The nominees for this year’s Bafta Games Awards have been announced, with God of War Ragnarök and Stray leading the way. This will be the 19th year that Bafta has honored the work of the games industry with an awards ceremony, taking place on March 30.
Sony’s PlayStation 5 greatest hits God of War Ragnarök and Horizon Forbidden West are standouts, nominated in 11 and 6 categories respectively. Stray, a French game about a cat trapped in an underground robot settlement, is up for nine awards, and FromSoftware’s $20 million-selling open-world masterpiece Elden Ring is up for eight. A tribute to classic adventure games, Tunic has a chance to win five prizes.
In all, 45 games have received recognition across all award categories, many of them debut games and many from developers who haven’t been nominated before. The coveted best game trophy will go to the hit action game God of War, Australian surprise hit Cult of the Lamb, compulsive card battle game Marvel Snap, stark and vast Elden Ring, cyberpunk feline adventure Stray, or a Vampire Survivors, a deceptively simple and wildly immersive arcade shooter from first-time game developer Luca Galante.
Several nominees in the “game beyond entertainment” category have an environmental theme, including Endling; a game about seeing the Earth through the eyes of the last fox left after humanity has plundered it, and Gibbon: Beyond the Trees, about the destruction of wild habitats. In the Best Actor categories, the God of War Ragnarök actors are nominated six times, with Christopher Judge (Kratos) and Sunny Suljic (Atreus) each nominated for their lead roles.
The Game of the Year award will be voted on by the public, with the rest of the awards judged by panels made up of gaming industry veterans and Bafta members. The awards will take place at the Queen Elizabeth Hall in London and will be streamed online via Twitch on Thursday March 30 from 6:50pm BST.
The full list of nominations is as follows:
Animation
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare II – Infinity Ward/Activision Publishing
God of War Ragnarök – Santa Monica Studio/Sony Interactive Entertainment
Horizon Forbidden West – Guerrilla/Sony Interactive Entertainment
Lego Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga – TT Games/Warner Bros Interactive Entertainment
Sifu – Sloclap/Sloclap and Interactive Kepler
Street Map – BlueTwelve Studio/Annapurna Interactive
artistic achievement
Requiem from A Plague Tale – Asobo Studio/Focus Entertainment
Elden Ring – FromSoftware/Bandai Namco Europe
God of War Ragnarök – Santa Monica Studio/Sony Interactive Entertainment
Immortality – Half Mermaid Productions / Half Mermaid Productions
Pentimento – Obsidian Entertainment/Xbox Game Studio
Tunic – Team Tunic/Finji
audio achievement
Requiem from A Plague Tale – Asobo Studio/Focus Entertainment
God of War Ragnarök – Santa Monica Studio/Sony Interactive Entertainment
Horizon Forbidden West – Guerrilla/Sony Interactive Entertainment
Metal: Hellsinger – The Outsiders/Funcom Oslo
Street Map – BlueTwelve Studio/Annapurna Interactive
Tunic – Team Tunic/Finji
The best game
Cult of the Lamb – Massive Monster/Devolver Digital
Elden Ring – FromSoftware/Bandai Namco Europe
God of War Ragnarök – Santa Monica Studio/Sony Interactive Entertainment
Marvel Snap – Second Supper Studios/Nuverse
Street Map – BlueTwelve Studio/Annapurna Interactive
Vampire Survivors – poncle/poncle
british game
Sleeping Citizen – Leap Over The Threshold/Travel Companion
OlliOlli World – Roll7/Private Division
Rollerdrome – Roll7/Private Division
Total War: Warhammer III – Creative Assembly/Sega
Two Point Campus – Two Point Studios/Sega
Vampire Survivors – poncle/poncle
debut game
As Dusk Falls – Indoor/Night/Xbox Game Studios
The Case of the Golden Idol – Color Gray Games/Playstack
Street Map – BlueTwelve Studio/Annapurna Interactive
Trombone Champion – Holy Wow Studios/Holy Wow Studios
Tunic – Team Tunic/Finji
Vampire Survivors – poncle/poncle
game in evolution
Apex Legends – Respawn/Electronic Arts
Dreams – Media Molecule/Sony Interactive Entertainment
The Elder Scrolls Online – Zenimax Online Studios/Bethesda Softworks
