British Academy Games Award for Debut Game
Award
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The British Academy Video Games Award for Debut Game is an award presented annually by the British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA). It is given in honor of the best first game from any studio or individual.[1]
| British Academy Video Games Award for Debut Game | |
|---|---|
| Awarded for | The best first game from any studio or individual |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Presented by | BAFTA |
| First award | 2012 |
| Currently held by | Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 (2025) |
| Website | BAFTA Games Awards |
Since its inception, the award has been given to eleven games. The category was first presented at the 8th British Academy Video Games Awards ceremony, held in 2012, with the Microsoft Studios-published title Insanely Twisted Shadow Planet as the inagurual recipient.[2] The publishers Annapurna Interactive has received the most nominations in this category with six, followed by Xbox Game Studios with five. To date, no publisher has won in the category more than once.
The current holder of the award is Clair Obscur: Expedition 33, developed by Sandfall Interactive and published by Kepler Interactive, which won at the 22nd British Academy Games Awards in 2026.
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.
| Indicates the winner |
Multiple nominations
The following publishers received two or more Debut Game nominations:
| Nominations | Publisher |
|---|---|
| 6 | Annapurna Interactive |
| 5 | Microsoft/Xbox Game Studios |
| 4 | Devolver Digital |
| 3 | Sony Computer Entertainment/Sony Interactive Entertainment |
| 2 | Finji |