Hades has won a Hugo Award for Best Video Game, making it the first video game to ever win one from the science-fiction awards group.
Typically, the Hugo Awards are just for literary fiction, focusing on science-fiction and fantasy. It has been operating since 1953, but up until now has never given an award for Best Video Game. The award is meant to be a one-off, with Hades beating out The Last of Us Part 2, Spiritfarer, Final Fantasy VII Remake, Animal Crossing: New Horizons, and Blaseball.
Creative director of Hades Greg Kasavin wasn’t able to accept the Hugo Award in person, but did put out a video on Twitter expressing his thanks. “Wish I could have attended the Hugo Awards in person,” Kasavin captioned the tweet. “I wasn’t able to make an acceptance speech there on behalf of the team though did have a few words here. I’m grateful that the awards are recognizing work in this category, much less the work we did!”
While this is a one-off award, a permanent addition is being considered. The Hugo Awards has always given accolades in quite a broad range of categories. It’s one of the few awards organisations that recognises fan work. There has been a Best Fan Writer category since 1967, and Best Fan Artist since the same year.
While video games don’t need recognition from other artistic mediums, it is great to see a game like Hades take home the award. Hopefully a permanent award category will be considered, so a bigger spotlight can be placed on indie games in the future.
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Featured Image Credit: Supergiant Games