Assassin’s Creed, Call of Duty, and Aliens: Fireteam Elite among first video game Grammy nominees

I got the music in me

A few months ago, the Recording Academy announced it was adding five new categories to its annual Grammy Awards, including a new category solely for soundtracks to video games and other interactive media. A video game grammy award has been a long time coming, given how the medium has produced some of the most outstanding musical scores of the past 20 years. Just yesterday, The Game Awards announced its top picks for Best Score with Xenoblade Chronicles 3, Metal Hellsinger, Elden Ring, God of War Ragnarock, and A Plague Tale: Requiem making the cut. None of those games are up for the inaugural video game soundtrack Grammy, but that probably has to do with release scheduling and other requirements that might not have been met.

Instead, the five games nominated for Score Soundtrack for Video Games and Other Interactive Media are:

• Aliens: Fireteam Elite (Composer: Austin Wintory)
• Assassin’s Creed Valhalla: Dawn of Ragnarok (Composer: Stephanie Economou)
• Call of Duty: Vanguard (Composer: Bear McCreary)
• Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy (Composer: Richard Jacques)
• Old World (Composer: Christopher Tin)

Your guess is as good as mine as to what Old World is, but there are few recognizable names on that list. Bear McCreary is perhaps best known across the industry for his work scoring films like Godzilla: King of the Monsters, as well as video games like God of War and God of War Ragnarok. Austin Wintory is also a name you should know, given his work on titles like Journey and The Banner Saga trilogy.

To find out who takes home the inaugural video game Grammy, tune in to the Grammy pre-show on February 5, where this award is most likely to be handed out.