2025's videogame Grammy nominations are the normal AAA fare and one surprising indie entry

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Marvel, Avatar, Star Wars, God of War, and... Wizardry?!

Wizardry: Proving Grounds of the Mad Overlord
(Image credit: Digital Eclipse)

The 2025 Grammy awards nominations for videogame soundtracks are now out, with a slate of big-money games joined by one scrappy upstart for the prize. The award might go to Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora, God of War Ragnarök: Valhalla, Marvel's Spider-Man 2, Star Wars Outlaws, or—and you didn't see this coming at all, I swear: Wizardry: Proving Grounds of the Mad Overlord, the remake of RPG classic Wizardry.

That might be because it's a soundtrack composed by Winifred Philips, a veteran game composer whose works over the years have included an extremely diverse range from the first God of War and Assassin's Creed 3 to work on the Total War series. Philips has already gotten some second-string awards for the soundtrack, two NYX Game Awards and a Telly Award.

The other composers nominated are no joke, though: Most of them are heavyweight videogame and movie composers, including perennial sci-fi and fantasy favorite composer Bear McCreary's work on God of War Ragnarök: Valhalla. Wizardry's soundtrack is the underdog, for sure. You can listen to it on Philips' Bandcamp or on Spotify.

  • Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora — Pinar Toprak, composer
  • God of War Ragnarök: Valhalla — Bear McCreary, composer
  • Marvel's Spider-Man 2 — John Paesano, composer
  • Star Wars Outlaws — Wilbert Roget, II, composer
  • Wizardry: Proving Grounds of the Mad Overlord — Winifred Phillips, composer

You can see the full text of the 2025 Grammy nominations on the grammy website.

Jonathan Bolding
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Jon Bolding is a games writer and critic with an extensive background in strategy games. When he's not on his PC, he can be found playing every tabletop game under the sun.