This year is only the second that the Grammy Awards has recognised video game soundtracks with its own dedicated awards category, and the competition for this year’s accolade was certainly fierce, but only one video game score could go home with the gilded gramophone.
Beating out the likes of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare II, God of War Ragnarök, Hogwarts Legacy and Melbourne’s very own Stray Gods: The Roleplaying Musical, the winner of this year’s Grammy for Best Score Soundtrack for Video Games and Other Interactive Media was Star Wars Jedi: Survivor – and by extension, composers Stephen Barton and Gordy Haab.
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
When it was first introduced in 2022 (and subsequently first awarded in 2023), the Recording Academy said that the award would recognise “excellence in score soundtrack albums comprised 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.”
We gave Star Wars Jedi: Survivor a huge 9/10 in our review last year, saying, “Jedi: Survivor feels like it has something to prove. Maybe to the team behind it, whose ambitions for Cal have clearly grown exponentially in the interim years, and maybe to its audience, who the game places explicit trust in. It’s a game that dances, gleefully, in the tonal dissonance of its Star Wars building blocks. Colliding power fantasy mechanics, high-concept sci-fi and nuanced, character-driven writing, the end result occasionally stumbles trying to hold it all together but ultimately emerges a roaring success of genre melding. Jedi: Survivor is a monument to the best of Star Wars.”
