Recently, the Recording Academy of America officially announced the complete list of nominations for the 68th Grammy Awards in 2026. Among them, the nomination results for the "Best Video Game and Other Interactive Media Soundtrack" award have triggered extensive discussions among players and music fans.
This award was established in 2023 to recognize outstanding music creation in the field of video games. 2026 will be the fourth year of this award.According to the selection rules, the participating soundtracks must be released between August 31, 2024 and August 30, 2025.
The five works and their composers nominated this time include:
"Avatar: Pandora's Frontier - Secret of the Spire": Composer Pinar Toprak
Submarine 2: Composer Wilbert Roget, II
"Raiders of the Lost Ark: The Ancient Circle": Composer Gordy Haab
Star Wars: Outlaws - Pirate Treasure: Composer Cody Matthew Johnson & Wilbert Roget, II
"Sword of the Sea": Composer Austin Wintory
It is worth noting that among the five nominated works, only the main games of "Battlefield 2" and "Sea Sword" were released during the selection period.The remaining two parts - "Avatar: Pandora's Frontier - Secret of the Spire" and "Star Wars: Outlaws - Pirate Treasure" are story expansion content (DLC) for the game, and their soundtracks are eligible because they were released during the selection period.The soundtrack of "Bad Boys 2" will be officially released on September 20, 2024, which meets the selection time requirements.
After the nomination list was announced, it quickly aroused dissatisfaction among the player community.Many game works that have been critically acclaimed in terms of music, such as "Light and Shadow: Expedition 33" and "Death Stranding 2", did not appear on the nomination list.
In addition, some players pointed out that the main bodies of "Avatar: Pandora's Frontier" and "Star Wars: Outlaws" were nominated in the previous selection, and their DLCs were selected again this time, while some new works failed to gain favor. This made some observers question the nomination review committee's familiarity with the game works.Looking back at the history of the award since its inception, music from popular works such as "Final Fantasy 16" has not been nominated, showing the continuing gap between its selection criteria and the general expectations of players and fans.
Past winners of this award are as follows:
2023 (first edition): "Assassin's Creed: Hall of Valor - Dawn of the End", composed by Stephanie Economou.
2024: "Star Wars Jedi: Survivors", composers Stephen Barton and Gordy Haab.
2025: "Witchcraft: The Mad Lord's Proving Ground", composed by Winifred Phillips.
The 68th Grammy Awards ceremony is scheduled to be held on February 1, 2026, when the final winner of this year’s game music award will be announced.
