The British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA) is the latest organization to cancel a live event due to concerns regarding the coronavirus outbreak that shut down the 2020 NBA Season and gaming conferences like E3. Its annual BAFTA Game Awards, originally meant to be a red carpet ceremony at Queen Elizabeth Hall in London on April 2, 2020, will now be an online live stream.
BAFTA put out a statement regarding the change earlier today saying "[t]he health and wellbeing of our guests and our staff remain our top priority, so there will be no live audiences," and the organization is "in the process" of telling the nominees and others who would be staffing and catering the event. In the same statement it was announced the Television Craft Awards on April 26 and the Virgin Media British Academy Television Awards on May 17 will go on as scheduled for now.
Last month BAFTA revealed that Hideo Kojima would receive the Fellowship, an award that recognizes an individual's contribution to film, television, and games which has previously been given to game industry titans like Gabe Newell and Shigeru Miyamoto. According to BAFTA's statement today, "[t]he new format will include the announcement of the Games Awards winners."
On Wednesday the World Health Organization declared the coronavirus outbreak a pandemic, as over 118,000 cases have been found across every continent except for Antarctica. As previously mentioned events like E3 and the Game Developers Conference have been suspended, and high-profile individuals like Tom Hanks announced he and Rita Wilson have contracted the disease.
There are six games nominated for 'Best Game' at the 2020 BAFTA Awards: Remedy Entertainment's Control, ZA/UM's Disco Elysium, Nintendo's Luigi's Mansion 3, Mobius Digital's Outer Wilds, FromSoftware's Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice, and House House's Untitled Goose Game. Last year the Best Game award was given to Santa Monica Studio's God of War.
While that award and 17 others will still be recognized on April 2, the fact they will only be presented through a live stream is one of many unprecedented moves by various groups internationally meant to combat the spread of the current coronavirus pandemic. The movie industry has also been hit hard, and films like Universal Pictures' Fast 9 will be pushing their global release dates to 2021.
Sources: BAFTA Statement, BAFTA Game Awards Nominees, CNN