Put on your best bowtie and take advantage of the unlimited table wine, because it’s BAFTA time, baby! On the evening of April 7th, the BAFTA Games Awards took place in London, and promised to award the best and brightest in the industry with Big Golden Faces to celebrate their hard work.
As is often the case with games awards, the majority of winners were the glossy, gorgeous PS5 games — Ratchet and Clank: Rift Apart, It Takes Two, and Returnal all won multiple awards — but the family category always belongs to Nintendo, and a bunch of other indies made a big splash, too.
Here are the winners that are playable on Switch (including ones that are coming to Switch soon-ish):
ARTISTIC ACHIEVEMENT
**THE ARTFUL ESCAPE Development Team – Beethoven & Dinosaur/Annapurna Interactive
IT TAKES TWO Development Team – Hazelight Studios/Electronic Arts
PSYCHONAUTS 2 Development Team – Double Fine Productions/Xbox Game Studios
RATCHET & CLANK: RIFT APART Development Team – Insomniac Games/Sony Interactive Entertainment
RESIDENT EVIL VILLAGE Development Team – Capcom/Capcom
RETURNAL Development Team – Housemarque/Sony Interactive Entertainment
DEBUT GAME
THE ARTFUL ESCAPE Development Team – Beethoven & Dinosaur/Annapurna Interactive
EASTWARD Development Team – Pixpil/Chucklefish
THE FORGOTTEN CITY Nick Pearce, Alexander Goss, John Eyre – Modern Storyteller/Dear Villagers
GENESIS NOIR Evan Anthony, Jeremy Abel – Feral Cat Den/Fellow Traveller
MAQUETTE Development Team – Graceful Decay/Annapurna Interactive
**TOEM Development Team – Something We Made/ Something We Made
EVOLVING GAME
AMONG US Development Team – Innersloth/Innersloth
ANIMAL CROSSING: NEW HORIZONS Development Team – Nintendo EPD/Nintendo
APEX LEGENDS Development Team – Respawn Entertainment/Electronic Arts
DISCO ELYSIUM – THE FINAL CUT Development Team – ZA/UM/ZA/UM
FORTNITE Development Team – Epic Games/Epic Games, People Can Fly
**NO MAN’S SKY Development Team – Hello Games/Hello Games
FAMILY
ALBA: A WILDLIFE ADVENTURE Development Team – ustwo games/ustwo games, Plug In Digital
**CHICORY: A COLORFUL TALE Development Team – Greg Lobanov, A Shell in the Pit, Madeline Berger, Alexis Dean-Jones, Lena Raine/FINJI
FORZA HORIZON 5 Development Team – Playground Games/Xbox Game Studios
MARIO PARTY SUPERSTARS Development Team – Nintendo EPD/Nintendo
RATCHET & CLANK: RIFT APART Development Team – Insomniac Games/Sony Interactive Entertainment
UNPACKING Wren Brier, Tim Dawson, Jeff van Dyck – Witch Beam/Humble Games
NARRATIVE
IT TAKES TWO Development Team – Hazelight Studios/Electronic Arts
LIFE IS STRANGE: TRUE COLORS Development Team – Square Enix, Deck Nine Games/Square Enix
MARVEL’S GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY Development Team – Eidos-Montréal/Square Enix
PSYCHONAUTS 2 Tim Schafer – Double Fine Productions/Xbox Game Studios
RETURNAL Development Team – Housemarque/Sony Interactive Entertainment
**UNPACKING Wren Brier, Tim Dawson, Annie VanderMeer – Witch Beam/Humble Games
EE GAME OF THE YEAR (voted for by the public)
CHICORY: A COLORFUL TALE – Greg Lobanov, A Shell in the Pit, Madeline Berger, Alexis Dean-Jones, Lena Raine/FINJI
DEATHLOOP – Arkane Lyon/Bethesda Softworks
THE FORGOTTEN CITY – Modern Storyteller/Dear Villagers
IT TAKES TWO – Hazelight Studios/Electronic Arts
METROID DREAD – Nintendo & MercurySteam, Nintendo
**UNPACKING – Witch Beam/Humble Games
Other Switch games that made the shortlists but lost out on awards include Death’s Door, Game Builder Garage, The Forgotten City, Metroid Dread, and Mario Party Superstars. Congratulations to all the winners, and all the runners-up as well!
You can check out the full nomination lists here. Do you think any particular games were robbed? Are you happy your picks won? Why is Nintendo only ever in the Family category? Let us know your thoughts in the comments!
