Hades just made history by winning the Hugo Award, the first one ever by a video game. Ever since the award’s inception, the committee has never considered a video game for a Hugo before. Meanwhile, it’s only this year that a special category for the ‘best video game’ was added.
While the best video game category is still not permanent on the committee’s list, Hades winning a Hugo Award as the best video game of 2021 is still a commendable feat. Moreover, it’s no less than any permanent category Hugo Award winner.
For the uninitiated, Hugo Awards are annual literary awards recognizing various sci-fi and fantasy works. The awards were incepted in 1953 and are administered by members of the World Science Fiction Convention (WorldCon). The Hugo Awards are the most prestigious awards in the science fiction world, given to works like Dune, Harry Potter books, among others.
Much suited Hugo Award for Hades
While Supergiant’s Hades is among the beautifully crafted and well thought out video games produced in recent years, Hades winning a Hugo Award came as a surprise. The game had to compete with other fantastic games like Final Fantasy VII Remake, Animal Crossing: New Horizons, The Last of Us: Part II, and Blaseball.
In addition, Hades’ writer and creative director Greg Kasavin shared his sentiments on Twitter, saying how the writer and his team are honored to have been recognized for the award. Furthermore, he was “grateful” that the Hugo Awards committee is “recognizing work in this category, much less the work we did!”
The category for the best video games was introduced for the first time at Hugo Awards and is still not permanent. However, Hades’ win will be etched in the memory as a truly well-deserving and excellent start for video games in the awards ceremony. Meanwhile, the addition of this category in Hugo Awards is not an overnight thing but a result of years of deliberations by the governing body.
With this, we can only wish that the category continues to be a part of the Hugo Awards and, with games like and better than Hades, continue to win in the coming years. Ultimately, let us know which game you think is deserving of winning the best video game at the Hugo Awards.
