Baldurs Gate 3 won the top prize for narrative excellence in sci-fiction and fantasy media on Sunday. The World Science Fiction Convention (WSFC) awarded the Hugo Award for Best Game or Interactive Work to Larian Studios’ immersive Dungeons & Dragons-inspired adventure, beating out competitors such as The Legend of Zelda: Kingdom Tears, Alan Awake 2And Star Wars Jedi: Survivor.
The WSFC announced the prize winners on Sunday Worldconheld this year in Glasgow, Scotland. Baldurs Gate 3 is the second video game to win the newly created category at the annual Hugo Awards. A small group of developers from Larian Studios attended the event, and gathered around studio founder Swen Vincke as he gave a speech of thanks.
“I’m very grateful that you created this award and this category. Writing about video games is often underestimated.” Vincke said: “It’s very, very, very hard work. For Baldurs Gate 3, We had to shoot over 174 hours of cinematics to respect the players’ choices and make sure that each of them would have an emotional story that reflected their choices and agency.”
You can watch the moment and the entire event online via the livestream recording.
The WSFC has celebrated science fiction and fantasy works since the 1950s, but historically focused on visual art and literature. The organization sought to create an award for Best Interactive Video Game in 2006 but didn’t get enough nominations. Then in 2021, it introduced a category for video games and interactive media as a one-time award. Hades won the Hugo for best video game in its inaugural year. That makes Baldurs Gate 3 only the second game to win this award.
Now Larian Studios can add another jewel to its shining crown of achievements. Baldurs Gate 3 has already won the Game of the Year Award at five major video game awards ceremonies: the Golden Joystick Awards, The Game Awards, the DICE Awards, the Game Developers Choice Awards, and the British Academy Games Awards, also known as BAFTA. And that’s in addition to being a commercial success, surpasses the studio’s previous titles.