BRITISH ACADEMY GAMES AWARDS NOMINEES ANNOUNCED

JOURNEY LEADS WITH EIGHT NOMINATIONS

THE WALKING DEAD GAINS SEVEN NOMINATIONS

FAR CRY 3 GAINS SIX NOMINATIONS

DEAR ESTHER RECEIVES FIVE NOMINATIONS

HALO 4, BORDERLANDS 2, ASSASSIN'S CREED III AND THE ROOM RECEIVE FOUR NOMINATIONS EACH

London, 12 February 2013: The nominations for the British Academy Games Awards 2013 were announced today. This year a total of 53 games have been recognised across 17 categories, showcasing some of the most popular and groundbreaking games of the last 12 months and highlighting the phenomenal level of creativity from UK and international development teams.

Journey and The Walking Dead are both nominated for Best Game, Game Design, Story and Original Music. Journey also receivesnominations for Artistic Achievement, Audio Achievement, Game Innovation and Online-Multiplayer. The Walking Dead is also up for Mobile & Handheld as well as two nominations for Performer. Far Cry 3 and Dear Esther are both up for Artistic Achievement and Audio Achievement. Far Cry 3 is also nominated for Action, Story, Best Game and Game Design and Dear Esther for British Game, Debut Game and Performer.

Halo 4 is nominated for Action, Artistic Achievement, Audio Achievement and Online-Multiplayer. Borderlands 2 receives nominations for Action, Artistic Achievement, Game Design and Online-Multiplayer. Assassin's Creed III is up for Audio Achievement, Online-Multiplayer, Original Music and Performer. The Room is nominated for Artistic Achievement, British Game, Debut Game and Mobile & Handheld.

Call of Duty: Black Ops 2, Mass Effect 3, Dishonored, Forza Horizon, The Unfinished Swan and Thomas Was Alone all receive three nominations. Fifa 13, LEGO: The Lord of the Rings, Need for Speed Most Wanted, XCOM: Enemy Unknown, New Star Soccer and Diablo III all have two nominations.

Dear Esther, Forza Horizon, LEGO: The Lord of the Rings, Need for Speed Most Wanted, The Room and Super Hexagon are all nominated in this year's new category, Best British Game.

Names nominated in the Performer category are Adrian Hough (Haytham) - Assassin's Creed III, Danny Wallace (The Narrator) - Thomas Was Alone, Dave Fennoy (Lee Everett) - The Walking Dead, Melissa Hutchinson (Clementine) - The Walking Dead, Nigel Carrington (The Narrator) - Dear Esther and Nolan North (Nathan Drake) - Uncharted: Golden Abyss.

Other nominated games include: Hitman: Absolution, Beat Sneak Bandit, Deadlight, LEGO Batman 2: DC Super Heroes, Minecraft: XBOX 360 Edition, Skylander Giants, Merlin: The Game, Runescape,SongPop, F1 2012, Nike+ Kinect Training, Football Manager 2013, Great Big War Game and Total War Shogun 2: Fall of the Samurai.

Showcasing the best in young games development and design talent, the finalists in this year's BAFTA Ones To Watch Award in association with Dare to be Digital are Pixel Story, Project Thanatos and Starcrossed.

The British Academy Games Awards will take place on Tuesday 5th March at the London Hilton on Park Lane, and will be hosted for the fifth consecutive year by comedian and gamer Dara O'Briain. An Awards highlight’s show will be televised on Challenge (Sky: Ch 125, Freeview: Ch 46, Virgin: Ch 139) on Monday 11 March at 10pm and the evening will also be streamed live on Twitch.

For ticket information or any other Awards information, visit BAFTA’s website.

About the judging process:
Games were entered by both developers and publishers into all the categories listed in this release and were initially voted on by BAFTA’s video games members and a carefully selected list of industry experts via a secure website.

The titles receiving the most votes went through to specialist juries who judge the games prior to making their nominations.

Each juror signs confidentiality papers and casts his or her votes on paper. Theresults in each category are not known until the envelope is opened on the night.