Survivor’ wins Grammy for best video game score

Star Wars Jedi: Survivor is now a Grammy award-winning game after picking up the trophy for best soundtrack at the 2024 ceremony.

Launched last year, the Best Score Soundtrack for Video Games and Other Interactive Media Grammy is awarded “for an original score created specifically for, or as a companion to, video games and other interactive media”.

The trophy “recognises excellence in score soundtrack albums composed predominantly of original scores and created specifically for, or as a companion to, a current video game or other interactive media released within the qualification period,” explained the Recording Academy.

The inaugural best gaming soundtrack Grammy was won by Stephanie Economou for her work on Assassin’s Creed Valhalla: Dawn of Ragnarök and last night (February 4) Stephen Barton and Gordy Haab became the second people to win the award for their score for Star Wars Jedi: Survivor.

Other nominees included composers who had worked on the likes of Hogwarts Legacy, Call Of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, God Of War: Ragnarök and Stray Gods: The Roleplaying Musical.

Congrats Best Score Soundtrack for Video Games and Other Interactive Media winners – @composerbarton & @gordyhaab (“Star Wars Jedi: Survivor”) #GRAMMYs 🎶

WATCH NOW https://t.co/OuKk34kvdu pic.twitter.com/f3HxBHV2UK

— Recording Academy / GRAMMYs (@RecordingAcad) February 4, 2024

In a five star review of the game, NME wrote: “The best action adventure released in 2023 so far, Star Wars Jedi: Survivor has a confidence to its world and the play that it totally manages to back up by how fun it is. A must-play, perhaps the best action game of the generation so far.”

Announcing the new category in 2022 alongside four others, Recording Academy CEO Harvey Mason Jr said: “We’re so excited to honour these diverse communities of music creators through the newly established awards and amendments, and to continue cultivating an environment that inspires change, progress and collaboration.

“The Academy’s top priority is to effectively represent the music people that we serve, and each year, that entails listening to our members and ensuring our rules and guidelines reflect our ever-evolving industry.”

Following her win, Economou said: “Whoever won this category, it was going to be a huge celebration, because it’s such a win to even have the validation from the Recording Academy to have video games as their own thing.”

“It’s so crazy that it did take this long to recognise video game music on its own,” she added.

In other news, Naughty Dog boss and The Last Of Us co-creator Neil Druckmann has teased “one more chapter” in the franchise with The Last Of Us Part 3.