'I cannot believe this': Composer Winifred Phillips was 'blown away' after winning a Grammy for a remake of a 44-year-old RPG
Wizardry: Proving Grounds of the Mad Overlord debuted in 1981 for the Apple II and very quickly became a hit, launching an acclaimed and influential series of RPGs that would persist throughout the 1980s and '90s. A remake of that game dropped in 2024, and to our great surprise it was nominated for a Grammy Award in the «Best Score Soundtrack for Videogames and Other Interactive Media» category. And last night, to our even greater surprise, it won.
«We're overjoyed for @winphillips on her well-deserved Grammy win for her soundtrack to Wizardry: Proving Grounds of the Mad Overlord!» developer Digital Eclipse posted on Bluesky. «The album is downloadable for free from her Bandcamp page—congratulations, Winifred!»
As we said when the nominations were announced in 2024, Wizardy appeared to be a real outlier in a category dominated by big names. Other contenders for the award were:
But while Wizardry doesn't have nearly the cachet of those other games, Phillips is a videogame composer of note, with credits across 33 games including God of War, LittleBigPlanet, Assassin's Creed 3: Liberation, Sackboy: A Big Adventure, and numerous others. Still, speaking after winning the award, Phillips said she didn't expect to win (and seemed genuinely surprised she did).
OMG!!! My Wizardry: Proving Grounds of the Mad Overlord music won a GRAMMY!!! A million thank-yous to all you wonderful @RecordingAcad voters! Your support of Wizardry has meant so much! Huge thanks to @DigitalEclipse & Jeff Nachbaur! I'm thrilled!!! #GameAudio pic.twitter.com/z9morEPcMMFebruary 3, 2025
«I really didn't expect it. The category was populated with so much brilliance this year, and I have so much deep respect for the other nominees in this category, so to have been recognized, it's just a highlight of my career,» she said in an interview after collecting her trophy.
«We're very supportive of each other and we do a very unique thing—we're creating music that needs to accompany people who are having an
Read more on pcgamer.com
