BAFTA 2026: More Categories, Bigger Questions (Episode 282)

Picking up from Family Game, Alex, Jem, and Matt work through Audio Achievement, Music, Narrative, New IP, and Debut Game — with Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 casting a long shadow over most of the conversation. Matt has strong feelings about this game. The team has questions about nominations versus wins. Especially when Jem brings some eye-opening numbers about just how many games were in contention before the nominations list was even drawn up.

Representation runs as a thread throughout. Jem raises the diversity controversy surrounding Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2's Narrative win and makes the broader point that the stories we choose to reward signal which stories are worth telling. The New IP category opens up a more nuanced conversation about appreciation versus appropriation.  What does it mean for two white developers to stand on stage to accept an award for a game built around Black American narrative?

Part three is up next week, and covers Best Game, BAFTA Fellowship, and Performer in a Leading Role. Plus, the team discuss the controversies surrounding this year's ceremony, including a game trailer that was pulled from the show at the last minute.

Episode tags: #BAFTAGames2026 #BAFTAGamesAwards #ClairObscur #GhostOfYotei #KingdomComeDeliverance2 #SouthOfMidnight #007FirstLight #MarioKartWorld #Dispatch

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Transcript

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Speaker 0:15

Everyone, welcome back to another episode of Gaming the System, the podcast where three intersectional feminists examine gaming and games through a feminist lens. Today, I'm your host Alex, and I'm joined by my friends Jem and Matt. Before we get started, if you want to support us, you can subscribe to our Patreon at patreon.com/gamingthesystem for some exclusive content, or you can send us a one-off donation via PayPal to our email address, wearegamingthesystem@gmail.com

Alex 0:51

Welcome everyone back for part two of our look at the BAFTA Games Awards. We got partway through all of the categories and nominations in part one, we have reached the category of family game. And this was presented by James Fon and May Mack this was a smaller category. So this has the following games. Donkey Kong Bonanza. Is this seat taken? Mario Kart World Lego Party. Power Wash Simulator two and two Point Museum. And the winner was Lego Party. I a weird moment while I was watching this category where I was like, oh yeah, Nintendo make games too. 'cause they haven't been in any of the other, categories so far. And I thought, because, I don't know, I guess 'cause they weren't present. I had an assumption that like Nintendo just wasn't a part of. Any of these, which is really bad assumption on my part. 'cause of course they make excellent games. But just two of them happened to be in this category. Mario Kart and Donkey Kong, but neither of them won. The winner was Lego parties. So do you guys have any thoughts on family game?

Jem 2:13

I'm shocked that split Fiction isn't in there, and I think that should be in there as a family game. For all of the reasons we've already said in the last episode. I think this seat taken is excellent, but I'm not sure I would call it a family game. I mean, yes, you absolutely can play it with other people and we have in our house, but it's, more like a puzzler game, you know? It's one person doing the controlling and other people may be having some comments about it, but I'm not sure I would put that in there. The same with Two Point Museum. I'm surprised that that's in there as well.

Alex 2:47

like that would be a bit complex for younger kids

Jem 2:51

because it is,

Alex 2:52

Yeah.

Jem 2:52

it's a real management game so I'm not sure like family game as opposed to children's game is, to me, family game suggests something that you play together as a family. That it's something,

Alex 3:06

is multi-generational,

Jem 3:07

yeah.

Alex 3:07

got grandparents in there as well.

Jem 3:09

Yeah. And I mean, we've talked loads, haven't we? About how valuable games can be bringing different ages together in family, you know, especially like around Christmas and other holidays, in the year. So, so yeah, I'm surprised by this list. I'm not surprised by Mario Cartwell. Absolutely. That would have to be there for me. That would be my top family game because it is like. It, you can get Mario karts out with anyone, whether they've played a game or not, and they'll be able to pick it up in next to no time. I've not played any of the Lego games, so I can't talk about that. I only played Donkey Kong back in the original day, so Yeah, I'm surprised. I feel like they're not sure what this category is, but we've been saying that for almost every category, so.

