The 26th edition of the World Soundtrack Awards will take place on October 10 and will celebrate a wide range of composers, spanning film, TV, and, of course, video games. Yesterday, the academy released the full list of nominees on its website. Let's take a look at the Game Music Award nominees' shortlist.
- Cthulhu: The Cosmic Abyss - Nicolas Garcia
- Crimson Desert - Hwiman Ryu, Inro Joo, Hyoung Woo Roh, Jiyoon Kim, Dongjune Oh
- Dispatch - Andrew Arcadi
- Marathon - Ryan Lott
- UNBEATABLE - rj lake, Vasily Nikolaev, Rachel Lake, and Clara Maddux (D-CELL SOUND TEAM)
I'm thrilled to see Marathon getting proper recognition for its outstanding soundtrack, but, deep down, I'm rooting for UNBEATABLE, if only for the cultural impact D-CELL's game seems to have on its players. The studio has recently released all four of the game's soundtracks on streaming services—have a listen right here.
Dispatch is another obvious choice for the Academy, with its 1980s, synth-pop-infused score, elevated by on-point licensed tracks such as Bershy's "Radio," which has already racked up over 45 million streams on Spotify alone. I also want to highlight the stellar music French composer Nicolas Garcia crafted for Cthulhu: The Cosmic Abyss, which features star cellist Tina Guo across most of the tracks. I'm bummed the game didn't attract more attention, even more since Big Bad Wolf Studio was shut down by Nacon last June.
Finally, even though the game is extremely popular and Pearl Abyss is doing remarkable work smoothing out rough edges and rolling out new content, I wasn't particularly moved by Crimson Desert's music. Don't get me wrong: it works well in context, but I believe a soundtrack worthy of an award must be compelling enough to enjoy even when the game is turned off. Decide for yourself with the first volume of the OST on your favorite streaming platform.
It's now up to the World Soundtrack Academy to choose who will follow in the footsteps of Lorien Testard, who deservedly won the award last year for his outstanding score on Clair Obscur: Expedition 33.
Speaking of award-winning composers, Gordy Haab has just released his new soundtrack for Star Wars: Zero Company. Have a listen right here!
