Activision
2004
Game On: BAFTA recognises the art of game-making
By the late 1990s, the landscape for those working with moving images was changing fast. The internet was already a revolutionary force, while the rise of gaming transformed how people interacted with storytelling.
Always quick to keep pace with innovation, BAFTA recognised the importance of these new platforms with an awards ceremony designed to celebrate their craft and artistry. The Interactive Entertainment Awards, which launched in 1998 were the brainchild of David Puttnam, then Vice President of the Academy. Puttnam hailed the move as a symbol of “a new era in entertainment,” words that would continue to echo in the real world.
In 2004, the Interactive Entertainment Awards were split into two ceremonies – the Interactive Awards and the BAFTA Games Awards. By 2006 the Interactive Awards had been retired, leaving the BAFTA Games Awards as the major annual ceremony rewarding excellence in the art of game-making.
Image: Still from Call of Duty: Modern Warfare. Call of Duty was presented with the Game on Any Platform – The Year’s Best Game at the British Academy Games Awards in 2004. It has since been nominated forty-one times.
Video: The inaugural Games Fellowship is presented in 2007 to legendary games designer and SimCity creator, Will Wright (Source: BAFTA).
