11th British Academy Games Awards


The 11th British Academy Video Games Awards ceremony, presented by the British Academy of Film and Television Arts, honored video games of 2014 and took place on 12 March 2015 at the Tobacco Dock in London, beginning at 7:00pm. During the ceremony, BAFTA presented awards in 16 categories. The ceremony, broadcast live on streaming website Twitch, was hosted by comedian Rufus Hound.
Monument Valley and ' won two awards each, while Destiny won the Best Game award. Other winners included ', Far Cry 4, ', League of Legends, Lumino City, Minecraft, Never Alone, OlliOlli, The Vanishing of Ethan Carter and '.

Winners and nominees

The nominees for the 11th British Academy Video Games Awards were announced on 10 February 2015 at 10:30am. ' received the most nominations with six total; Far Cry 4 and Monument Valley tied for second with five nominations each, followed by 80 Days, Destiny, Mario Kart 8 and ' with four each.
The winners were announced during the awards ceremony on 12 March 2015. Destiny's win for Best Game was the fourth BAFTA win for developer Bungie, but their first outside of the Halo series. Ashley Johnson won the award for Performer for the second consecutive year for her portrayal of Ellie in .

Awards

Winners are shown first in bold.

  • Lumino City – State of Play Games/State of Play Games
  • *Assassin's Creed Unity – Ubisoft/Ubisoft
  • *Far Cry 4 – Jean-Alexis Doyon, David Wilkinson and Scott Mitchell, Ubisoft/Ubisoft
  • *Hohokum – Honeyslug and SCE Santa Monica Studio/Sony Computer Entertainment Europe
  • *Monument Valley – ustwo Games/ustwo Studio
  • *' – Paul Tumelaire, Ghislain Avrillon and Laurent Labouille, Ubisoft/Ubisoft
  • Monument Valley – ustwo Games/ustwo Studio
  • *80 Days – Joseph Humfrey and Jon Ingold, Inkle/Inkle and Profile Books
  • *' – Blizzard Entertainment/Blizzard Entertainment
  • *Hitman Go – Daniel Lutz, Square Enix Montreal/Square Enix
  • *Threes! – Asher Vollmer, Greg Wohlwend and Jimmy Hinson, Sirvo/Sirvo
  • *' – Telltale Games/Telltale Games
  • – The Creative Assembly/Sega
  • *The Banner Saga – Austin Wintory, Michael Theiler and Peret Von Sturmer, Stoic Studios/Versus Evil
  • *' – Sledgehammer Games/Activision
  • *' – Disney Interactive Studios and Harmonix Music Systems/Disney Interactive Studios
  • *Mario Kart 8 – Nintendo/Nintendo
  • *The Sailor's Dream – Simogo/Simogo
  • – Blizzard Entertainment/Blizzard Entertainment
  • *' – Sledgehammer Games/Activision
  • *Destiny – Bungie/Activision
  • *Mario Kart 8 – Nintendo/Nintendo
  • * Minecraft: Console Editions – Mojang/4J Studios/Microsoft Studios
  • *Titanfall – Steve Fukuda, Richard Baker and Vince Zampella, Respawn Entertainment/Electronic Arts
  • Destiny – Bungie/Activision
  • *' – The Creative Assembly/Sega
  • *' – BioWare/Electronic Arts
  • *Mario Kart 8 – Nintendo/Nintendo
  • *' – Monolith Productions/Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment
  • *Monument Valley – ustwo Games/ustwo Studio
  • Far Cry 4 – Cliff Martinez, Tony Gronick and Jerome Angelot, Ubisoft/Ubisoft
  • *' – The Creative Assembly/Sega
  • *The Banner Saga – Stoic Studios/Versus Evil
  • *' – Disney Interactive Studios and Harmonix Music Systems/Disney Interactive Studios
  • *' – Monolith Productions/Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment
  • *The Sailor's Dream – Simogo/Simogo
  • Monument Valley – ustwo Games/ustwo Studio
  • *80 Days – Joseph Humfrey and Jon Ingold, Inkle/Inkle and Profile Books
  • *' – The Creative Assembly/Sega
  • *Forza Horizon 2 – Playground Games/Microsoft Studios
  • *' – Lucid Games/Sierra Entertainment
  • *Lumino City – State of Play Games/State of Play Games
  • – Yoan Fanise, Paul Tumelaire and Simon Choquet, Ubisoft/Ubisoft
  • *Kalimba – Press Play/Microsoft Studios
  • *Monument Valley – ustwo Games/ustwo Studio
  • *Sunset Overdrive – Insomniac Games/Microsoft Studios
  • *Titanfall – Steve Fukuda, Richard Baker and Vince Zampella, Respawn Entertainment/Electronic Arts
  • *The Vanishing of Ethan Carter – Adrian Chmielarz, Andrzej Poznanski and Michal Kosieradzki, The Astronauts/The Astronauts, Nordic Games
  • Never Alone – Upper One Games/E-Line Media
  • *The Banner Saga – John Watson, Alex Thomas and Arnie Jorgensen, Stoic Studios/Versus Evil
  • *CounterSpy – Dynamighty/Sony Computer Entertainment Europe
  • *Hitman Go – Daniel Lutz, Square Enix Montreal/Square Enix
  • *Shovel Knight – Yacht Club Games/Yacht Club Games
  • *The Vanishing of Ethan Carter – Adrian Chmielarz, Andrzej Poznanski and Michal Kosieradzki, The Astronauts/The Astronauts, Nordic Games
  • Ashley Johnson – as Ellie
  • *Adam Harrington – The Wolf Among Us as Bigby Wolf
  • *Kevin Spacey – ' as Jonathan Irons
  • *Logan Cunningham – Transistor as Transistor
  • *Melissa Hutchison – ' as Clementine
  • *Troy Baker – Far Cry 4 as Pagan Min
  • Minecraft: Console Editions – Mojang/4J Studios/Microsoft Studios
  • *The Lego Movie Videogame – TT Games/Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment
  • *LittleBigPlanet 3 – Pete Smith, Paul Porter and Darius Sardeghian, Sumo Digital and XDev Studios Europe/Sony Computer Entertainment Europe
  • *Mario Kart 8 – Nintendo/Nintendo
  • *' – Toys for Bob and Vicarious Visions/Activision
  • *Twelve a Dozen – Bossa Studios/Bossa Studios
  • League of Legends – Riot Games/Riot Games
  • *Destiny – Bungie/Activision
  • *EVE Online: Phoebe – CCP Games/CCP Games
  • *RuneScape – Jagex/Jagex
  • *' – Blizzard Entertainment/Blizzard Entertainment
  • *World of Tanks – Wargaming/Wargaming
  • – Monolith Productions/Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment
  • *' – The Creative Assembly/Sega
  • *Destiny – Bungie/Activision
  • *Far Cry 4 – Jean-Alexis Doyon, David Wilkinson and Scott Mitchell, Ubisoft/Ubisoft
  • *' – Blizzard Entertainment/Blizzard Entertainment
  • *Threes! – Asher Vollmer, Greg Wohlwend and Jimmy Hinson, Sirvo/Sirvo
  • OlliOlli – John Ribbins, Simon Bennett and Tom Hegarty, Roll7/Roll7
  • *FIFA 15 – EA Sports/Electronic Arts
  • *Football Manager 2015 – Sports Interactive/Sega
  • *Forza Horizon 2 – Playground Games/Microsoft Studios
  • *Madden NFL 15 – EA Sports/Electronic Arts
  • *Trials Fusion – Kim Lahti, Antti Ilvessuo and Karri Kiviluoma, Ubisoft/Ubisoft
  • The Vanishing of Ethan Carter – Adrian Chmielarz, Andrzej Poznanski and Michal Kosieradzki, The Astronauts/The Astronauts, Nordic Games
  • *80 Days – Joseph Humfrey and Jon Ingold, Inkle/Inkle and Profile Books
  • *' – The Creative Assembly/Sega
  • *Lumino City – State of Play Games/State of Play Games
  • *' – Monolith Productions/Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment
  • *Titanfall – Steve Fukuda, Richard Baker and Vince Zampella, Respawn Entertainment/Electronic Arts
  • – Neil Druckmann, Naughty Dog/Sony Computer Entertainment Europe
  • *80 Days – Joseph Humfrey, Jon Ingold and Meg Jayanth, Inkle/Inkle and Profile Books
  • *Broken Age – Tim Schafer, Double Fine Productions/Double Fine Productions
  • *Far Cry 4 – Mark Thompson, Lucien Soulban and Li Kuo, Ubisoft/Ubisoft
  • *Never Alone – Upper One Games/E-Line Media
  • *The Wolf Among Us – Telltale Games/Telltale Games

