Yesterday, Hades made history by becoming the first video game to ever win a Hugo Award, an annual literary award presented to the best science fiction or fantasy works from the previous year.
Hades was developed by Supergiant Games and released after a period in early access last year. Supergiant Games creative director, Greg Kasvin, tweeted his reaction to Hades winning the historic award, stating that although he wasn’t able to make it to the award ceremony, he was “grateful” that the Hugo Awards are “recognising work in this category, much less the work we did!”
Wish I could have attended the #HugoAwards in person. 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! pic.twitter.com/S9bfSp1i8H
— Greg Kasavin (@kasavin) December 19, 2021
Hades, developed by Supergiant Games, was a smash hit last year, winning plenty of awards. We even called it one of the best games of 2020. The roguelike was based on Greek mythology and told the story of Hades’ son Zagreus escaping the underworld, after dying a lot.
The other games nominated by the Hugo Awards this year were: Spiritfarer, The Last of Us 2, Animal Crossing: New Horizons, Final Fantasy 7 Remake, and Blaseball.
The Hugo Awards are an annual literary award given to various sci-fi and fantasy works at the World Science Fiction Convention every year. Normally, video games aren’t nominated for the award, however, this year a new category was introduced for video games. This follows years of conversations among the governing members behind the prestigious and long-running Hugo Awards. The new category is only, at least for now, a one-off thing, but it could continue in the future.
In recent years, the Hugo Awards have continued to expand beyond traditional literary works and authors. Past new categories added to the prestigious awards include Best Fanzine or Best Fancast, an award honouring great sci-fi and fantasy-focused podcasts and video series. It’s likely that, as gaming becomes more popular and continues to tell bigger, better stories involving sci-fi or fantasy, the Hugo Awards will look to add a more permanent award category for video games.
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