It might be March, but award season is not over yet. The British Academy of Film and Television Arts has announced the nominees for its 2023 BAFTA Games Awards.
Leading the pack are God of War Ragnarok and Stray, each with nine nominations including Best Game, Best Animation, and Best Narrative. However, God of War also boasts an impressive number of cast member nominations, with six of its performers nominated across two categories. This makes God of War the most-nominated game since the BAFTA Games Awards first began in 2004.
GameSpot’s own 2022 Game of the Year, Elden Ring, trails only slightly behind, with eight nominations across the award show’s 18 categories. Other notable nominees are Horizon Forbidden West, Tunic, Vampire Survivors, and A Plague Tale: Requiem, each with five nominations, and the psychological thriller Immortality with four.
The BAFTA Games Awards will take place Thursday, March 30 live at the Southbank Centre’s Queen Elizabeth Hall, and will be livestreamed exclusively on BAFTA’s Twitch channel starting at 9:50 AM PT /12:50 PM ET. Games and esports host Frankie Ward is slated to host the awards ceremony, with various Twitch streamers offering commentary on the official BAFTA Twitch channel.
In an exclusive interview with GameSpot, BAFTA CEO Jane Millichip and Chair of the Games Committee, Tara Saunders, stated this year’s awards are the results of a group of more than 1,000 BAFTA jurors and industry experts splitting into smaller panels to create a shortlist of which games made the biggest impact in 2022. These lists were then deliberated upon further until they narrowed it down to six nominees for each category. They also shared that this year’s jury is the most diverse yet, with over 40% of the jurors being women and over 30% coming from diverse backgrounds. Millichip stated the organization plans to only grow more inclusive, with its goal to grow these numbers even more by 2025.
“It’s fantastic to see such a broad and diverse range of games celebrated in this year’s BAFTA Games Awards nominations–with indie titles, mobile games and triple-A blockbusters all represented and competing across multiple categories,” Saunders said in a press release published earlier today. “I firmly believe that all these nominees represent the very best in their craft and, whether deep and meaningful or just good honest fun, show us just how essential games are in our lives, culture and society.”
Below is a list of all the nominees:
Technical Achievement
EE Game of the Year
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