5th British Academy Games Awards
Date10 March 2009
LocationLondon Hilton
Hosted byDara Ó Briain[1]
Best GameSuper Mario Galaxy
Most awardsCall of Duty 4: Modern Warfare (3)
Most nominationsCall of Duty 4: Modern Warfare & Grand Theft Auto IV (7)
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The 5th British Academy Video Game Awards (known for the purposes of sponsorship as GAME British Academy Video Games Awards) awarded by British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA),[2] was an award ceremony honouring achievement in the field of video games in 2008. Candidate games must have been released in the United Kingdom between 26 October 2007 and 31 December 2008.[3] The ceremony took place in the London Hilton on 10 March 2009.[4] Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare & Grand Theft Auto IV led with the most nominations with seven, Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare was the major winner, taking three of the seven awards available.[5]

Timeline

All entries (from either a game's publisher or developer) received before 5 November 2008, were voted on by a first stage panel after grouping into categories by BAFTA. The six games with the most votes in each category move on to a second stage where they are scrutinised by a jury of between seven and nine from December 2008 until January 2009, picked especially for each category. Once the jury has played all the games in a category, a vote by secret ballot decides the winners; the votes were counted by Deloitte LLP.

Nominations

Nominations were announced on 10 February 2009.[5] Along with Call of Duty 4, leading the field on seven nominations was Grand Theft Auto IV, just behind with six nominations was LittleBigPlanet. Despite garnering the joint most nominations, Grand Theft Auto IV would fail to capture any of the awards. LittleBigPlanet similarly failed to live up to the number of nominations by scooping only one gong despite its six nominations.

Categories

Both publishers and developers were eligible to enter their games in fifteen categories, fourteen of which were awarded by a panel of judges. The categories were: Gameplay, Casual, Sports, Story and Character, Strategy, Use of Audio, Multiplayer, Technical Achievement, Original Score, Handheld, People's Choice (the only award voted for by the public),[6] Artistic Achievement, Best Action and Adventure and Best Game.[4] There was surprise in the announcement of Super Mario Galaxy as the winner of the main award of Game of the Year, as well as the fact that Grand Theft Auto IV did not receive any of the prizes, despite leading the nominations list.[4] Grand Theft Auto IV failed to win an award after receiving six nominations, replicating the "feat" managed by Gears of War at the preceding ceremony.

Winners and nominees

Winners are shown first in bold.

Action and Adventure
Sports
Artistic Achievement
Strategy
Story and Character
  • Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare – Jesse Stern, Infinity Ward/Activision
    • Assassin's Creed – Corey May, Ubisoft Montreal/Ubisoft
    • Fable II – Peter Molyneux, Lionhead Studios/Microsoft Game Studios
    • Fallout 3 – Emil Pagliarulo, Bethesda Game Studios/Bethesda Softworks
    • Grand Theft Auto IV – Dan Houser, Rupert Humphries, Rockstar North/Rockstar Games
    • Mass Effect – Drew Karpyshyn, BioWare/Microsoft Game Studios
Casual
Technical Achievement
  • Spore – Maxis/Electronic Arts
    • Assassin's Creed – Ubisoft Montreal/Ubisoft
    • Fable II – Lionhead Studios/Microsoft Game Studios
    • Fallout 3 – Bethesda Game Studios/Bethesda Softworks
    • Grand Theft Auto IV – Rockstar North/Rockstar Games
    • LittleBigPlanet – Media Molecule/Sony Computer Entertainment
Gameplay
  • Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare – Infinity Ward/Activision
    • Grand Theft Auto IV – Rockstar North/Rockstar Games
    • Left 4 Dead – Valve/Valve
    • Mario Kart Wii – Nintendo EAD/Nintendo
    • Rock Band – Harmonix/MTV Games and Electronic Arts
    • Super Mario Galaxy – Nintendo EAD Tokyo/Nintendo
Use of Audio
  • Dead Space – Visceral Games/Electronic Arts
    • Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare – Infinity Ward/Activision
    • Gears of War 2 – Epic Games/Microsoft Game Studios
    • Grand Theft Auto IV – Rockstar North/Rockstar Games
    • LittleBigPlanet – Media Molecule/Sony Computer Entertainment
    • Super Mario Galaxy – Nintendo EAD Tokyo/Nintendo
Handheld
BAFTA One's to Watch Award (in association with Dare to Be Digital)
  • Boro Toro – DarkMatter Designs
    • Origamee
    • Vegeme
Multiplayer
  • Left 4 Dead – Valve/Valve
GAME Award of 2008
  • Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare – Infinity Ward/Activision
    • Fallout 3 – Bethesda Game Studios/Bethesda Softworks
    • Gears of War 2 – Epic Games/Microsoft Game Studios
    • Grand Theft Auto IV – Rockstar North/Rockstar Games
    • Guitar Hero World Tour – Neversoft/Activision
    • Left 4 Dead – Valve/Valve
    • LittleBigPlanet – Media Molecule/Sony Computer Entertainment
    • Professor Layton and the Curious Village – Level-5/Nintendo
    • Wii Fit – Nintendo EAD Group No. 5/Nintendo
    • World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King – Blizzard Entertainment/Blizzard Entertainment
Original Score

Academy Fellowship

Games with multiple nominations and wins

References

  1. ^ sebFlyte (2009-01-15). "Dara Ó Briain to host 2009 BAFTA game awards". uk.gamespot.com. p. 1. Archived from the original on 2013-01-24. Retrieved 2009-03-11.
  2. ^ "Video Games - Awards". British Academy of Film and Television Arts. Archived from the original on 26 February 2009. Retrieved 2009-03-11.
  3. ^ "Video Games Eligibility & Judging". British Academy of Film and Television Arts. Archived from the original on 2009-03-16. Retrieved 2009-03-11.
  4. ^ a b c "Three BAFTAS for Call of Duty 4". BBC News. 2009-03-11. Archived from the original on March 13, 2009. Retrieved 2009-03-11.
  5. ^ a b Beaument, Claudine (2009-02-10). "Bafta video games nominations announced". telegraph.co.uk. Archived from the original on 14 February 2009. Retrieved 2009-03-11.
  6. ^ "BAFTA Game of the Year". GAME. Archived from the original on 14 March 2009. Retrieved 2009-03-11.
  7. ^ "Fellowship - Awards". British Academy of Film and Television Arts. Archived from the original on 2009-03-22. Retrieved 2009-03-11.
  8. ^ Westbrook, Logan (2009-03-10). "BAFTA Video Game Awards 2009". The Escapist. Archived from the original on 16 April 2009. Retrieved 2009-03-11.
  9. ^ "Video Games Fellow in 2009". British Academy of Film and Television Arts. 2009-03-10. Archived from the original on 1 March 2009. Retrieved 2009-03-11.

External links

British Academy Games Awards
Categories