You’d think that after more than a year since its release, Baldur’s Gate 3 would finally have stopped winning awards. And you’d be wrong. In addition to all the gold Larian’s epic RPG has racked up over the past 12 months, it’s now added Hugo Awardthe most prestigious award in science fiction and fantasy literature, for the best game or interactive work.
The Hugo Awards were first presented in 1953. Voting takes place at the World Science Fiction Convention and are intended to recognize outstanding works in a variety of categories, including best novel, best novella, best compact story, and more.
A dedicated video games category was added in 2021 to recognize the heightened impact of video games during the early days of the Covid-19 pandemic, but this was a one-time event: no gaming-related Hugo Awards will be awarded in 2022 or 2023.
But in 2023, Worldcon voted to make Best Game or Interactive Work a indefinite category for 2024—right? Just in time for the giant Baldur’s Gate 3 to crash through the walls like the Kool-Aid Man and run away with it. BG3 beat out Alan Wake 2 (again), Chants of Senaar, Dredge, The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom, and Star Wars Jedi: Survivor for the top prize.
“Hugo nominations and awards have always defined my reading list, so it’s a great honor to be standing here,” said Larian CEO Swen Vincke during his speech. acceptance speech (By Polygon).
“Video game writing is often underrated. It’s very, very, very hard work. For Baldur’s Gate 3, we had to create over 174 hours of cinematics to be able to respect the players’ choices and make sure that each player had an emotional story that reflected their choices and their agency. It takes a very long time, it takes a very large team… It takes a lot of perseverance and a lot of talent. So I’m very happy for all of them and for the whole team at home that we can do this, and I’m very grateful to the fandom.”
The words “hugo candidates” have defined my reading list since I was a kid. I am so grateful for that. Thank you worldcon and the entire fandom – it was great to meet you all!!! https://t.co/HHhzo37YHPAugust 12, 2024
Vincke isn’t kidding when he says Larian wanted to make sure Baldur’s Gate 3 was as responsive to player choices as possible: The studio recently revealed that the game’s rarest ending was unlocked by only 34 players—and remember, this is a game that’s sold over 10 million copies. (For a bit of extra context, Baldur’s Gate 3’s 1.9 million players were turned into a cheese wheel. Which is fine, really: Nobody has as many friends as a person with a lot of cheese.)
I wouldn’t dare to predict anything just yet, but I have a feeling that Baldur’s Gate 3 will stop winning awards soon, right? We’re definitely getting to the point where someone, somewhere, will say: listen, we need to start giving trophies to other people. Maybe not, but I don’t think Vincke minds: Back in July, he said that the number of awards Baldur’s Gate 3 was winning had become a real headache, to the point that the studio had begun sending “rotating teams” to the ceremonies so as not to disrupt ongoing development.
One thing the studio didn’t consider, despite this (undoubtedly enviable) headache, was dropping any of the events: “Because they’re important,” Vincke said, “and we really appreciate that.”
