- Asa Butterfield, Trixie Mattel, Abubakar Salim, Austin Creed, Hideo Kojima, LEAHviathan, Troy Baker and Austin Wintory were among the presenters
- The Last Of Us Part II won the publicly voted EE Game of The Year Award
- Siobhan Reddy honoured with the prestigious BAFTA Fellowship Award
A total of over 1.5 million viewers tuned in across the globe since Thursday 25th March to watch the 2021 British Academy Games Awards, followed by an After-Party streamed exclusively on Twitch Gaming. Over 917,000 viewers tuned into the ceremony, whilst over 647,000 people watched the After Party since they were streamed on Thursday. The format of this year’s show focused on the audience at home, highlighting the role that games play in our lives and how they have kept us all connected, entertained and inspired over the past year. The online live-stream ceremony was streamed on all major social platforms and is now available to watch on BAFTA’s Facebook, Twitch, Twitter, YouTube and Steam.
The ceremony was hosted by journalist and video games presenter Elle Osili-Wood - one of the most recognisable faces in gaming and a member of the BAFTA Games Committee. Elle has been named by GamesIndustry.biz as one of the UK’s most influential women in gaming and is a passionate advocate for the industry and the talent it represents. Discussing this year’s winners, Elle said: “most of us have struggled through a year of separation, uncertainty and loss and as such, a social collaborative industry, creating games over video calls and messaging services has been an immensely tough ask. Every single game that launched this year was a triumph. A testament to the resilience of our field and the importance of our craft.”
Presenters included the likes of Asa Butterfield, Trixie Mattel, Abubakar Salim, Austin Creed, Hideo Kojima, LEAHviathan, Troy Baker, Austin Wintory, amongst others.
Winners’ acceptance speeches were streamed live, with the winning games highlighting an outstanding level of creative excellence from a wide range of UK and international development teams. Hades won an impressive five awards, whilst Animal Crossing, Sackboy: A Big Adventure and The Last of Us Part II won two BAFTAs each. The Last of Us Part II also won the EE Game Of The Year Award. This is a new award introduced this year and was the only category to be voted for publicly by the global community.
Pete Jeavons, Director of Marketing Communications for EE, said: “This year’s show was a true celebration of gaming. The people have had their say, and it’s with great excitement we celebrate The Last of Us Part II who have taken away the first-ever EE Game of the Year Award. As the UK’s number one network for gaming, it has been brilliant working with BAFTA Games to share in the experiences of real-life gamers, like UK rapper Hardy Caprio in our latest EE Film Story, to highlight how gaming has kept us all connected, entertained and inspired throughout the past year.”
The digital show also featured a brilliant acceptance speech from Fellowship recipient, Siobhan Reddy. The Fellowship is BAFTA’s highest accolade bestowed upon an individual, spotlighting Siobhan’s creative contribution to the industry. Siobhan said: “Thank you for the motivation BAFTA and to anyone out there who's interested in joining in our amazing industry, please come along for the ride. It’s a wonderful, wonderful place where we get to take the dreams from our head and put them out on the screen.”
The BAFTA Games Awards ceremony was co-produced with ADVNCR. The Awards were supported by BAFTA’s official games partners Activision Blizzard, Electronic Arts, PlayStation, SEGA Europe LTD, Tencent Games and Ubisoft, with EE sponsoring the only award voted for by the public. The BAFTA Games Awards is part of the London Games Festival, running from 19 March to 28 March.
The ceremony was followed by the BAFTA Games Awards After Party streamed exclusively on Twitch Gaming. Aoife Wilson and Julia Hardy hosted the BAFTA Games Awards After Party and were joined by some of the winners and nominees, plus some special guests, to showcase some of the award-winning and nominated games.
Photography from the show and images are available at
https://bafta.thirdlight.com/link/BAFTAPressImages/
For further information, press enquiries and winners’ interview requests, please contact:
Izzy Baker | [email protected] | +447876 222 779
About BAFTA
The British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA) is a world-leading independent arts charity that brings the very best work in film, games and television to public attention and supports the growth of creative talent in the UK and internationally. Through its Awards ceremonies and year-round programme of learning events and initiatives – which includes workshops, masterclasses, scholarships, lectures and mentoring schemes in the UK, USA and Asia – BAFTA identifies and celebrates excellence, discovers, inspires and nurtures new talent, and enables learning and creative collaboration. For advice and inspiration from the best creative minds in working in film, games and television, visit www.bafta.org/guru. For more, visit www.bafta.org.
BAFTA curates a year-round global programme of events and initiatives that support the games industry. This includes developer talks, showcases, debates, scholarships and networking, as well as the flagship Games Lecture by an inspirational practitioner.
BAFTA Young Game Designers gives young people and educators insights into the industry and access to the brightest creative minds in games; BAFTA Crew Games is a network that connects practitioners working in the UK games industry and provides participants with a skills development programme; BAFTA Scholarships, which enable talented individuals to study a post-graduate course in games; and BAFTA Breakthrough Brits, which supports emerging stars of the games industry. Applications for BAFTA YGD are currently open.
