Bungie’s ‘Destiny’ Takes ‘Best Game’ Award At British Academy Games Awards 2015

The console-exclusive $500-million hit took to the stage to accept the final – and most sought-after – award of “Best Game” to conclude the show held at the Tobacco Dock in London Thursday night.

Having been nominated for four BAFTA awards (multiplayer, persistent game, game design and best game) and only to take home “the big one” (as British and FIFA-obsessed TV magician Dynamo declared it), Destiny was bested by Hearthstone: Heroes of Warcraft, League of Legends and Middle Earth: Shadow of Mordor in the three other categories.

Bungie’s Destiny

Twitter users have taken to the popular social networking site to express their distaste at quite a few of the decisions made by the BAFTA judges. League of Legends took home the award for “persistent game” – a decision that puzzled many viewers, especially as it has considerably smaller maps and is played in matches. Many users believe the much-loved The Last of Us: Left Behind did not have a place in the 2015 awards, as it was released a little over a year ago, and it’s also just a DLC. Regardless of this, Naughty Dog took home two awards – one for the game and one for Ellie’s voice actress, Ashley Johnson.

There isn’t an award for most nominations, but if there was one, Alien: Isolation, the 2014 survival-horror hit, would have it. Alien: Isolation received six nominations for game innovation, audio achievement, best game, music, British game, and game design. It only won one, however; audio achievement.

Creative Assembly’s Alien: Isolation

The most awards won for the game itself (not including individual people from the game) went to critically-acclaimed “Monument Valley” – a puzzle mobile game that will mess with your mind. The small team of designers gathered on stage together twice to accept their awards. Hilarity ensued as an Australian member of their team made their second thank-you speech, in return for the British game award. The rest of the team stumbled over words to say (rather awkwardly I must add).

The nominees for the Best Game award were revealed throughout the event, in between the other awards. Popular YouTubers such as the Yogscast, Ali-A, Achievement Hunters and Total Biscuit recorded videos of themselves talking about the nominees, pointedly only highlighting their good bits.

John Bain (Total Biscuit) revealed on Twitter and on his Twitch channel his complete dislike of Destiny, claiming he told the producers he would merely introduce it, as he had nothing good to say about the game. He tweeted “they literally faked the footage of me talking“. To be frank, I don’t blame him.

The black-tie event certainly did not go as planned for a lot of people – developers and fans alike – but one thing’s for sure, despite his dry humour, Rufus Hound surely knows how to take the piss out of everyone. If anyone deserved an award, it would be that guy. You could almost hear the growling from Peter Molyneux’s Guildford-based office.