Alex 3:56

I think Lego Party is essentially a ripoff of Mario party. So kind of jumping off of the success of an already established format and making it Lego, make of that what you will. But yeah. Matt, do you have any thoughts on this category?

matt 4:13

This feels more like a kids. Category than the children's

Alex 4:17

Yeah. Yeah.

matt 4:18

Kids like the, the younger generations, like we play games and then there's like the idea that there's this, there's this age limit to gaming. then the people who are older than that, they can't play, they can't play games the way that their kids play. So all they can do is watch them play a kid's game. When that isn't, that isn't true Jem, you play in shrouded with Daniel you both play split fiction so that's a family game, whatever games families play. So just, it feels like it's a bit of a reductive and out of touch,

Alex 5:03

I had be interested to know like the age split of players that play Power Simulator to, because I felt like that was more of an adult like. More adults would play that than kids. But I'm wrong. I dunno. We will have to leave that one open. Definitely. The next category is audio achievement. And this was presented by two British rappers, big Zoo spelt Z and aj Tracy, who were both self-professed gamers, it's important to note that when they played the little clips they weren't your standard gameplay clips. They were home leaning in on specific bits of things that you could hear, which was really interesting. So the nominees were Raiders Flare, obscure Expedition 33, dispatch. Death Stranding two on the beach goes to the OTE and Indiana Jones in the Great Circle, the winner for that was dispatched once again. I thought that was quite interesting as well, because it's not necessarily what I would've picked, I don't think, it's difficult without having played all of the games to be like, oh, the audio in this was really great. Again, recency bias, ghost of yte, I think advantage of the technology of the PlayStation five controller, where you've got sound coming outta the controller, which makes it, sort of a little bit more immersive. So like when you do the wind, for example, you can hear it coming up outta the controller when you. Pull up a bow, you can hear it coming out of the controller. All sorts of different things. So that does, for me, make it more immersive. But again, I haven't played all the other games, so I can't comment on their audio.

matt 6:59

Once again, clear, obscure is robbed. Absolutely robbed because it feels like, with lots of these things, you could take assets from game in these categories and put them into these other ones and it would fit. So you could take sword. The sword sounds from most sword games that put 'em into ghost of Yte. The moving through the environment death, stranding. And gun sounds for for Arc Raiders, but Clair Obscur. So much of that sound design is just so unique. So it's not just about how it's implemented, it's about the creativity in. Actually designing it. So, and then to be able to, I think of it as if you put some really good headphones on turn them up, what that like audio landscape is, and Clair Obscur just is just so rich. In all its different areas in a way that I just don't see how these other ones can be compared to

Jem 8:20

I think audio landscape is such a key phrase there. That's really what you want when you play a game. I was playing Resident Evil Village on the PlayStation, with headphones on. And it was terrifying because you would hear sounds and they would be like, oh my gosh, they're behind me. And I honestly did not know whether the sounds that I was hearing were in the game or in reality, because they were such good quality. And what it does is it just really, really puts you in the middle of the game. And it, is such an important aspect of. Game. And you know, I, again, I haven't played most of these in the category, but expedition 33 was excellent for that. Really good.

Alex 9:09

This category. into the next one, which I think is my favorite for any award, which is music. And that was presented by David Arnold, who, if you are familiar with James Bond, has been the composer for most of the recent James Bond films, and also is the composer for Sherlock, the television series so he has pedigree in that area, not necessarily in games so much. But he presented the award for music, so we've got cla, obscure Expedition 33, death Stranding two on the beach. Dispatch, ghost of vte, hollow Night, silk Song, and Indiana Jones and the Great Circle. And the winner for that one was Ghost of vte and I really liked the Music Ghost of vte. The actual composer wasn't there to pick up the award, His name is to Ottawa. It really does something really interesting in that it blends sort of eastern instruments and instrumentation with sort of Western, when you think of like wild West films and kind of blend the two, which I thought was really interesting to do. And I thought it was a good. Winner for the award. But again, I know that clear obscure expedition 33 has been widely played, praised by many of the people working in the video game music industry, and perhaps they felt like it was worthy of winning this category as well. But again, I think it was a pretty stacked category. Lots of very talented composers in there. I wasn't familiar with the composer for dispatch, myself, but I was aware of all the other, composers in the category and I don't know, again, if you feel like Clare Obscure has been robbed either of you, but,

matt 11:12

Have any of you seen the flaming piano meme?

Alex 11:15

yes.

matt 11:16

Have you seen it? Jem? I'll see if I can share it on my screen.

Jem 11:20

No, I've not seen it.

Alex 11:21

Oh well, yes,

matt 11:22

So the meme is, a man, on a beach playing the piano, and the piano is on fire, and he's clearly in the throes of just musical transcendence. And the tag is Disney. It's just a silly movie about a man in monkeys. The soundtrack doesn't need to be that good. then the man on the piano is Phil Collins. So that is obviously from Tarzan

Alex 11:48

I love.

matt 11:49

and just that two worlds, one family, and I need to do it poorly because otherwise we'll be sued immediately. But that's the difference between like obscure and these other ones. I've never heard anything like the music in Clair Obscur, just the music itself and the way it's presented. I remember one of the first things I said to Gem when we were talking about it, was the music needs to calm down a bit because it's just all the time.

