A big breakthrough in the world of science fiction fans has come this year: for the first time since their inception nearly 70 years ago, a Hugo Award dedicated to a videogame, and this year’s winner is Hades.
Let’s take a closer look at this year’s winning title, and why this twist could be relevant to sci-fi fans.
Hades is the first video game to win a Hugo Award
The Hugo Awards are prizes awarded since 1953 during Worldcon, the longest-running science fiction fair in the world. Together with the Nebula Awards, they are the most important awards a science fiction author can aspire to. They are divided, like the Oscars, into various categories; the “queen” category is that of the novel, in whose roll of honor we find names such as Philip Dick, Arthur C. Clarke, Asimov… In short, we are talking about recognitions of a certain prestige.
This is an immense honor for our team. Not only are the #hugoawards a true legend in fantasy and science fiction, this is the first year that the awards are recognizing the video game category. Thank you so much, and we salute all our wonderful fellow nominees! https://t.co/sgGVMFXeWi
– Supergiant Games (@SupergiantGames) December 19, 2021
This year, for the first time, the category of videogames was also included, and the triumphant game turned out to be Hades, the action roguelike that has amazed many since its release. It is a title in which we impersonate the son of Hades, the Greek god of the underworld, in his obstinate and determined attempts to escape from the kingdom of the dead, ruled by a despotic and intolerant father towards the heir.
But these few lines are not enough to give credit to the game of Supergiant Games, who lives in an imaginary universe that is as interesting and particular as it is familiar and engaging. Although on a technical level we are not faced with the game of the year, the plot of Hades makes its many qualities shine, so much so that it becomes the first video game in history to win a Hugo Award.
It is not yet clear whether the category will be revived in the next few years; but, as science fiction fans, we can only be happy with this opening to a new world of the important Hugo awards.
