The 65th Annual Grammy Awards took place last night and featured a brand-new category aimed at recognizing the music composed for video games. The Best Score Soundtrack for Video Games and Other Interactive Media pitted five incredible scores against each other in a historic night for the industry that should only help elevate the music gamers have adored for so long.Despite a growing presence of video game concerts and even classical radio stations dedicating time to video game music, a unique category at the Grammy Awards is arguably the most mainstream display of appreciation of video game music seen in years. Previous Grammy nominees Christopher Tin and Austin Wintory were both up for this new award having composed Old World and Aliens: Fireteam Elite respectively. Call of Duty: Vanguard, Assassin's Creed Valhalla: Dawn of Ragnarok, and Marvel's Guardians of the Galaxy were also nominated, making for a highly competitive crowd.Stephanie Economou was announced as the first ever winner for The Best Score Soundtrack for Video Games Grammy. Economou's speech came nowhere near the length of Christopher Judge's famous Game Awards acceptance soliloquy, but she still managed to thank everyone from the team at Ubisoft to her family. She concluded by recognizing those that fought tirelessly to bring the category into existence, and thanking The Recording Academy for both the honor and for validating "the power of game music."
Assassin's Creed Valhalla was not perfectly received by critics or fans, but it has certainly seen a staggering amount of additional content and grown to become one of Ubisoft's most successful titles. Although it released in 2020, last year saw the arrival of Dawn of Ragnarok - a DLC larger than most games. While some fans were disappointed by the narrative, Dawn of Ragnarok still managed to deliver with its soundtrack, continuing a positive trend for Assassin's Creed titles. Austin Wintory, a fellow nominee, previously worked on Assassin's Creed Syndicate, the last entry in the franchise before it underwent a significant change in direction.
Some have been questioning why Bear McCreary was nominated for Call of Duty: Vanguard and not God of War Ragnarok, Sony's most recent PlayStation exclusive that has seen universal praise for everything from its combat to story. McCreary stellar soundtrack for Kratos and Atreus was unfortunately outside the time-frame for the 2023 Grammys, as the OSTs had to be released between October 1, 2021, and September 30, 2022.
Assassin's Creed Valhalla is out now for PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X.