Jem 12:22

Yeah.

Alex 12:23

Yeah.

matt 12:24

if you've seen any live performance of it, it's just beyond

Alex 12:31

Yeah, I'm sure when I do eventually play Clair Obscur, which I will do 'cause I know you both want me to I will be a solid convert 'cause I have heard bits and pieces of the music and I feel like in universe that's going to make it feel extra special. So, yeah.

Jem 12:49

One of the lovely things about Clair Obscur is that the music is so much part of the story and it's obvious that the team behind the game really value music and recognize how much it can add to a game and a story. And one of the things I really loved about it was that when you find a piano. Each of the characters can go up and play on the piano and they each have a different tune that they play. And it's so nice. I've spent considerable time doing that, just sitting there and going through all the different characters to listen to their tune.

Alex 13:26

That's so.

Jem 13:27

yeah. It's beautiful.

Alex 13:29

Wow. That's another, note on the list of reasons to play. Then when you cut back after the award to the podium, David Arnold is still there and you're thinking, well, what's going on here? He should have left the stage, and he introduces a first sneak peek at oh oh seven first light and the title sequence and title song. For the game and which he has composed the music for. So he's done the, music for oh oh seven first light, which is coming out this year. Thank you, Matt. It's coming out in May. And, so David Arnold, which of who of course has pedigree for James Bond has done the score and reveals that the singer for the game is Lana Delrey. Who did put forward a bid for, the one that was done by Sam Smith? I can't remember writing on the wall, think it's called, which is okay. It's good. I like it. But I know that there are plenty of other bids for that particular film, one of which was Radiohead, who also did an excellent, I think it was per Spector. And I feel like that would've also been a really great, title song for that one. I liked it in that it had all the ingredients of your classic James Bond theme, but I couldn't understand half of what Lana was saying. So I feel like it might be a grower because parts of it are in my head still, but I don't, I couldn't tell you any of the lyrics. And I feel like for your best James Bond themes, you've gotta know exactly what the lyrics are. So that's just my take. But there is a video online of that title sequence there. If either of you want to go and check it out or any listeners, please do. so that was an interesting little sneak peek there. And then, there was a lot of talk during the ceremony about anniversaries of different games. 'cause we've all reached that age now where it's the 20 something anniversary of this game or the 30th anniversary of this game. And we're like, I remember playing this as a child. It makes us remember how old we were. they had a musical performance of, so Techie dne, to celebrate the 25th anniversary of Final Fantasy, 10 Choi and the RIS Ensemble, which I'm sure would've meant a lot more to people who have played Final Fantasy 10. I have not. So it did not resonate with me. It was a very nice song, for those who had played it in childhood, I'm sure it would've been very good. Um. Then we get back to the actual categories we're onto narrative, and that was presented by Alex Wilton Reagan, who is due to be crot in the two upcoming tune murder games that are due hopefully this year and next year. But I'm not holding out much hope for this year, to be honest. We all see, so narrative. We've got another stacked category, blueprints, cla, obscure 33. Stranding, two on the beach. I already know your feelings on this map. Indiana Jones in the great circle, altars and kingdom come deliverance to. The winner was Kingdom Come Deliverance to the only game. I have absolutely no idea what it's about the altars. That's not one I've seen or heard of, so I can't comment on that one at all. Think given the type of game that Kingdom come deliverance to is it's a very, very big. Choice driven, story. And it apparently has many, many different types of endings. so I feel like that probably merited, winning in the narrative category. But again, not every game is the same as kingdom come. So what do we think of, of the nominees there?

matt 17:43

If I go first, I'm just gonna keep on saying that girl's been robbed.

Alex 17:46

Mm-hmm.

matt 17:47

So I, I don't keep on like outta things to say

Alex 17:51

You're allowed.

matt 17:52

difference it is, how different it's compared to all the other ones, and how like I. Normal. All the other ones feel, unfortunately, yeah, death stranding was lame because the first one was you start off and you know, like with Clair Obscur, you start off and you have absolutely no idea what is going on in the world. then you very, very, very gradually find out the truth of things. then that's what makes the narrative in interesting. But then death threatening two, go, right, we know everything about the world. Now just go and do a quest through it. But then clear obscure you until you reach the halfway point. You have no idea what's really going on, then you can get to the last five hours and still not quite know what's going on. The journey it takes you on. And the way, 'cause that's the most difficult thing about telling a story is how you string it along along the way. And Clair Obscur just takes that to another level that these ones don't.

