BAFTA Games Awards: ‘Outer Wilds’ Bags Best Game, Two More Honors

“Outer Wilds” is the big winner of the highly coveted Best Game plum from the British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA).

The BAFTA Games Awards – which had to cancel its live event due to the coronavirus crisis – made the announcement on Thursday, April 2, during the streaming of their online ceremony. “Outer Wilds” beat out other highly popular games for the honor, including “Luigi's Mansion 3” and “Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice.”

Aside from the top award, the Mobius Digital space-exploration game also bagged two more recognitions, namely Best Game Design and Best Original Property.

“Outer Wilds” is an action-adventure game released in May last year. In the game, players explore a distant galaxy which is under threat from a star/sunset to go supernova – threatening the player-character itself.

The player in the game only has 22 minutes to achieve the set objective or solve a single puzzle in order to get some clues or learn something about the galaxy’s mystery. After the time limit, the game will reset and players get the chance to give it another go.

The game has been highly praised for its gameplay and design, with several publications even naming it the best game of 2019. And true enough, BAFTA’s recognition is further proof of its brilliant execution.

“Outer Wilds” initially launched exclusively at Epic Games store. However, it will reportedly be available on Steam starting June 18, 2020.

Aside from the said game, other notable winners in the event are "Disco Elysium," "Call of Duty: Mobile" and "Apex Legends."

“Disco Elysium” is a role-playing detective game developed by ZA/UM. Released just last October 2019, it won the Best Debut Game, Best Music and Best Narrative.

On the other hand, “Call of Duty: Mobile” was hailed as the EE Mobile Game of the Year, surpassing other games such as Pokemon GO. It is worth noting that the said recognition is the only award of the night that was voted by the public.

“Apex Legends,” meanwhile, secured the Best Multiplayer Game. The free-to-play battle royale beat other highly popular titles such as “Borderlands 3,” “Call of Duty: Modern Warfare” and “Tom Clancy's The Division 2.”