The five games that will win the 2025 Grammy Award for Best Game Soundtrack have been named.
It has a more formal name (“Best Score Soundtrack for Video Games and Other Interactive Media”) and will be presented for the first time at the 2023 ceremony. This will be the third “Game Grammy Award,” so this category is slowly taking root, first won by Assassin’s Creed Valhalla (Stephanie Economou and the Dawn of Ragnarok DLC beat out Aliens: Fireteam Elite, Call of Duty: Vanguard, Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy and Old World).
The 2024 award went to Respawn Entertainment’s Star Wars Jedi: Survivor (a third Star Wars Jedi is in the works), written by Stephen Barton and Gordy Haab. The game beat out Call of Duty: Modern Warfare II, God of War Ragnarok, Hogwarts Legacy and Stray Gods: The Roleplaying Musical for the award. But what are the new nominees?
- Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora (Composer: Pinar Toprak)
- God of War Ragnarök: Valhalla (Composer: Bear McCreary)
- Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 (Music by John Paesano)
- Star Wars: Outlaws (composer: Wilbert Roget, II)
- Wizardry: Proving Grounds of the Mad Overlord (score by Winifred Phillips)
This is the third nomination for Bear McCreary, who has been nominated every year (for God of War: Ragnarök and Call of Duty: Vanguard), and the only composer to be nominated. Perhaps he will win for the third time. According to the Recording Academy, the award “recognizes excellence in soundtrack albums consisting primarily of original music created specifically for, or as a companion to, a current video game or other interactive media released during the qualifying period.”
Sony should be pleased, as two of their games (God of War Ragnarök: Valhalla, Marvel’s Spider-Man 2) are among the nominees, while none of their Xbox exclusives made the list.
Source: VGC
