Larian’s game will almost certainly not win any more awards after this, so while Star Trek has space as its final frontier, Baldur’s Gate has the Hugo Award…!

It’s been a year since the release of Larian’s excellent role-playing game, and in that time the Belgian team’s game has won a truckload of awards. And now we can add a really prestigious one to the list, as Baldur’s Gate 3 has won the Hugo Award, the most prestigious award in science fiction and fantasy literature, in the category of Best Game or Interactive Work. The Hugo Award is the second most prestigious science fiction award, after the Nebula Award, and was first presented in 1953 at the 11th Worldcon. The award is sponsored by the World Science Fiction Society and has several categories.

In addition to short stories (<7500 words), there are novelettes (7500-17500 words), novellas (17500-40000 words), novels (>40,000 words), dramatic presentations (short/long format), comics, and non-fiction, and that’s just a small part of the list. This category was added in 2021, and in 2023 the Worldcon decided to make Best Game/Interactive Work a permanent category starting in 2024 (no award was given in 2022 and 2023). Baldur’s Gate 3 beat out Alan Wake II, Chants of Senaar, Dredge, The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom, and Star Wars Jedi: Survivor.

The words « hugo nominated » determined my reading list since I was a kid. Very grateful for this one. Thank you worldcon and all of the fandom – it was great meeting you all!!! https://t.co/HHhzo37YHP

— Swen Vincke @where? (@LarAtLarian) August 12, 2024

“The Hugo nominees and winners have always determined my reading list, so it’s a great honor to be standing here. Writing video games is often underestimated. It is very, very, very hard work. For Baldur’s Gate 3, we had to create over 174 hours of cinematics to respect the player’s choices and make sure that every single one of them had an emotional story that reflected their choices and their agency. It takes a very long time, it takes a very large team… It takes a lot of persistence and a lot of talent. So I’m very happy for all of them and for the whole team back home that we can get this, and very grateful to the fandom,” said Larian boss Swen Vincke during his acceptance speech.

Congratulations, but maybe it’s time to let the developers get on with it!

Source: PCGamer