Star Wars Jedi: Survivor has scooped this year's Grammy for best video game soundtrack making it the second game to receive the award since its inauguration last year.
Specifically given for "Best Score Soundtrack for Video Games and Other Interactive media", the award was won by Stephen Barton and Gordy Haab, for their work writing the score to Respawn Entertainment's latest Star Wars action-adventure.
Both men took to the stage to receive the award. Haab thanked his family for their "love and support", while Barton dedicated the award to his music teacher, saying "We had the choristers from the Pilgrim's school in Winchester come and record on this," and it "reminded me about music teachers being the most important thing".
Other games nominated this year included Hogwarts Legacy, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, and God of War: Ragnarok, whose soundtrack composer Bear McCreary was nominated for the second year running. Also selected in the category was Stray Gods, the interactive role-playing musical directed by former Dragon Age narrative David Gaider. Stray Gods' soundtrack was cowritten by Austin Wintory, marking this second concurrent nomination for him as well, following his work on the soundtrack for Aliens: Fireteam Elite.
The first dedicated Grammy award for a video game soundtrack was won last year by Stephanie Economou, for her work on the score for Assassin's Creed Valhalla: Dawn of Ragnarök. To claim the title, Valhalla beat several other games including Marvel's Guardians of the Galaxy, and Call of Duty: Vanguard.
This isn't the first major award not-specific to the games industry that Respawn Entertainment has won. In 2021, the studio won the Oscar for Best Documentary short, which was awarded to Antony Giacchino for his work on Collette, an immersive VR film about a former French Resistance fighter originally featured in Respawn's VR World War 2 shooter Medal of Honor: Above and Beyond.
Jedi Survivor has been steadily on the up since its decidedly rough PC launch in April last year, with numerous patches since released to address its performance issues. More broadly, The game beatthe launch sales of Jedi: Fallen Order by 30%, with publisher EA pleased by the game's critical and commercial reception. It also took home PC Gamer's hotly coveted Best Adventure award for 2023, which will no doubt sit proudly alongside Respawn's Oscar and Grammy. A third Jedi game is in the works according to lead actor Cameron Monaghan, although this one will be made without previous game director Stig Asmussen at the helm.
