The nominees for this year’s Bafta Games Awards have been announced, with God of War Ragnarök and Stray leading the field. This will be the 19th year that Bafta has honoured the work of the games industry with an awards ceremony, which will be held on 30 March.
Sony’s PlayStation 5 big-hitters God of War Ragnarök and Horizon Forbidden West are prominent, nominated in 11 and 6 categories respectively. Stray, a French game about a cat stuck in an underground robot settlement, is up for nine awards, and FromSoftware’s 20m-selling open-world masterpiece Elden Ring is up for eight. Tunic, a homage to classic adventure games, is in with a chance at five awards.
In total, 45 games have received recognition across all the award categories – many of them debut games, and many from developers who have not been nominated before. The coveted best game trophy will go to either blockbuster action game God of War, surprise Australian hit Cult of the Lamb, compulsive card-battling game Marvel Snap, the austere and vast Elden Ring, cyberpunk feline adventure Stray, or Vampire Survivors, a deceptively simple, wildly absorbing arcade shooter from first-time game developer Luca Galante.
Several nominees in the “game beyond entertainment” category have an environmentalist theme, including Endling; a game about seeing the Earth through the eyes of the last remaining fox after humanity has ransacked it, and Gibbon: Beyond the Trees, about the destruction of wild habitats. In the best performer categories, God of War Ragnarök’s actors are nominated six times, with Christopher Judge (Kratos) and Sunny Suljic (Atreus) each nominated for their leading roles.
The game of the year award will be voted for by the public, with the rest of the awards judged by panels comprised of games industry veterans and Bafta’s membership. The awards will take place at Queen Elizabeth Hall in London and be streamed online via Twitch on Thursday 30 March 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 & Kepler Interactive
Stray – BlueTwelve Studio/Annapurna Interactive
Artistic achievement
A Plague Tale Requiem – 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
Pentiment – Obsidian Entertainment/Xbox Game Studio
Tunic – Tunic Team/Finji
Audio achievement
A Plague Tale Requiem – 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
Stray – BlueTwelve Studio/Annapurna Interactive
Tunic – Tunic Team/Finji
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 Dinner Studios/Nuverse
Stray – BlueTwelve Studio/Annapurna Interactive
Vampire Survivors – poncle/poncle
British game
Citizen Sleeper – Jump Over the Age/Fellow Traveller
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 – Interior/Night/Xbox Game Studios
The Case of the Golden Idol – Color Gray Games/Playstack
Stray – BlueTwelve Studio/Annapurna Interactive
Trombone Champ – Holy Wow Studios/Holy Wow Studios
Tunic – Tunic Team/Finji
Vampire Survivors – poncle/poncle
Evolving game
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 – Playground Games/Xbox Game Studios
No Man’s Sky – Hello Games/Hello Games
Family
Disney Dreamlight Valley – Gameloft/Gameloft
Kirby and the Forgotten Land – Hal Laboratory/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
Citizen Sleeper – Jump Over the Age/Fellow Traveller
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 Broadcast – NotGames/tinyBuild
We’ll Always Have Paris – Cowleyfornia Studios/Cowleyfornia Studios
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 – Tunic Team/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
A Plague Tale Requiem – Asobo Studio/Focus Entertainment
Cuphead: The Delicious Last Course – Studio MDHR/Studio MDHR
Elden Ring – FromSoftware/Bandai Namco Europe
God of War Ragnarök – Santa Monica Studio/Sony Interactive Entertainment
Stray – BlueTwelve Studio/Annapurna Interactive
Tunic – Tunic Team/Finji
Narrative
A Plague Tale Requiem – Asobo Studio/Focus Entertainment
Citizen Sleeper – Jump Over the Age/Fellow Traveller
God of War Ragnarök – Santa Monica Studio/Sony Interactive Entertainment
Immortality – Half Mermaid Productions/Half Mermaid Productions
Pentiment – Obsidian Entertainment/Xbox Game Studio
Stray – BlueTwelve Studio/Annapurna Interactive
Original property
Citizen Sleeper – Jump Over the Age/Fellow Traveller
Cult of the Lamb – Massive Monster/Devolver Digital
Elden Ring – FromSoftware/Bandai Namco Europe
Sifu – Sloclap/Sloclap & Kepler Interactive
Stray – 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 Ragnarök
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 Ragnarök
Alison Jaye as Alva in Horizon Forbidden West
Charlotta Mohlin as The One in Immortality
Danielle Bisutti as Freya in God of War Ragnarök
Laya DeLeon Hayes as Angrboda in God of War Ragnarök
Ryan Hurst as Thor in God of War Ragnarök
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
Stray – BlueTwelve Studio/Annapurna Interactive
EE Game of the year (voted for 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 Dinner Studios/Nuverse
Stray – BlueTwelve Studio/Annapurna Interactive
