- Longlist announced 10 December 2024; nominations announced 4 March 2025
- Updates to eligibility and voting set out here
Following the success of the 20th BAFTA Games Awards earlier this year, BAFTA today opens entries for the 2025 edition, with key dates, updated eligibility criteria and voting rules confirmed today.
The BAFTA Games Awards celebrate the very best games of the past year and the talent who make them, and recognise the outstanding creativity and technical achievements of individuals and teams working in games every year.
Unlike other industry awards, the BAFTA Games Awards are voted for by an expert membership of over 1,200 experienced professionals and are watched by millions online. Content from the 20th BAFTA Games Awards on 11 April 2024 achieved three million views (and an additional 1.3 million views across the awards season), in a ceremony that saw Baldur’s Gate 3 take home four BAFTAs including Best Game, as well as the public-voted EE Players’ Choice Award.
A cross-industry BAFTA Games committee reviews the awards’ eligibility criteria, voting and campaigning rules annually to ensure they are robust and fair, and that they evolve with the ever-changing industry landscape. Key changes for 2025 include:
Voting
- A voting chapter made up of BAFTA voting members with craft experience in design roles will vote in the Game Design category in Round One. This category was previously voted on by the full BAFTA Games membership.
- A voting chapter made up of BAFTA voting members with craft experience in programming and technical roles will vote in the Technical Achievement category in Round One. This category was also previously voted on by the full BAFTA Games membership.
- All BAFTA Games members registered to vote in the BAFTA Games Awards will continue to vote in all other categories in Round One.
Entries
- Moving forwards, all eligible entered games will be automatically considered for Best Game and British Game – previously these were opt-in categories.
- British Game entrants will be required to answer a set of questions designed to address diversity & inclusion and bullying & harassment in the UK games industry. This work will support the BFI Diversity Standards for Games and build on BAFTA’s long-standing work to help tackle bullying and harassment across the screen industries, as part of our wider, ongoing collective cross-sector activity.
Categories
- The criteria for New Intellectual Property has been amended to take into consideration the originality and innovation of entered games.
- The criteria for Evolving Game has been amended. From 2024, only games with a roadmap for substantial future updates are eligible in this category.
The full rulebook and eligibility requirements for the 2025 awards can be found on BAFTA’s Awards entry website at awards.bafta.org/entry
Emma Baehr, BAFTA executive director of awards and content, said: “Having grown BAFTA’s games membership over recent years, we’re now able to introduce specialist ‘chapters’ of voters in two categories, Game Design and Technical Achievement. This means that BAFTA members with specific expertise in these areas can focus their voting here, in the first voting round, which gives every game the best chance of being recognised regardless of budget. As we move towards more specialist chapters for voting in the future, I encourage anyone with at least five years’ experience working in games to talk to us about joining.”
Tara Saunders, chair of the BAFTA Games Committee, said: “I am thrilled that entries are now open for the 2025 BAFTA Games Awards! Last year we celebrated the 20th year of the awards which saw the biggest names in games in attendance with red carpet and ceremony content receiving three million views online. This is incredible, and a real testament to the positive impact the BAFTA Game Awards have on the wider games industry, uniquely championing the art of games and the people who make them. The awards are voted for by our members who are all experts in the game industry with a deep understanding of their craft. With close to 260 entries last year, we strongly encourage everyone to register their games in the Awards within 30 days of their release, to allow more time for voters to discover and play as many of the entered games as possible ahead of voting.”
Key dates, announced today are as follows:
- 20 June 2024: Entries Open
- 7 November 2024: Entries Close
- 10 December 2024: Longlist revealed
- 4 March 2025: Nominations Announced
- Spring 2025: TBC Ceremony
Entry is open to all developers and publishers for games released between 25 November 2023 and 15 November 2024, with an entry deadline of 7 November 2024.
Entry Information
BAFTA is calling for all developers to register games into the Awards within 30 days of a game’s release. This allows BAFTA’s voting members – experts from all across the games industry – enough time to discover and play all games entered in the awards ahead of voting, levelling the playing field across a wide range of games.
Any developer, publisher or studio that has released a game since 25 November 2023 is encouraged to register it into the Awards by 20 July 2024 to benefit from half-price entry fees. The discounted rate is also available to entrants registering their games within 30 days of release in future.
Only basic details are required to register a game into the awards, within 30 days of release. Entry is half price (£200 + VAT) within that period. The standard entry fee is £400 +VAT. Full entry details will then need to be submitted by Thursday 7 November to finalise the entry.
