"Best Score Soundtrack for Video Games and Other Interactive Media" was a category added to the 65th Grammy Awards, no doubt in part due to the bump in attention they received after awarding the 8-Bit Big Band for their cover performance of Meta Knight's Revenge during the 64th. Here's the announcement of last year's winner from the off-broadcast auxiliary awards show:
This year's nominees are:
- Bear McCreary; God of War Ragnarök
- Jess Serro, Tripod & Austin Wintory; Stray Gods: The Roleplaying Musical
- Peter Murray, J Scott Rakozy & Chuck E. Myers; shitty wizard game
- Sarah Schachner; Call of Duty: Modern Warfare II (no, the other one. yes, it's new)
- Stephen Barton & Gordy Haab; Star Wars Jedi: Survivor
Both this year's and last year's nominees are, unsurprisingly, plucked mostly from the typical Western/Hollywood-style big budget orchestral scores that accompany AAA single-player affairs. Only Stray Gods' soundtrack begins to stretch beyond those bounds just a little, but not in a way that's too out-of-pocket for the Grammys. Austin Wintory and Bear McCreary are both here for the second year in-a-row, with God of War's soundtrack also up for an award in the "Best Immersive Audio Album" (formerly "Surround Sound") category.