55th Ivor Novello Awards introduces games category

The Ivor Novello Awards are to recognise music from videogames for the first time this year following the introduction of a special game score category.

Now in their sixth decade, the awards are presented annually by the British Academy of Songwriters, Composers and Authors and judged by the music community, with no input from publishers or record companies.

The introduction of a game score category to sit alongside existing ones for contemporary, TV and film music, had been deemed necessary, said Mark Fishlock, director of the Ivors Committee, as games continue to mature "beyond recognition".

"The Ivors has always sought to reflect the ever-changing world of songwriting and composing," he said. "The video games market has matured beyond recognition and big budget orchestral scores are regularly being commissioned.

"Writing music for games also requires a number of specialist skills compared with conventional film scoring, such as non-linear and multi-layered composition. This is a very exciting development and one which hopefully will be fully embraced by the rapidly growing games world."

Nominations for the award close on February 5 and, in order to be eligible, scores must come from games commercially released during 2009.

The Ivors are presented by BASCA in an awards ceremony to be held on May 20 in London.