Hellblade 2 will get most nominations

Senua’s Saga: Hellblade II has picked up essentially the most nominations at this 12 months’s Bafta Video games Awards.

The action-adventure recreation, developed by Cambridge-based studio Ninja Principle, is up for awards in 11 out of 14 classes on the annual ceremony.

It is within the operating for greatest recreation alongside 3D platformer Astro Bot – up for eight awards – which clinched high prize on the US-based Sport Awards in December.

The occasion, thought of one of the prestigious within the video games business calendar, might be held in London on 8 April.

The opposite contenders in the perfect recreation class are:

• Balatro – a poker-inspired card recreation
• Black Fable: Wukong – an action-adventure made in China and impressed by a preferred fable
• Helldivers II – a multiplayer co-operative shooter
• The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Knowledge – the primary recreation in Nintendo’s in style collection to star the princess it is named after
• Thank Goodness You are Right here! – a wacky cartoon journey recreation developed by two associates from Barnsley

Bafta palms out prizes annually in a variety of classes, together with appearing, music and recreation design.

Three of the six most-nominated video games this 12 months had been made within the UK.

Nonetheless Wakes the Deep, from Scottish studio The Chinese language Room, is up for eight awards, whereas Thank Goodness You are Right here! is up for seven.

Lego: Horizon Adventures, primarily based on the PlayStation collection and largely developed by London-based Studio Gobo, is nominated in 4 classes.

Indie hits Animal Nicely and Balatro, every have 4 nominations, as does Name of Responsibility: Black Ops 6.

Senua’s Saga: Hellblade II is a sequel to Senua’s Sacrifice – which picked up 5 awards at 2018’s gaming Baftas.

Its 11 nominations would possibly shock some – the sport was a powerful technical showcase and acquired optimistic if not excellent critiques.

Nevertheless, like the primary recreation, it was praised for its delicate depiction of the primary character’s psychosis.

Bafta Video games committee chair Tara Saunders tells NUZTO Newsbeat it represents “a powerful 12 months for British-made video games”.

She says the voting panel is made up of members internationally who take the awards “very significantly” and vote primarily based on a variety of options.

“It is all about excellence,” she says.

“Excellence within the crafts and possibly a few of these video games have nailed all of these craft areas.”

Bafta CEO Jane Millichip agrees, and desires to embrace the very fact they’ve a British recreation class.

“Our members are worldwide and so they’re the individuals who select,” she says.

Organized by variety of classes:

• Senua’s Saga: 11
• Astro Bot and Nonetheless Wakes the Deep – eight
• Thank Goodness You are Right here! – seven
• Black Fable: Wukong – 5

Learn extra in regards to the nominees:

The Bafta Video games Awards are not any stranger to the odd upset.

In 2023, Vampire Survivors – made by a tiny British studio – beat Sony’s God of Warfare: Ragnarök to the highest prize.

This 12 months’s greatest recreation discipline has the same mixture of big-budget blockbusters and indie hits.

“I really like that Bafta can shock, I really like that it is not a given and we will get to that night time and we do not know what is going on to return out on high,” Tara says.

“It is placing a highlight on some actually tiny video games that may have slipped by.”

Metaphor: Refantazio and Last Fantasy VII: Rebirth, two video games that featured prominently in nominations elsewhere, solely picked up three nominations between them.

Occasions stay powerful for folks working within the video games business worldwide, with mass layoffs, studio closures and cancelled initiatives persevering with to make headlines.

Tara says awards just like the Baftas are “a beacon of sunshine at nighttime instances”.

“It is actually necessary to pause and have a good time the groups and people which have crafted these standout video games experiences,” she says.

And Jane, who additionally oversees Bafta’s occasions throughout movie, TV and different inventive industries, says the gaming awards are a spot for folks to help one another.

“I’ve by no means seen a neighborhood cheer a lot after they lose, it is a good factor to behold,” she says.

“It is so fantastic to see the entire video games neighborhood being so supportive of one another and there to have a good time the sector, not themselves.

“It is form of devoid of ego and that is nice.”

You could find a full record of Bafta Video games Awards nominations for 2025 right here.

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