Video games set for high-profile UK awards

The British Academy of Film and Television Arts has announced two major sponsors for the 2006 British Academy Video Games Awards. At a launch event on Friday at the BAFTA headquarters in London, Nokia N-Gage and PC World were revealed as the joint sponsors of the awards, which will be celebrated as part of the London Games Festival. Nokia N-Gage is also sponsoring the Gamers' Award, which will be decided by votes from the public.

BAFTA has been recognising video games within its interactive awards since 1998, but this year marks the largest recognition of the sector, with 18 categories of awards and a high-profile ceremony set to take place at the Roundhouse in London on October 5. Speaking at the launch event, the chairman of BAFTA, Hilary Bevan-Jones, said that the expansion of the video game awards to the level of their prestigious counterparts in film and television was a recognition that 'this art form has truly come of age'.

The launch of the 2006 British Academy Video Games Awards was welcomed by Shaun Woodward, minister for creative industries and tourism, who said that the games industry in the UK (which is the third-largest market in the world, behind the US and Japan) was 'one of the UK's most important creative industries'.

The London event was headlined by a presentation from Will Wright, the vice president and chief designer for Electronic Arts who is legendary in the industry for his innovation in games such as The Sims and the upcoming Spore. Underlining the theme of the event that games are all about art and creativity, Wright's message was that games are evolving from a 'trivial art from to a world of self-expression'.

The categories for the awards (the shortlists will be announced on September 12) are action & adventure, strategy, simulation, sports, massively multiplayer, children's, casual & social (which includes both arcade and mobile phone games), audio, soundtrack, original score, technical achievement, artistic achievement, screenplay, gameplay, innovation, character, and the game of the year.

GameSpot will bring you the news of the 2006 British Academy Video Games Awards shortlists and winners as soon as they are available.