The Grammys made history last night when, if you really care, it handed out the first awards just for video game soundtracks.
While games have been all over the Grammys in previous years (Austin Wintory won one for Journey), there wasn’t an award specifically for video games. But this year is different! Who won the first award? Stephanie Economou, for her work on Assassin’s Creed Valhalla and its Ragnarok Dawn expansion. This does have an asterisk, host, comedian Randy Rainbow, A bit biffed Valhalla pronunciationbut hey, an award is an award.
Valhalla (or Valaha) is nominated alongside a string of other games that honestly don’t make much sense, including Wintory reappearing in Aliens: Fireteam Elite, Richard Jascques’ Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy, Bear McCreary’s Call of Duty: Vanguard , Christopher Tin of the old world.
It’s an odd list, not only because it doesn’t seem to be representative of the musical depth of the games industry, but because only CoD: Vanguard and Marvel’s GOTG actually made an appearance during this year’s Grammys’ eligibility window. Valhalla also comes out in 2020, although Dawn of Ragnarok did come out last year, so we’ll be slowing down.
Economou’s acceptance speech was great, though, because she did take the time to acknowledge the effort that went into presenting the award. “I just want to recognize all the people who have worked so tirelessly to make this type of video game music a reality,” Economou said. “Thank you for acknowledging and validating the power of video game music, it’s such an honor.”
As far as Ubisoft’s next steps are concerned, it sounds like Far Cry 7 and Far Cry multiplayer are in the works, which doesn’t sound particularly surprising.
