The 11th British Academy Video Games Awards ceremony, presented by the

British Academy of Film and Television Arts British may refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories, and Crown Dependencies. ** Britishness, the British identity and common culture * British English, ...

(BAFTA), honored video games of 2014 and took place on 12 March 2015 at the

Tobacco Dock Tobacco Dock is a Grade I listed warehouse located in the East London district of Wapping, and thereby the London Borough of Tower Hamlets. Part of the London Docks designed by Scottish civil engineer and architect John Rennie, the warehouse was ...

London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...

, beginning at 7:00pm (

GMT Greenwich Mean Time (GMT) is the mean solar time at the Royal Observatory in Greenwich, London, counted from midnight. At different times in the past, it has been calculated in different ways, including being calculated from noon; as a cons ...

). During the ceremony, BAFTA presented awards in 16 categories. The ceremony, broadcast live on streaming website

Twitch Twitch may refer to: Biology * Muscle contraction ** Convulsion, rapid and repeated muscle contraction and relaxation ** Fasciculation, a small, local, involuntary muscle contraction ** Myoclonic twitch, a jerk usually caused by sudden muscle con ...

, was hosted by comedian

Rufus Hound Rufus Hound (born Robert James Blair Simpson 6 March 1979) is an English actor, comedian and presenter. Early life Hound was born on 6 March 1979, in Essex and moved to Surrey at the age of seven. He was educated at Hoe Bridge School Woking ...

. ''

Monument Valley Monument Valley ( nv, Tsé Biiʼ Ndzisgaii, , meaning ''valley of the rocks'') is a region of the Colorado Plateau characterized by a cluster of sandstone buttes, the largest reaching above the valley floor. It is located on the Utah-Arizona s ...

'' and '' The Last of Us: Left Behind'' won two awards each, while ''

Destiny Destiny, sometimes referred to as fate (from Latin ''fatum'' "decree, prediction, destiny, fate"), is a predetermined course of events. It may be conceived as a predetermined future, whether in general or of an individual. Fate Although often ...

'' won the Best Game award. Other winners included '' Alien: Isolation'', ''

Far Cry 4 ''Far Cry 4'' is a 2014 First person shooter game, first-person shooter game developed by Ubisoft Montreal and published by Ubisoft. It is the successor to the 2012 video game ''Far Cry 3'', and the fourth main installment in the ''Far Cry'' se ...

'', '' Hearthstone: Heroes of Warcraft'', ''

League of Legends ''League of Legends'' (''LoL''), commonly referred to as ''League'', is a 2009 multiplayer online battle arena video game developed and published by Riot Games. Inspired by ''Defense of the Ancients'', a Mod (video games), custom map for War ...

'', ''

Lumino City ''Lumino City'' is a puzzle adventure video game developed and published by State of Play Games. The game was released for OS X and Windows in December 2014, for iOS in October 2015., and Android for 12 April 2017. It is a sequel to ''Lume''. ...

'', ''

Minecraft ''Minecraft'' is a sandbox game developed by Mojang Studios. The game was created by Markus "Notch" Persson in the Java programming language. Following several early private testing versions, it was first made public in May 2009 before being ...

'', '' Never Alone'', ''

OlliOlli ''OlliOlli'' is a side-scrolling skateboarding video game developed and published by Roll7. It was released for PlayStation Vita on 21 January 2014 in North America, and on 22 January 2014 in Europe. The game received a port for Microsoft Windo ...

'', ''

The Vanishing of Ethan Carter ''The Vanishing of Ethan Carter'' is a 2014 horror adventure video game developed and published by The Astronauts for Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 4, Xbox One and Nintendo Switch. Gameplay ''The Vanishing of Ethan Carter'' is set in an open ...

'' and '' Valiant Hearts: The Great War''.

Winners and nominees

The nominees for the 11th British Academy Video Games Awards were announced on 10 February 2015 at 10:30am (

). '' Alien: Isolation'' received the most nominations with six total; ''

'' and ''

'' tied for second with five nominations each, followed by '' 80 Days'', ''

'', ''

Mario Kart 8 is a 2014 kart racing game developed and published by Nintendo for the Wii U. It features the '' Mario Kart'' series' game mechanics, in which players drive go-karts using ''Mario'' franchise characters in various race formats. Items placed ...

'' and '' Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor'' with four each. The winners were announced during the awards ceremony on 12 March 2015. ''

'''s win for Best Game was the fourth BAFTA win for developer

Bungie Bungie, Inc. is an American video game company based in Bellevue, Washington. It is a studio owned by Sony Interactive Entertainment. The company was established in May 1991 by Alex Seropian, who later brought in programmer Jason Jones (progr ...

, but their first outside of the ''

Halo Halo, halos or haloes usually refer to: * Halo (optical phenomenon) * Halo (religious iconography), a ring of light around the image of a head HALO, halo, halos or haloes may also refer to: Arts and entertainment Video games * ''Halo'' (franch ...

'' series. Ashley Johnson won the award for Performer for the second consecutive year for her portrayal of

Ellie Ellie, or Elly, is a given name, usually feminine. The name stands on its own or can be a shortened form of any of the numerous female names beginning with the syllable El-, in particular Eleanor or Elizabeth and Elvira. It can also be a short fo ...

in '' The Last of Us: Left Behind''.