Jem 19:03

Again, these are all new to me, but I just wanted to share a couple of things with you. I'd been looking up the altars. There's an article on The Guardian where, it says, the altars, unintentionally the realist, game about parenting I've ever played. So they said, basically having to look after a bunch of children all the time, like with your old characters in the game.

Alex 19:30

interesting.

Jem 19:31

I did also want to raise that within Kingdom Come Deliverance that had quite a lot of controversy around lack of diversity.

Alex 19:41

Good point.

Jem 19:41

So, you know, I think it's interesting that that then wins the narrative award and especially when it didn't have, many people of color or women. And, going back to my point I made in the last episode about how I would like. To think that when people are giving awards, they're not just thinking about rewarding what's been done, but also about encouraging what's to come. This would be a bit a little bit concerning for me because, when you're talking about narrative, you are talking about the story, and if the story excludes groups of people. That's kind of problematic. It's, always a challenging one, isn't it? Like when you set something in a certain timeframe or a certain genre, then you are sort of trying to fit it in with how things were in those days. I do think people need to remember that history is written by the victors. History is written by the people in power and they write their stories about the things that matter to them. It doesn't actually mean that, women and people of color and disabled people were not around at these times or were not part of this. It just means that the people who were writing about it or were telling us about it didn't notice them. That doesn't mean they weren't there. So there's no reason why when you are rewriting something in our modern times with that understanding that you can't create roles for those groups. So, so yeah, I know that doesn't have very much to do with the actual narrative of the game itself, but I did wanna just flag that up.

Alex 21:24

You know, what narratives are we looking at here and what narratives are being told are we subsequently awarding? So yeah, that's an excellent point. And it does bring up a nice segue into a bonus episode that we'll be hoping to do, in which a trailer that was due to be Air at the BAFTAs, was actually pulled, the, the developer told very late on, but we'll come back to that in a future episode

matt 21:52

game is it?

Alex 21:54

the Quiet Things. I will happily share a trailer with you both and we will come back to talk about it in a future episode. This is a bit of a mom white category for me, and it's, new intellectual property. I don't necessarily like the way it's phrased. I understand what it means. It's essentially, here's a new game character that could have a franchise. But yeah, I just don't like the phrase new intellectual property. Maybe that's just me, but that was presented by Lady Lynn the nominees in that category were Arc Raiders, fair, obscure, expedition 33, dispatch, split Fiction, of Midnight, and the altars. The winner for that one was South of Midnight, and all of these games are ones that I'd be interested in playing definitely, apart from the ones that I've already played. But yeah, South of Midnight looks a really interesting one. I was interested to note that the developers who were up on stage were both white and the story of South of Midnight centers around, southern American black, narrative. they did mention how they had taken great pains to ensure that the story was authentically told and kind of involved, that kind of lived experience in the development of the game. But I just thought it was interesting that the people standing on stage were both not, of that particular origin. Were you aware of South and Midnight

Jem 23:43

I think it's interesting, isn't it? Because obviously the people who go up to receive the award have to be the relevant people. And if those relevant people are white, then you know that's. That is the way it is. Years ago I heard a podcast um, reasons to be cheerful and they were talking about a sort of pay it forward anti-racism, system where, you know, if you can't. Bring more diverse people into your business, then maybe what you do is support a charity who brings people into your industry or something like that. You know, you support training, people or you know, a way to effectively help down the line. So I think, my initial thought is well. If the people who should have been there to collect the award were white, then that's just the way it is. I don't think that white people should not be allowed to make stories about black experiences I think we should be encouraging people to think about lives in other people's shoes, but I would've maybe like to have seen some balancing of the fact that there were two white people up there to collect an award about. Black experiences. And I think, you know, that would've been interesting to see that. And it would be nice if we could have more thought going into that. I'm not sure how that would look, but, you know, I also don't want them to just drag up, you know, a person of color that they found working in their offices to, you know,

Alex 25:20

would not be the way to

Jem 25:21

I mean, that would just be horrendous.

matt 25:22

Yeah, that's a bit surprising. And if it's done well and it's co cultural appreciation, not appropriation. 'cause so often we get the, the, the white persons. Impression of, of other cultures, which is why all Samurai films are the same 'cause they're just this noble, laconic warrior fighting for justice. When there's an incredible, it's incredibly reductive. Often when white people things about other cultures. And with this, it's one thing when, so like with Pocahontas, you center, the white man's, we, we identify with the white man. And then of course the incredibly, implicit racism of Tarzan. Of going, oh, a white man in the jungle with the animals. That's the clear subtext there. But there has to be a balanced way in there must, there is a way for to tell stories of other cultures, and it looks like maybe this one has done it well. And if it is, then it should be applauded and that it would be the worst thing to do. So if there may be, maybe they're the two narrative directors. They came up with all the story and everything, to go, oh, we've got one of the programmers who is a black woman and will bring her up on stage to do it. That would be disingenuous And even further reductive.

