From Call of Duty to Super Mario Bros, Grammy video game score award category is proof of composers’ influence

A new Grammy category honouring video game soundtracks has finally given composers recognition for the impact of their work

Composers explain how different writing scores for games such as Assassin’s Creed and Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy is to composing for film and television

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Video games such as Call of Duty (above) and Super Mario Bros earn billions of dollars, and the games’ music is a vital part of the user experience. Now, the composers are being recognised with their own Grammy category. Photo: Sledgehammer games

Published: 1:45pm, 2 Feb 2023

From The Legend of Zelda theme to the infectious Super Mario Bros score, sound and music are foundational to the gaming experience.

And now, in a move many consider long overdue, the Recording Academy for the first time has created a Grammy category specifically honouring a video game soundtrack, an acknowledgement of the major impact gaming and its music have made on pop culture.

Previously video games were included in the score soundtrack for visual media category, which included music for film and television. But many industry players saw that as comparing apples and oranges, and pushed for a stand-alone video game category.

The inaugural class of nominees are the composers behind Aliens: Fireteam Elite, Assassin’s Creed Valhalla: Dawn Of Ragnarok, Call Of Duty: Vanguard, Marvel’s Guardians Of The Galaxy and Old World. The winner will be declared at a gala awards ceremony in Los Angeles on February 5.

“It still doesn’t seem quite real just yet,” says Richard Jacques, the British artist who wrote the Marvel score.