The winners of the British Academy Games Awards have been announced at the ceremony hosted by Dara O’Briain at Tobacco Dock, London, on Thursday 7 April 2016.
- Fallout 4 wins Best Game
- Everybody’s Gone to the Rapture, Her Story and Rocket League each win three BAFTAs
- SMITE wins AMD eSports Audience Award
- John Carmack presented with Fellowship
The winners of tonight’s British Academy Games Awards, celebrating the very best in games of the past year, have been announced. The ceremony was hosted by Dara O’Briain at Tobacco Dock, London where presenters included Benjamin O’Mahoney, Ali A, Julia Hardy, Syndicate Project, Amy Williams, Greg Rice and Paul Chaloner.
Fallout 4 – the action role-playing game developed by Bethesda Game Studios – won Best Game. This is the first win for the series which has been BAFTA nominated six times.
Everybody’s Gone to the Rapture, the story-based game that takes place in a small English village whose inhabitants have mysteriously disappeared, took home three BAFTAs: Audio Achievement, Performer for Merle Dandridge as Kate Collins, and Music for the haunting score composed by Jessica Curry.
Sam Barlow collected three awards for Her Story, a novel piece of interactive fiction. The game is Barlow’s first project as an independent developer and won in the Debut Game, Game Innovation and Mobile & Handheld categories.
Futuristic sports-action game Rocket League fought off strong competition across three categories to win BAFTAs for Family Game, Multiplayer and Sport.
Anime-inspired Ori and the Blind Forest won the BAFTA for Artistic Achievement. Batman: Arkham Knight, the fourth installment in the multi-BAFTA-winning Batman: Arkham series, collected the award for British Game, while the Gothic-inspired action role-playing game, Bloodborne, won the Game Design category.
Interactive survival horror title Until Dawn picked up the BAFTA for Original Property, while Prison Architect, a construction and management sim where the player takes control of their own prison, won the Persistent Game award. The BAFTA for Story was won by Life is Strange, an episodic adventure that set out to revolutionise story-based choice and consequence games.
The AMD eSports Audience Award was won by SMITE, seeing off competition from Call of Duty: Black Ops 3, Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, Dota 2, Hearthstone: Heroes of Warcraft and League of Legends.
Showcasing the best in young games development and design talent, the BAFTA Ones to Watch Award in association with Dare to be Digital was won by SUNDOWN, a multiplayer stealth game created by a team of student developers from the US.
The Fellowship the highest accolade the Academy can bestow was presented to John Carmack, a leading figure within computer and game engineering and one of the pioneers of 3D graphics, for his outstanding and exceptional creative contribution to the industry.
Here’s the summary of winners:
- Music: Everybody’s Gone to the Rapture
- Best British Game: Batman: Arkham Knight
- Artistic Achievement: Ori and the Blind Forest
- Audio Achievement: Everybody’s Gone to the Rapture
- Debut Game: Her Story
- Family: Rocket League
- Game Innovation: Her Story
- Ones to Watch: Sundown
- Original Property: Until Dawn
- Game Design: Bloodborne
- AMD Esports Audience Award: Smite
- Mobile & Handheld: Her Story
- Multiplayer: Rocket League
- Story: Life is Strange
- Persistent Game: Prison Architect
- Sport: Rocket League
- Best Performer: Merle Dandridge – Everybody’s Gone to the Rapture
- Best Game: Fallout 4
- BAFTA Fellowship Award: John Carmack
The ceremony was streamed live at Twitch.tv. BAFTA’s website, www.bafta.org, features red carpet highlights, photography and winners’ interviews, and dedicated coverage is available on social networks including Facebook (/BAFTA), Twitter (@BAFTAGames / #BAFTAGames), and Tumblr.
