Respawn just became the first Oscar-winning game developer

A still from Colette, a documentary produced by Respawn and Oculus

(Image credit: The Guardian)

Respawn Entertainment might be the first and only studio to call itself "Oscar-winning", after a short WW2 film it helped produce won Best Documentary (Short Subject) at the Academy Awards this weekend.

Colette, a documentary joint-produced by Respawn and Oculus and freely distributed by The Guardian, follows one of the last surviving members of the French resistance as she returns to Germany for the first time in 74 years, visiting the concentration camp where her brother was killed.

The documentary was produced as part of several live-action, historical shorts created for the studio's VR shooter, Medal Of Honor: Above And Beyond, and names Respawn CEO Vince Zampella as a co-producer. Naturally, the studio is pretty damn chuffed to be the first game studio to be awarded an Oscar win.

We're over the moon about Colette's Best Documentary (Short Subject) #Oscars win tonight! From Vince, Peter, and all of us at Respawn, we are humbled and honored. Thank you.And if you haven't seen the film, you can watch it for free here: https://t.co/CxwNGWMOXvApril 26, 2021

We were less hot on Medal Of Honor: Above And Beyond itself, with reviewer Tyler Wilde finding an "inconsistent, sometimes boring virtual reality World War 2 adventure". Now that Respawn has established it can produce Oscar winning documentaries, we can only hope it can put those chops into financing a heartfelt flick about a wallrunning soldier and his giant robot boyfriend.

Please?

20 years ago, Nat played Jet Set Radio Future for the first time, and she's not stopped thinking about games since. Joining PC Gamer in 2020, she comes from three years of freelance reporting at Rock Paper Shotgun, Waypoint, VG247 and more. Embedded in the European indie scene and a part-time game developer herself, Nat is always looking for a new curiosity to scream about—whether it's the next best indie darling, or simply someone modding a Scotmid into Black Mesa. She also unofficially appears in Apex Legends under the pseudonym Horizon.