOLCANO HIGH Development Team – KO_OP/KO_OP
TCHIA Phil Crifo, Marilou Lopez-Aguilera, Thoanë Thomadra – Awaceb/Kepler Interactive
TERRA NIL Development Team – Free Lives/Devolver Digital
THIRSTY SUITORS Development Team – Outerloop Games/Annapurna Interactive
VENBA Abhijeeth Swaminathan, Sam Elkana, Shahrin Khan – Visai Games/Visai Games

GAME DESIGN

COCOON Development Team – Geometric Interactive/Annapurna Interactive
DAVE THE DIVER Development Team – MINTROCKET/MINTROCKET
DREDGE Joel Mason, Alex Ritchie, Nadia Thorn – Black Salt Games/Team17 Digital
THE LEGEND OF ZELDA: TEARS OF THE KINGDOM Development Team – Nintendo EPD/Nintendo
MARVEL’S SPIDER-MAN 2 Development Team – Insomniac Games/Sony Interactive Entertainment
VIEWFINDER Development Team – Sad Owl Studios/Thunderful Publishing

MULTIPLAYER

BALDUR’S GATE 3 Development Team – Larian Studio/Larian Studio
CALL OF DUTY: MODERN WARFARE III Development Team – Sledgehammer Games/Activision
DIABLO IV Development Team – Blizzard Entertainment/Blizzard Entertainment
FORZA MOTORSPORT Development Team – Turn 10 Studios/Xbox Game Studios
PARTY ANIMALS Development Team – Recreate Games/Source Technology
SUPER MARIO BROS. WONDER Development Team – Nintendo EPD/Nintendo

MUSIC

ALAN WAKE 2 Development Team – Remedy Entertainment Plc./Epic Games
ASSASSIN’S CREED MIRAGE Development Team – Ubisoft/Ubisoft
BALDUR’S GATE 3 Borislav Slavov – Larian Studio/Larian Studio
THE LEGEND OF ZELDA: TEARS OF THE KINGDOM Development Team – Nintendo EPD/Nintendo
MARVEL’S SPIDER-MAN 2 John Paesano, Scott Hanau, Keith Leary – Insomniac Games/Sony Interactive Entertainment
STAR WARS JEDI: SURVIVOR Gordy Haab, Stephen Barton – Respawn Entertainment/Electronic Arts

NARRATIVE

ALAN WAKE 2 Development Team – Remedy Entertainment Plc./Epic Games
BALDUR’S GATE 3 Development Team – Larian Studio/Larian Studio
DREDGE Joel Mason, Alex Ritchie, Nadia Thorne – Black Salt Games/Team17 Digital
FINAL FANTASY XVI Kazutoyo Maehiro, Michael-Christopher Koji Fox – SQUARE ENIX – Creative Business Unit III/SQUARE ENIX
THE LEGEND OF ZELDA: TEARS OF THE KINGDOM Development Team – Nintendo EPD/Nintendo
STAR WARS JEDI: SURVIVOR Stig Asmussen, Aaron Contreras, Dori Arazi – Respawn Entertainment/Electronic Arts

NEW INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY

CHANTS OF SENNAAR Julien Moya, Thomas Panuel – Rundisc/Focus Entertainment
DAVE THE DIVER Development Team – MINTROCKET/MINTROCKET
DREDGE Development Team – Black Salt Games/Team17 Digital
HI-FI RUSH Development Team – Tango Gameworks/Bethesda Softworks
JUSANT Development Team – DON’T NOD/DON’T NOD
VIEWFINDER Development Team – Sad Owl Studios/Thunderful Publishing

PERFORMER IN A LEADING ROLE

AMELIA TYLER as Narrator in Baldur’s Gate 3
CAMERON MONAGHAN as Cal Kestis in Star Wars Jedi: Survivor
NADJI JETER as Miles Morales in Marvel’s Spider-Man 2
NEIL NEWBON as Astarion in Baldur’s Gate 3
SAMANTHA Béart as Karlach in Baldur’s Gate 3
YURI LOWENTHAL as Peter Parker in Marvel’s Spider-Man 2

PERFORMER IN A SUPPORTING ROLE

ANDREW WINCOTT as Raphael in Baldur’s Gate 3
DEBRA WILSON as Cere Junda in Star Wars Jedi: Survivor
RALPH INESON as Cidolfus “Cid” Telamon in Final Fantasy XVI
SAM LAKE as Alex Casey in Alan Wake 2
TONY TODD as Venom in Marvel’s Spider-Man 2
TRACY WILES as Jaheira in Baldur’s Gate 3

TECHNICAL ACHIEVEMENT

ALAN WAKE 2 Development Team – Remedy Entertainment Plc./Epic Games
FINAL FANTASY XVI Ryota Suzuki, Yasuhiro Yanamoto, Kei Honda – SQUARE ENIX – Creative Business Unit III/SQUARE ENIX
HORIZON CALL OF THE MOUNTAIN Development Team – Guerrilla and Firesprite/Sony Interactive Entertainment
THE LEGEND OF ZELDA: TEARS OF THE KINGDOM Development Team – Nintendo EPD/Nintendo
MARVEL’S SPIDER-MAN 2 Development Team – Insomniac Games/Sony Interactive Entertainment
STARFIELD Development Team – Bethesda Game Studios/Bethesda Softworks

EE PLAYERS’ CHOICE AWARD (voted for by the public)