Subsequent yr’s Grammy nominees had been introduced Friday, and so they embody nominations for video video games like Helldivers 2, Indiana Jones and the Nice Circle, and Sword of the Sea, which was composed by earlier Grammy nominee Austin Wintory.
5 video games have been nominated for the Finest Soundtrack for Video Video games and Different Interactive Media Grammy, a class that was launched for the 2023 Grammys. (Stephanie Economou gained that yr for Murderer’s Creed Valhalla: Daybreak of Ragnarok.) The comparatively younger award is for composers “for an authentic rating created particularly for, or as a companion to, video video games and different interactive media,” in accordance with the Nationwide Academy of Recording Arts & Sciences, which runs the Grammys.
However Helldivers 2 followers might have a giant query about how the sport is eligible for a 2026 Grammy, when the sport was launched in February 2024. Nicely, I am going to inform you.
The eligibility interval for the 68th Grammy Awards — that ceremony will probably be held in February — ran from Aug. 31, 2024 to Aug. 30, 2025. Whereas Helldivers 2‘s launch date precedes that, developer Arrowhead Recreation Studios and composer Wilbert Roget, II did not formally launch the sport’s soundtrack till Sept. 20, 2024, comfortably throughout the window of eligibility.
Followers of technicalities might have comparable questions in regards to the different video video games nominated for subsequent yr’s Grammys, which observe.
- Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora – Secrets and techniques of the Spires — Pinar Toprak, composer
- Helldivers 2 — Wilbert Roget, II, composer
- Indiana Jones and the Nice Circle — Gordy Haab, composer
- Star Wars Outlaws: Wild Card & A Pirate’s Fortune — Cody Matthew Johnson & Wilbert Roget, II, composers
- Sword of the Sea — Austin Wintory, composer
Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora was initially launched exterior of the 2026 eligibility window, however its Secrets and techniques of the Spires DLC was launched on Nov. 28, 2024, making it eligible. Star Wars Outlaws is in an analogous boat; it was formally launched on Aug. 30, 2024, a day earlier than the Grammys window. The Wild Card and A Pirate’s Fortune DLC, nevertheless, fell throughout the interval of eligibility.
And in accordance with the Grammys’ guidelines for this form of factor:
A minimum of two-thirds of the musical tracks for the album should have been used within the shipped sport product, as both in-game, dwell motion play or Cinematics throughout the online game or interactive media product. Album releases will adhere to the identical timing pointers delineated within the Music For Visible Media Discipline whereby the media product and the soundtrack album usually usually are not in the identical eligibility yr. The Academy acknowledges these timing discrepancies, evaluates them and adjusts
accordingly. Eligible scores might embody vocal coloring (not songs) when used within the total texture of the composition, comparable to choral teams or solo voices with or with out phrases or syllables. Higher than 50% of the music on an in any other case eligible Video Recreation Soundtrack or Interactive Media soundtrack should be derived from new episodes or new programming that’s launched throughout the GRAMMY eligibility yr for which it’s entered. It will apply to new DLC (downloaded content material in-game) and Seasonal Expansions in addition to model new content material.
This yr’s batch of Finest Rating Soundtrack for Video Video games composers is a bunch with plenty of nominations. Wintory was beforehand nominated for Journey in 2013 (underneath the class Finest Rating Soundtrack for Visible Media) and for Aliens: Fireteam Elite and Stray Gods: The Roleplaying Musical. Toprak was beforehand nominated for the bottom model of Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora, and Roget was beforehand nominated for Star Wars Outlaws. Haab gained a Grammy in 2024 for Star Wars Jedi: Survivor, sharing the win together with his co-composer Stephen Barton.
The 2025 trophy for the Finest Rating Soundtrack for Video Video games and Different Interactive Media Grammy went to Wizardry: Proving Grounds of the Mad Overlord, an up to date model of a 44-year-old sport.
The 68th Grammy Awards will probably be held on Feb. 1, 2026.