Awards

Winners are shown first in bold.

BAFTA Fellowship Award

David Braben David John Braben (born 2 January 1964) is a British video game developer and designer, founder and CEO of Frontier Developments, co-creator of the '' Elite'' series of space trading video games, first published in 1984. He is also a co-foun ...

BAFTA Ones to Watch Award

*''

Chambara , also commonly spelled "''chambara''", meaning "sword fighting" films,Hill (2002). denotes the Japanese film genre called samurai cinema in English and is roughly equivalent to Western and swashbuckler films. ''Chanbara'' is a sub-category of '' ...

'' – Overly Kinetic

Games with multiple nominations and wins

Nominations

Wins

Presenters and performers

The following individuals presented awards or performed musical numbers.

Presenters (in order of appearance)

Performers

Riva Taylor Rebecca Jane Grosvenor Taylor known professionally as Riva Taylor is an English singer, songwriter and performer. Career The Riva Taylor era began in 2014 when Taylor featured as a guest artist on the Video Games Live World Tour, performing h ...

was the only performer at the 11th British Academy Video Games Awards, performing "Earth to Earth", a song written specifically for the event, to open the ceremony.

Critical reviews

The ceremony received generally mixed to positive reception from media publications. Paul Tassi of American business magazine ''

Forbes ''Forbes'' () is an American business magazine owned by Integrated Whale Media Investments and the Forbes family. Published eight times a year, it features articles on finance, industry, investing, and marketing topics. ''Forbes'' also re ...

'' claimed that the British Academy Video Games Awards "might be isfavorite show worldwide right now", praising the "sheer breadth and diversity of their award categories, and what they choose to honor". Tassi went on to praise winning games such as ''

'' (Game Innovation) and ''

'' (Persistent Game). Oliver Cragg of newspaper ''

The Independent ''The Independent'' is a British online newspaper. It was established in 1986 as a national morning printed paper. Nicknamed the ''Indy'', it began as a broadsheet and changed to tabloid format in 2003. The last printed edition was publis ...

'' welcomed the strong presence of "creative indie titles" at the ceremony. A review written by GameCentral for newspaper ''

Metro Metro, short for metropolitan, may refer to: Geography * Metro (city), a city in Indonesia * A metropolitan area, the populated region including and surrounding an urban center Public transport * Rapid transit, a passenger railway in an urba ...

'', however, went as far as to state that "we’re not sure we agree with any of the awards, except for '' Alien Isolation'' and

", criticising "nonsense" such as a win for ''

'', which was originally released years previously. The majority of negative reactions to the ceremony related to ''Destiny'' winning the BAFTA for Best Game. Adam Rosser of

BBC Radio 5 Live BBC Radio 5 Live is a British national radio station owned and operated by the BBC that broadcasts mainly news, sport, discussion, interviews and phone-ins. It is the principal BBC radio station covering sport in the United Kingdom, broadcast ...

explained that "There was an audible ripple of surprise in the press room as Destiny took the best game Bafta", noting that the game had been "criticised in many quarters for ... suffering from a sparsely populated game world and repetitive gameplay". Some commentators supported the result, however:

GamesRadar+ ''GamesRadar+'' (formerly ''GamesRadar'') is an entertainment website for video game-related news, previews, and reviews. It is owned by Future plc. In late 2014, Future Publishing-owned sites ''Total Film'', '' SFX'', ''Edge'' and '' Computer ...

, who named ''Destiny'' their game of the year, claimed that "it's good to see Bungie's masterpiece getting the attention it deserves". ''

Entertainment Weekly ''Entertainment Weekly'' (sometimes abbreviated as ''EW'') is an American digital-only entertainment magazine based in New York City, published by Dotdash Meredith, that covers film, television, music, Broadway theatre, books, and popular cul ...

'''s Jonathon Dornbush concluded that "despite its flaws, ''Destiny'' has demonstrated why it’s tough to put the game down, and may be worth revisiting for those who initially wrote the game off", while ''Forbes'' writer Paul Tassi claimed that '' Dragon Age: Inquisition'' was arguably the "definitive" game of the year. Arguably one of the most surprising results was in the Sports category, where independent title ''

'' beat out many bigger releases such as ''

FIFA 15 ''FIFA 15'' is a football simulation video game developed by EA Canada and published by Electronic Arts under the EA Sports label. It was released on 23 September 2014 in North America, 25 September in Europe and 26 September in the United Kingdom ...

''. Matt Kamen of ''

Wired ''Wired'' (stylized as ''WIRED'') is a monthly American magazine, published in print and online editions, that focuses on how emerging technologies affect culture, the economy, and politics. Owned by Condé Nast, it is headquartered in San Fra ...

'' described this as a "shocking win", and Mark Langshaw of

Digital Spy Digital Spy (DS) is a British-based entertainment, television and film website and brand and is the largest digital property at Hearst UK. Since its launch in 1999, Digital Spy has focused on entertainment news related to television programmes, ...

similarly dubbed it "a shock".

References

External links

11th BAFTA Video Games Awards page
{{British Academy Games Awards British Academy Games Awards ceremonies 2014 in video gaming 2015 awards in the United Kingdom March 2015 events in the United Kingdom