Next year's Grammy Awards will include video games in four of the awards' main categories, giving video games equal billing with film and television for the first time, according to media reports.
The four amended categories will now celebrate video game music alongside the usual nominations. The four awards are as follows:
The Music for Visual Media (Motion, Television, Video Game Music, or Other Visual Media)
Best Compilation Soundtrack for Visual Media (Motion, Television, Video Game Music, or Other Visual Media)
Best Score Soundtrack for Visual Media (Motion, Television, Video Game Music, or Other Visual Media)
Best Song Written for Visual Media (Motion, Television, Video Game Music, or Other Visual Media)
Vice president of The Recording Academy
Bill Freimuth told IndustryGamers, "Many people from the game community have been asking us to create a special category for games over the years, but the main reason we haven't is because we have received very few entries from game publishers."
Electronic Arts worldwide director of music and marketing Steve Schnur noted, "Hopefully, this will create an even playing field when people vote next year. I expect there to be a tidal wave of submissions from the game industry."
Earlier this year, composer
Christopher Tin picked up the first ever Grammy Award win for a video game theme with his track "Baba Yetu", the opening theme to strategy title
Civilization IV.
