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2020 BAFTA Game Awards pushes through online, names Outer Wilds as Best Game

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The 2020 BAFTA Game Awards pushed through amid the ongoing health crisis, crowning Outer Wilds by independent studio Mobius Digital as the Best Game.

For the first time in its history, this year’s BAFTA Games Awards was a pre-recorded, live-streamed, online-only affair, broadcast through the British Academy of Film and Television Arts’ social media accounts on Facebook, Twitch, Twitter, and YouTube.

2020 British Academy Games Awards

Dara Ó Briain, the host of the event, secured a winner’s speech from each nominee in all categories in case they won — and the night’s biggest winner was Outer Wilds, which won the Best Game, Game Design, and Original Property awards.

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In Outer Wilds, players take on the role of an alien astronaut recruit whose first mission into space was cut short after 22 minutes due to the sun going supernova. Players discover that they are trapped in a 22-minute time loop, and they will have to unravel the game’s secrets within the 22-minute cycles.

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Also dominating the evening was Disco Elysium by another independent studio, ZA/UM. The isometric open-world RPG, featuring a detective with inner demons, took home awards for Debut Game, Narrative, and Music.

Control and Death Stranding, nominees for Game of the Year at The Game Awards 2019, both received 11 nominations. However, they only received one award each, with Control‘s Martti Suosalo winning Performer in a Supporting Role as Ahti the janitor, and Death Stranding winning Technical Achievement.

The full list of winners are as follows:

  • Animation — Luigi’s Mansion 3
  • Artistic Achievement — Sayonara Wild Hearts
  • Audio Achievement — Ape Out
  • Best Game — Outer Wilds
  • British Game — Observation
  • Debut Game — Disco Elysium
  • Evolving Game — Path of Exile
  • Family — Untitled Goose Game
  • Game Beyond Entertainment — Kind Words
  • Game Design — Outer Wilds
  • Multiplayer – Apex Legends
  • Music — Disco Elysium
  • Narrative — Disco Elysium
  • Original Property — Outer Wilds
  • Performer in a Leading Role — Gonzalo Martin (Life is Strange 2)
  • Performer in a Supporting Role – Martti Suosalo (Control)
  • Technical Achievement — Death Stranding
  • EE Mobile Game of the Year (via public vote) — Call of Duty: Mobile

Hideo Kojima receives BAFTA Fellowship

Legendary Japanese video game designer Hideo Kojima, the creator of the Metal Gear series and most recently Death Stranding, was honored with the BAFTA Fellowship, which is the highest accolade given by the British Academy of Film and Television Arts.

In a video message, Kojima dedicated the achievement to his parents, and said that his “determination is stronger than ever.”

“For the rest of my life I will continue to devote myself to creating for others,” said Kojima. “Games are holding their own next to films, or perhaps fusing together with them, evolving into a huge medium of digital entertainment.”

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