Final Fantasy XIV Online – Creative Business Unit III/Square Enix
Forza Horizon 5 – Games Games/Xbox Game Studios
No Man’s Sky – Hello Games/Hello Games
Family
Disney Valley of Light Dreams – Gameloft/Gameloft
Kirby and the Forgotten Land – Hal Lab/Nintendo
Lego Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga – TT Games/Warner Bros Interactive Entertainment
Mario + Rabbids Sparks of Hope – Ubisoft Milan; Ubisoft Paris/Ubisoft
Nintendo Switch Sports – Nintendo EPD/Nintendo
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Shredder’s Revenge – Tribute Games/Dotemu
Game beyond entertainment
Sleeping Citizen – Leap Over The Threshold/Travel Companion
Endling: Extinction is Forever – Herobeat Studios/HandyGames
Gibbon: Beyond the Trees – Broken Rules/Broken Rules
I was a teenage exocolonist – Northway Games/Finji
Not for streaming – NotGames/tinyBuild
We will always have Paris – Cowleyfornia Studios/Cowleyfornia Studios
after newsletter promotion
game design
Cult of the Lamb – Massive Monster/Devolver Digital
Elden Ring – FromSoftware/Bandai Namco Europe
God of War Ragnarök – Santa Monica Studio/Sony Interactive Entertainment
Horizon Forbidden West – Guerrilla/Sony Interactive Entertainment
Tunic – Team Tunic/Finji
Vampire Survivors – poncle/poncle
multiplayer
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare II -Infinity WardActivision Publishing
Fifa 23 – EA Vancouver, EA Romania/EA Sports
Elden Ring – FromSoftware/Bandai Namco Europe
Overwatch 2 – Blizzard Entertainment/Blizzard Entertainment
Splatoon 3 – Nintendo/Nintendo
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Shredder’s Revenge – Tribute Games/Dotemu
Music
Requiem from A Plague Tale – Asobo Studio/Focus Entertainment
Cuphead: The Last Delicious Meal – Studio MDHR/Studio MDHR
Elden Ring – FromSoftware/Bandai Namco Europe
God of War Ragnarök – Santa Monica Studio/Sony Interactive Entertainment
Street Map – BlueTwelve Studio/Annapurna Interactive
Tunic – Team Tunic/Finji
Narrative
Requiem from A Plague Tale – Asobo Studio/Focus Entertainment
Sleeping Citizen – Leap Over The Threshold/Travel Companion
God of War Ragnarök – Santa Monica Studio/Sony Interactive Entertainment
Immortality – Half Mermaid Productions / Half Mermaid Productions
Pentimento – Obsidian Entertainment/Xbox Game Studio
Street Map – BlueTwelve Studio/Annapurna Interactive
original property
Sleeping Citizen – Leap Over The Threshold/Travel Companion
Cult of the Lamb – Massive Monster/Devolver Digital
Elden Ring – FromSoftware/Bandai Namco Europe
Sifu – Sloclap/Sloclap and Interactive Kepler
Street Map – BlueTwelve Studio/Annapurna Interactive
Vampire Survivors – poncle/poncle
Performer in a leading role
Alain Mesa as Alejandro Vargas in Call of Duty: Modern Warfare II
Charlotte McBurney as Amicia in A Plague Tale: Requiem
Christopher Judge as Kratos in God of War Ragnarok
Manon Gage as Marissa Marcel in Immortality
Siobhan Williams as Laura in The Quarry
Sunny Suljic as Atreus in God of War Ragnarök
Performer in a supporting role
Adam J Harrington as Sindri in God of War Ragnarok
Alison Jaye as Alva in Horizon Forbidden West
Charlotta Mohlin as The One with Immortality
Danielle Bisutti as Freya in God of War Ragnarok
Laya DeLeon Hayes as Angrboda in God of War Ragnarök
Ryan Hurst as Thor in God of War Ragnarok
technical achievement
Elden Ring – FromSoftware/Bandai Namco Europe
God of War Ragnarök – Santa Monica Studio/Sony Interactive Entertainment
Horizon Forbidden West – Guerrilla/Sony Interactive Entertainment
Immortality – Half Mermaid Productions / Half Mermaid Productions
The Last of Us Part I – Naughty Dog/Sony Interactive Entertainment
Street Map – BlueTwelve Studio/Annapurna Interactive
EE Game of the Year (voted on by the public)
Elden Ring – FromSoftware/Bandai Namco Europe
God of War Ragnarök – Santa Monica Studio/Sony Interactive Entertainment
Horizon Forbidden West – Guerrilla/Sony Interactive Entertainment
Immortality – Half Mermaid Productions / Half Mermaid Productions
Marvel Snap – Second Supper Studios/Nuverse
Street Map – BlueTwelve Studio/Annapurna Interactive
