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The British Academy Games Awards – now in its fifteenth year – will see Dara O’Briain return to hosting duties, making it the ninth time the comedian has hosted the ceremony.
The Awards – which are run as part of London Games Festival – will take place on April 4th, 2019, at Queen Elizabeth Hall in London, but if you can’t make it the event will once again be streamed live across BAFTA’s social media channels.
"I am thrilled to be returning to host the British Academy Games Awards. The evening is a fantastic opportunity to celebrate the achievements of this wonderfully creative industry, and each year I continue to be amazed by the fantastic talent in the UK games industry," Dara O’Briain said. "There’s also a really difficult bit of God of War I can’t get past and they seem like the people to ask…"
"We are delighted to have Dara once again taking the helm for an evening of excitement and celebration," added Emma Baehr, Director of Awards at BAFTA. "We are proud to have been recognising the very best talent across the games industry at the British Academy Games Awards for 15 years, and look forward to the innovative, creative talent that will continue to be recognised in years to come."
This year’s London Games Festival will be bigger than ever, with 2019’s edition running from April 2nd to April 14th across the nation’s capital. LGF 2018 brought in some 65,000 people, attending 40 different events across 20 venues, and featured around 400 games in total being shown off. This level of success has prompted organisers to push for bigger, longer, and more in 2019.
The festival, run by Games London (an initiative from Film London) and Ukie, has so far attracted in the region of £40 million in potential investments to games businesses both in London and across the UK as a whole. London Games Festival 2019 will see plenty of events returning, like the LGF Hub and Now Play This, which show off prototypes and start-ups, or allow visitors to play experimental styles of games respectively. There’s also the returning tie-in with both EGX Rezzed, the indie games showcase, and the BAFTA Games Awards.
