Nominations Announced
Wii Sports leads the way with seven BAFTA nominations
London, 25 September 2007: The British Academy of Film and Television Arts today announced the nominations for The British Academy Video Games Awards in association with PC World. The Awards ceremony will reward the individuals behind the very best in artistic, creative and technical innovation in video games, and will be held at Battersea Evolution on 23 October.
Wii Sports which enables players to try their hand at a range of sports including baseball, tennis, boxing and golf received the highest nominations with seven, for Best Game, Casual, Gameplay, Innovation, Multiplayer, Sports and Strategy and Simulation. Crackdown, Gears of War, Okami and God of War 2 all secured five nominations each, while Guitar Hero II garnered four.
The nominations in the Best Game category exemplify the breadth of genres for players to enjoy today; from squad action and adventure in Kane and Lynch: Dead Men and Gears of War to battling mysterious undersea creatures in Bioshock, countering alien invasions in Crysis to rocking away in Guitar Hero II or enjoying a workout, playing Wii Sports.
In the Sports category, Colin McRae’s racing game Colin McRae: DiRT, is joined by the off-road rally racer MotorStorm, FIFA 08, Football Manager 2008, Wii Sports and Virtua Tennis 3.
In the Innovation category the nominations spanned the sensory experience of aquatic critters in flOw, the nature adventure game Okami, the quirky role-playing Super Paper Mario, the card battle game The Eye of Judgement, Trauma Center: Second Opinion, and Wii Sports.
This year’s nominations show the real diversity of today’s video games and their increasing appeal to both sexes and all ages, exemplified by the fact that the forty three different games nominated are rated 3+, 7, 12, 15, 16 & 18. This year’s categories have been fine-tuned to encapsulate the ingredients which contribute to making the video game one of the most exciting and engaging moving image art forms of today’s popular culture. The Academy will recognise excellence in Artistic Achievement, Technical Achievement, Gameplay, Innovation, Original Score, Use of Audio, and Story and Character as well as achievements in the genres of Action & Adventure, Casual, Multiplayer, Sports, Strategy & Simulation plus Best Game.
This year’s Awards will include the publicly-voted PC World Gamers Award and a new BAFTA Ones To Watch Award in association with Dare to be Digital. Online voting for the PC World Gamers Award will be live on October 3 at www.obsessedwithgames.co.uk
A FULL LIST OF ALL NOMINATIONS ACCOMPANIES THIS RELEASE
Notes to editors:
The Awards will be broadcast on both E4 and Channel 4’s T4 – date to be confirmed.
About BAFTA:
The British Academy of Film and Television Arts is the UK’s leading organisation dedicated to the recognition and promotion of excellence in the fields of the moving image. Renowned for its high profile Film & Television Awards ceremonies, the prestigious BAFTA mask has long been seen as a symbol of excellence.
About the judging process:
Games were entered by both developers and publishers into all the categories listed in this release and were initially whittled down by BAFTA games members and a carefully selected list of industry experts via a secure website.
The reduced list of titles for jury consideration was then divided into released titles and pre-release titles. The released titles were sent to jurors’ for them to play in their own homes. The pre-release titles were played on test units in a secure room at BAFTA by every juror over a period of some five weeks.
Once every juror had played every game, each category jury convened to create the 6 nominations in each category. The voting is done on paper by each juror, confidentiality papers are signed and the results in each category are not known until the envelope is opened on the night.