# 5th British Academy Games Awards

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), 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. The ceremony took place in the London Hilton on 10 March 2009. 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.

## 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. 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), Artistic Achievement, Best Action and Adventure and Best Game. 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. 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 Fable II – Lionhead Studios/Microsoft Game Studios Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare – Infinity Ward/Activision Dead Space – Visceral Games/Electronic Arts Grand Theft Auto IV – Rockstar North/Rockstar Games Prince of Persia – Ubisoft Montreal/Ubisoft Tomb Raider: Underworld – Crystal Dynamics/Eidos Interactive | Sports Race Driver: Grid – Codemasters/Codemasters FIFA 09 – EA Canada/EA Sports Football Manager 2009 – Sports Interactive/Sega MotorStorm: Pacific Rift – Evolution Studios/Sony Computer Entertainment Pure – Black Rock Studio/Disney Interactive Studios Wii Fit – Nintendo EAD Group No. 5/Nintendo |
| Artistic Achievement LittleBigPlanet – Media Molecule Assassin's Creed – Ubisoft Montreal/Ubisoft Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare – Infinity Ward/Activision Dead Space – Visceral Games/Electronic Arts Gears of War 2 – Epic Games/Microsoft Game Studios Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots – Konami/Konami | Strategy Civilization Revolution – Firaxis Games/2K Games Advance Wars: Dark Conflict – Intelligent Systems/Nintendo Command & Conquer: Red Alert 3 – EA Los Angeles/Electronic Arts Ninjatown – Venan Entertainment/SouthPeak Games SOCOM U.S. Navy SEALs: Tactical Strike – Slant Six Games/Sony Computer Entertainment Viva Piñata: Pocket Paradise – Rare/THQ |
| Best Game Super Mario Galaxy – Nintendo EAD Tokyo/Nintendo Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare – Infinity Ward/Activision Fable II – Lionhead Studios/Microsoft Game Studios Fallout 3 – Bethesda Game Studios/Bethesda Softworks Grand Theft Auto IV – Rockstar North/Rockstar Games Rock Band – Harmonix/MTV Games and Electronic Arts | 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 Boom Blox – EA Los Angeles and Amblin Interactive/Electronic Arts Buzz!: Quiz TV – Relentless Software/Sony Computer Entertainment Europe Guitar Hero World Tour – Neversoft/Activision LittleBigPlanet – Media Molecule/Sony Computer Entertainment SingStar Vol. 2 – London Studio/Sony Computer Entertainment Wii Fit – Nintendo EAD Group No. 5/Nintendo | 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 Professor Layton and the Curious Village – Level-5/Nintendo Geometry Wars: Galaxies – Bizarre Creations and Kuju Entertainment/Sierra Entertainment God of War: Chains of Olympus – Ready at Dawn and Santa Monica Studio/Sony Computer Entertainment The Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass – Nintendo EAD/Nintendo Patapon – Pyramid and Japan Studio/Sony Computer Entertainment Soul Bubbles – Mekensleep | 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 Buzz! Quiz TV – Relentless Software/Sony Computer Entertainment Europe Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare – Infinity Ward/Activision Gears of War 2 – Epic Games/Microsoft Game Studios Mario Kart Wii – Nintendo EAD/Nintendo Rock Band – Harmonix/MTV Games and Electronic Arts | 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 Dead Space – Jason Graves, Visceral Games/Electronic Arts Assassin's Creed – Jesper Kyd, Ubisoft Montreal/Ubisoft Fable II – Danny Elfman, Russell Shaw, Lionhead Studios/Microsoft Game Studios Fallout 3 – Inon Zur, Bethesda Game Studios/Bethesda Softworks LittleBigPlanet – Kenneth C M Young, Mat Clark, Daniel Pemberton, Media Molecule/Sony Computer Entertainment Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots – Harry Gregson-Williams, Nobuko Toda, Shuichi Kobori, Kazuma Jinnouchi, Konami/Konami |

### Academy Fellowship

* Nolan Bushnell