Supergiant Games’ Greek mythology-themed roguelike game Hades has made history this week by becoming the first video game in history to earn a Hugo award.
The Hugo Awards is a long-running award given by the World Science Fiction Society (WSFS) that celebrates the very best work in science fiction and fantasy.
Some of the previous winners of the award include Frank Herbert’s seminal science fiction saga Dune and William Gibson’s Neuromancer (which heavily influenced the creation of the cyberpunk genre).
Although the awards have been around since 1953, video games have historically not been considered for them.
It was only this year, in 2021, that a category known as the “Best Video Game” was introduced and Hades has gone on to be the first ever game to win it.
The organizers have reportedly been considering adding video games for awards consideration for some time now and finally, it seems we are here.
Some of the other games nominated in the same category include Animal Crossing: New Horizons, Spiritfarer, Final Fantasy VII: Remake, the Last of Us: Part II, and Blaseball.
The award was accepted by Supergiant Games’ writer and creative director Greg Kasavin, who shared some words of appreciation from himself and the whole team. He went on to state that it was a great honor to win the first ever Hugo Award for video games.
You can check out his response below.
Hades has been earning awards left and right since it came out.
Some of its previous accolades include 9 awards at the very first Global Game Industry Awards, the best game at GDC Choice Awards 2021, wins at the BAFTA Game Awards 2021, SXSW Gaming Awards 2021, and more.
We at Emmen Gaming are quite thrilled to hear this news for two main reasons.
Firstly because Hades is without a doubt a masterpiece.
It combines excellent roguelike gameplay with an exceptional story full of brilliantly realized characters who hail from Greek mythology.
Secondly, there has been an ongoing conversation over many years about whether video games are art or not. (We are of the opinion that they ARE art by the way, but that’s a topic for another day.)
Seeing video games being considered for prestigious long running awards like this only helps to legitimize video games as a “respectable” medium of art worth celebrating amongst the general public who may not have the same attachment and love for gaming that we do.
As such, this win is both a win for Hades and the games medium as a whole.
We would like to take this moment to congratulate Supergiant Games for this fantastic and historic achievement. It was truly a well-deserved one.
We will be ending this story by linking you to our review of Hades below. (Spoiler alert: We totally loved it and you should strongly consider playing it.)
Emmen Gaming 