Jem 27:08

Yes,

Alex 27:09

Yeah, it would be tokenistic, wouldn't it? Almost.

Jem 27:12

I mean, surely they would've spoken with. Black people in order to write the story as part of their research process and engaged with people. And maybe what they should have done is bring up somebody from that group, from their research process and said, you know, they, we've created this story, but these are the people that supported us in this. As you say, appreciation, not appropriation is the important thing here.

Alex 27:45

Okay, so the final category for this particular episode is debut Game, and it was presented by Dylan and Emma. Dylan Luan, for those who think that name is familiar, he was in Derry Girls and he was also on race across the world with his mom, celebrity race across the world, and was incredibly moving in that as well. So if you're into that sort of thing, I recommend watching it as well. We have the following games, blueprints consume meat. De Clair Obscur Expedition 33 Dispatch and the Midnight Walk. And the winner was Clair Obscur Expedition 33. I had an interesting moment where I realized it lists the number of nominations for each game, and Clair Obscur has had 12 nominations. Which is the most nominations by far compared to all the other games. And this is the category that it has won in debut game. The next closest in terms of multiple nominations was dispatch with nine, which I think is really interesting as well. So it's clear that obviously. Clair Obscur has been the standout game all the award ceremonies, for this last year or so. but it's only won award here at the Baptist. So what are your thoughts on that? Has it been snubbed?

matt 29:22

I so at last, at last it is, it is getting a bit of what it deserves. But we talked about recently about how important award shows are these days, whether they actually impact people. Choosing to play games because they see them on awards. And then it, again, we ask what the point of award games are, is to choose their best, their best game in each category. But this feels so much in lots of ways, like them going, oh, well, just, it would be unfair if. If Clair Obscur wins everything the way that they did in the game awards, but then that, that is disingenuous because it's going right. We know that this one is the best one, but it's already won three other ones. So we'll give it to someone else I simply don't know.

Jem 30:19

In the November 24 to November 25 period, there was over 30,000 games released,

Alex 30:28

incredible.

Jem 30:28

I think that was just on Steam. Then you've got all the other ones that Steam doesn't carry for the consoles out of that 30,000. So the only ones that get submitted that get kind of considered for this have to self submit. So if they don't have a marketing team with a marketing budget, then they can't do that. Out of that 30,000 plus games, 255 games were submitted for consideration for the first round. I think my biggest issue is that there are so few games in the end that are being cycled through multiple categories, and I would rather see. If a game is like the best game, then that wins the best game. It doesn't need to win. Or the little extra bit says winning the best game means this game did all of this, or most of this the best. And then within that you've got your subcategories. I think things like music and. Voice acting and things may need their own categories and that you might find some games appearing in multiple categories there. But I think what's a real, real shame is that it's a relatively small selection of games. 42 games across 17 categories. So it's not, it's not a lot of games at the end when you think that there were 30,000 plus games released in that time period. It almost feels like, was that in the back of people's minds when they were choosing who was winning these categories? You know, did somebody want Clair Obscur to be the debut game? That put people off choosing it for the other categories it feels a bit stitched up to me, just that we've ended up with such a small amount of games

Alex 32:14

yeah, it's an interesting one, isn't it? You know, the whole process behind how games get nominated and the sort of list we end up with is an incredibly small percentage of the amount of games released as you see. we are barely on the tip of the iceberg, if you want to find out what our thoughts are on the remaining categories, so that's Game Beyond Entertainment, BAFTA Fellowship. The performer in a leading role and the best game at the BAFTAs, then you'll have to come back for a following episode. So we hope that you will do that, 'cause I'm sure we have plenty to say on those as well. And we are going to explore the controversies associated with the 2026. BAFTAs, and various other bits and bobs bits if you like. So tune in for that. We have new episodes every Thursday leave us some likes and comments. We love to hear from you. Thank you very much.

Jem 33:13

Thank you.

matt 33:14

I.