Following the unprecedented award of a collective Outstanding Achievement award to Rockstar North at the BAFTA Scotland awards, Rockstar as a whole is to receive a BAFTA Fellowship at this year’s Games Awards ceremony.
The Fellowship is awarded annually. It is the highest accolade bestowed by the Academy and recognises outstanding and exceptional contribution to film, television or games.
Previous games fellowship recipients include Gabe Newell, Peter Molyneux, Shigeru Miyamoto and Will Wright.
Sam Houser, Dan Houser, Leslie Benzies and Aaron Garbut will attend the BAFTA Games ceremony in March, to accept the accolade on behalf of the company.
According to BAFTA:
It is Rockstar Games’ revolutionary approach to games that helped bring the medium to the masses, particularly with Grand Theft Auto, one of the most critically acclaimed and commercially successful game series of all time.
It was the Grand Theft Auto series’ shift into 3D with Grand Theft Auto III that raised the bar for game-making, as players were immersed in a highly detailed, open world where they could explore gritty urban locations and follow the game’s narrative at their own pace. The game’s resounding success earned the company global recognition.
Grand Theft Auto IV moved the series into high definition and became one of the highest-rated games of all time. The game’s critical success was matched by sales; it earned the Guinness World Record for single day sales of an entertainment product, a record now held by the next game in the series, 2013’s Grand Theft Auto V.
The Grand Theft Auto series, alongside groundbreaking games such as L.A. Noire, Manhunt, Bully and Red Dead Redemption, cemented Rockstar Games’ reputation for creating intricately layered interactive worlds that have kept the company at the forefront of the gaming industry for over a decade, both critically and commercially.
Rockstar founder and CEO, Sam Houser, said:
We have long believed in the potential for videogames to become a new form of cultural expression and worked to show that in our games, so for us accepting the BAFTA Fellowship is incredibly humbling. This honour reflects the creative vision and dedication of a huge number of people over many years, and we look forward to accepting the Fellowship on their behalf.
Harvey Elliott, Chair of BAFTA’s Games Committee added:
It is hugely exciting to be able to recognise the amazing contribution made by Rockstar to the games industry over the past 16 years. The creativity and passion exhibited by the Rockstar teams have inspired a generation of game developers to raise the bar in every aspect of game development. From design and mechanics, through to storytelling, cinematics and audio immersion, and in the process creating games that compete so profoundly on a global stage across all entertainment media. Rockstar, this Fellowship is wholly deserved.
The British Academy Games Awards, hosted once more by gamer and Donkey Konga amateur, Dara O’Briain, take place on Wednesday 12 March at the Tobacco Dock, London.
Public tickets for the ceremony and Inside Games, BAFTA’s showcase of the latest games from the world’s biggest studios, can be purchased from http://bit.ly/InsideGames.
The ceremony will be streamed live online at Twitch.tv. For the first time, BAFTA Los Angeles will be celebrating the awards and the nominees with a series of special events in the USA.
BAFTA’s website, www.bafta.org will also feature red carpet highlights, photography and winners interviews, as well as dedicated coverage on its social networks including Facebook, Twitter, #BAFTAGames and Tumblr.
Another huge and well deserved win for the Rockstar team. Congratulations to every one of them…
