Baldur’s Gate 3 won the premier award for narrative excellence in sci-fiction and fantasy media on Sunday. The World Science Fiction Convention (WSFC) awarded the Hugo Award for Best Game or Interactive Work to the sweeping Dungeons & Dragons-inspired adventure from Larian Studios, beating out competitors like The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom, Alan Wake 2, and Star Wars Jedi: Survivor.
The WSFC announced the award winners on Sunday at Worldcon, held this year in Glasgow, Scotland. Baldur’s Gate 3 is the second video game to win the newly created category at the annual Hugo Awards. A small group of developers from Larian Studios attended the event and huddled around studio founder Swen Vincke as he gave an acceptance speech.
“I’m very grateful that you created this award and this category. Video game writing is often underestimated.” Vincke said, “It is very, very, very hard work. For Baldur’s Gate 3, we had to create over 174 hours of cinematics just to be able to respect the choices of the players and to make sure that each and every single one of them would have an emotional story that was reflecting their choices and agency.”
You can view the moment and the full event online via the livestream recording.
The WSFC has celebrated works of sci-fiction and fantasy since the 1950s but historically focused on visual art and literature. The organization attempted to create an award for Best Interactive Video Game in 2006 but didn’t receive enough nominations. Then in 2021, it proposed a category for video games and interactive media as a one-off award. Hades won the Hugo for best video game in its inaugural year. That makes Baldur’s Gate 3 only the second game to win the award.
Now, Larian Studios can add another jewel to its glistening crown of achievements. Baldur’s Gate 3 has already won the Game of the Year Award at five major video game award ceremonies: the Golden Joystick Awards, The Game Awards, the D.I.C.E. Awards, the Game Developers Choice Awards, and the British Academy Games Awards, also known as the BAFTA. And that’s in addition to it being a commercial success, outselling previous titles from the studio.
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