British Academy Games Award for Intellectual Property explained

The British Academy Video Games Award for New Intellectual Property is an award presented annually by the British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA). It is given in honor to "the best game which is not part of an established series and represents a new intellectual property".^[1]

The award was first presented at the 2nd British Academy Games Awards as Originality, after which the category was discontinued. It was revived in 2015 at the 11th edition, when it was presented as Original Property. The category received its current name at the 20th British Academy Games Awards.:^[2]

To date, no developer has won this award more that once. Nintendo EAD are the only developers with two nominations in the category and therefore have the most nominations without a win. Among publishers, Sony Interactive Entertainment has a leading eight nominations and two wins, tied with Annapurna Interactive for most wins. Devolver Digital has the most nominations without a win, with five.

The current holder of the award is Elden Ring by FromSoftware and Bandai Namco Studios, which won at the 19th British Academy Games Awards in 2023.

Winners and nominees

In the following table, the years are listed as per BAFTA convention, and generally correspond to the year of game release in the United Kingdom.

Table key

Indicates the winner

Originality

Year	Game	Developer(s)	Publisher(s)
2003/04 (2nd)	SingStar / SingStar Party	London Studio	Sony Computer Entertainment	[3]
	Animal Crossing		Nintendo
	Donkey Konga	Namco
	Fable		Microsoft Game Studios
	Second Sight		Codemasters
	Sid Meier's Pirates!		Atari

Original Property

Year	Game	Developer(s)	Publisher(s)
2014 (11th)		Ubisoft Montpellier	Ubisoft	[4] [5]
	Kalimba		Microsoft Studios
	Sunset Overdrive	Insomniac Games
	Monument Valley	ustwo Games
	Titanfall		Electronic Arts
	The Vanishing of Ethan Carter	The Astronauts
2015 (12th)	Until Dawn	Supermassive Games	Sony Computer Entertainment	[6] [7]
	Everybody's Gone to the Rapture		Sony Computer Entertainment
	Her Story	Sam Barlow
	Life Is Strange		Square Enix
	Ori and the Blind Forest		Microsoft Studios
	Splatoon		Nintendo
2016 (13th)	Inside	Playdead		[8] [9]
	Firewatch		Panic
	The Last Guardian		Sony Interactive Entertainment
	Overwatch	Blizzard Entertainment
	Unravel	Coldwood Interactive	Electronic Arts
	The Witness	Thekla, Inc.
2017(14th)	Horizon Zero Dawn	Guerrilla Games	Sony Interactive Entertainment Europe	[10]
	Cuphead	Studio MDHR
	Gorogoa	Jason Roberts	Annapurna Interactive
	What Remains of Edith Finch	Giant Sparrow
	Night in the Woods	InfiniteFall	Finji
	PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds	PUBG Corp	Bluehole, Inc.
2018(15th)	Into the Breach	Subset Games		[11]
	Dead Cells	Motion Twin
	Florence	Mountains	Annapurna Interactive
	Moss	Polyarc
	Return of the Obra Dinn		3909
	Subnautica	Unknown Worlds Entertainment
2019(16th)	Outer Wilds	Mobius Digital	Annapurna Interactive	[12] [13]
	Baba Is You	Hempuli
	Control		505 Games
	Death Stranding		Sony Interactive Entertainment
	Disco Elysium	ZA/UM
	Untitled Goose Game		Panic
2020(17th)	Kentucky Route Zero: TV Edition	Cardboard Computer	Annapurna Interactive	[14] [15]
	Carrion	Phobia Game Studio	Devolver Digital
	Fall Guys	Mediatonic
	Ghost of Tsushima		Sony Interactive Entertainment
	Hades	Supergiant Games
	Spiritfarer		Kowloon Nights
2021(18th)	It Takes Two	Hazelight Studios	Electronic Arts	[16] [17]
	Deathloop		Bethesda Softworks
	Death's Door	Acid Nerve	Devolver Digital
	Inscryption	Daniel Mullins Games
	Returnal		Sony Interactive Entertainment
	Unpacking	Witch Beam	Humble Bundle
2022(19th)	Elden Ring	FromSoftware	Bandai Namco	[18] [19]
	Cult of the Lamb	Massive Monster	Devolver Digital
	Citizen Sleeper	Jump Over the Age	Fellow Traveller
	Sifu	Sloclap
	Stray		Annapurna Interactive
	Vampire Survivors	Poncle

Multiple nominations and wins

Publishers

Developer	Nominations	Wins
Sony Computer/Interactive Entertainment	8	2
Annapurna Interactive	6	2
Devolver Digital	5	0
Microsoft/Xbox Game Studios	4	0
Electronic Arts	3	1
Nintendo	3	0
Panic	2	0

External links

• Official website

Notes and References

1. Web site: BAFTA Games Awards Rules and Guidelines 2022. British Academy of Film and Television Arts. 11 February 2023.
2. Web site: Why BAFTA is changing the way its games awards work. Games Industry. 1 June 2023. 14 December 2023.
3. Web site: Games in 2005 . BAFTA Awards . . 14 March 2015 .
4. Web site: Games in 2015. British Academy of Film and Television Arts. BAFTA Awards. 14 March 2015.
5. Web site: BAFTA Games Awards 2015 Nominees Revealed . Karmali . Luke . . 10 February 2015 . 14 March 2015 .
6. Web site: British Academy Games Awards Winners in 2016. BAFTA.org. 10 March 2016. 8 April 2016.
7. Web site: Skrebels . Joe . 10 March 2016 . BAFTA Games Awards 2016 Nominees Revealed . . 10 March 2016.
8. Web site: Games in 2017 BAFTA Awards. awards.bafta.org. en. 2017-03-24.
9. Web site: Erica Webber . Jordan . 9 March 2017 . Bafta games awards 2017: Inside and Uncharted 4 lead the way . . 9 March 2017.
10. Web site: Winners List for the British Academy Games Awards in 2018 (Plain Text) BAFTA Awards. awards.bafta.org. 12 April 2018. en. 2018-04-23.
11. Web site: BAFTA Games Awards winners 2019. awards.bafta.org. 11 March 2019. en. 2019-04-04.
12. Web site: 2020 BAFTA Games Awards: The Nominations . 3 March 2020 . . 4 March 2020 .
13. News: Powell . Steffan . Rahman-Jones . Imran . Bafta Games Awards 2021: Hades takes Best Game . BBC News . 25 March 2021 . 27 March 2021.
14. Web site: BAFTA Games Awards 2021 Nominations Announced . Ankers . Adele . . . March 2, 2021 . March 3, 2021 . https://web.archive.org/web/20210303015914/https://www.ign.com/articles/bafta-games-awards-2021-nominations-announced . March 3, 2021 . live .
15. Web site: BAFTA Games Awards: Supergiant Games' 'Hades' Takes Home Top Prize – Complete Winners List . Alexandra . Del Rosario . 25 March 2021 . 25 March 2021 . .
16. Web site: 2022 BAFTA Games Awards Winners. 3 March 2022.
17. Web site: BAFTA Games Awards 2022: Full list of winners as Returnal wins Best Game. Radio Times. Joe. Julians. 8 April 2022. 9 April 2022.
18. Web site: BAFTA Games Awards 2023 Nominations Announced. Wood. Anthony. IGN. 2 March 2023 . 2 March 2023.
19. Web site: 2023 BAFTA Games Awards: The Winners. BAFTA Games Awards. 30 March 2023. 30 March 2023. https://web.archive.org/web/20230331014639/https://www.bafta.org/games/awards/2023-nominations-winners. 31 March 2023. live.