Summary
The British Academy of Film and Television Arts, commonly known asBAFTA, has revealed the nominations for the 2024 ceremony, withBaldur’s Gate 3unsurprisingly leading the way. This year marks the 20th annualBAFTA 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 andrelease of Tango Gameworks’Hi-Fi Rush, which has picked up 5 BAFTA nominations, the most for any Xbox game released last year. May’sTears of the Kingdomwas a safe bet for Game of the Year, but the security of that gamble was brought into question byBaldur’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 darlingAlan Wake 2, alongside the incredibly popularMarvel’s Spider-Man 2, kept the seemingly endless cycle of quality video games going further into the year.
Baldur’s Gate 3,Spider-Man 2, andAlan Wake 2lead 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’sGame Awards also drew ire for rushing developersoff the stage, forcing winners to share their speeches after the fact on social media.
Judging by prior shows, it would not be unreasonable to assumeBaldur’s Gate 3will come away with the top prize. However, the BAFTAs have been known to steer away from the wave of public opinion, demonstrated last year whenVampire Survivorsbeat outElden RingandGod of War Ragnarokto 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 areBaldur’s Gate 3,Cyberpunk 2077,Fortnite,Lethal Company,Marvel’s Spider-Man 2, andThe 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 indieLethal Companyto take home the prize after it dominated streaming and multiplayer gaming towards the end of last year.Lethal Companyquickly became Steam’s top-rated gamewhen it was released into early access.
EE PLAYERS' CHOICE AWARD (voted for by the public)
