The Recording Academy has announced the nominees for the 2024 Grammys, including the maestros who’ll be competing in the Best Score Soundtrack for Video Games and Other Interactive Media category.
The new category was introduced last year to help spotlight the talented musicians working in the games industry, with Assassin’s Creed Valhalla composer Stephanie Economou taking home the inaugural prize.
This year’s nominees include Call of Duty: Modern Warfare II composer Sarah Schachner, God of War Ragnarok maestro Bear McCreary, and Star Wars Jedi: Survivor composers Stephen Barton and Gordy Haab.
Those three are joined by Stray Gods: The Roleplaying Musical soundsmiths Jess Serro, Tripod, and Austin Wintory; and Hogwarts Legacy composers Peter Murray, J Scott Rakozy & Chuck E. Myers.
There are some familiar faces among this year’s nominees. Wintory previously received a Grammy nod for Best Score for Visual Media in 2014 with thatgamecompany’s Journey and was nominated last year for his work on Aliens: Firetime Elite.
Bear McCreary was also in contention for last year’s award for scoring Call of Duty: Vanguard.
This is only the second time video games have competed in their own specific category, but they have appeared at the show prior to 2023. Christopher Tin spotlighted game music at the 2011 awards when his track ‘Baba Yetu,’ which he wrote for Civilization IV, featured on his Grammy-nominated album Calling All Dawns.
More recently, The 8-Bit Big Band won in the Best Arrangement, Instrumental or A Cappella category in 2022 for their take on ‘Meta Knight’s Revenge’ from Kirby Super Star.