    • BAFTA Fellowship Award

  • David Braben

    BAFTA Ones to Watch Award

  • Chambara – 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)

    NameRole
    Announcer for the 11th British Academy Video Games Awards

    David Arnold    		Presenters of the award for Music
    Presenter of the award for Persistent Game
    Presenter of the award for Story
    Presenter of the award for Original Property
    Presenter of the award for Sport
    Presenter of the award for Mobile & Handheld
    Presenter of the award for Artistic Achievement

    Katy Hill    		Presenters of the award for Audio Achievement
    Presenter of the award for British Game
    Presenter of the award for Family
    Presenter of the award for Game Innovation
    Presenter of the Ones to Watch Award to Chambara
    Presenter of the award for Game Design
    Presenter of the award for Multiplayer
    Presenter of the award for Debut Game
    Presenter of the award for Performer
    Presenter of the Fellowship Award to David Braben
    Presenter of the award for Best Game

    Performers

    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 claimed that the British Academy Video Games Awards "might be favorite 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 The Vanishing of Ethan Carter and League of Legends. Oliver Cragg of newspaper The Independent welcomed the strong presence of "creative indie titles" at the ceremony. A review written by GameCentral for newspaper Metro, however, went as far as to state that "we’re not sure we agree with any of the awards, except for ' and David Braben", criticising "nonsense" such as a win for Minecraft, 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 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+, 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'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     ' was arguably the "definitive" game of the year.
    Arguably one of the most surprising results was in the Sports category, where independent title OlliOlli beat out many bigger releases such as FIFA 15. Matt Kamen of Wired described this as a "shocking win", and Mark Langshaw of Digital Spy similarly dubbed it "a shock".