MTV Adds Game Music To VMAs

MTV and Gametrailers.com have announced the nominees for two new video game-related categories as part of the music network's annual MTV Video Music Awards, the first time that game soundtracks have been included in the longrunning awards' line-up. Visitors can vote for "Best Video Game Soundtrack" and "Best Video Game Score" nominees on both the Gametrailers and Xfire websites (since both of these game-related properties are owned by MTV Networks), and winners will be announced during the during the live MTV Overdrive broadcast. Nominees for the award for "Best Video Game Soundtrack", encompassing licensed music tracks from real-life rock/hiphop bands, include a pair of titles from Electronic Arts with Final Night Round 3 and Burnout Revenge, as well as a pair from Atari with Driver: Parallel Lines and Marc Ecko's Getting Up. The list of nominees is rounded out by 2K Games' NBA 2K6. Additionally, games and artists nominated for "Best Video Game Score" include Jesper Kyd for Hitman: Blood Money, Tom Salta for Ghost Recon: Advanced Warfighter, and Leon Willett for Dreamfall: The Longest Journey. The remaining two nominees include Jeremy Soule for Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion, and the user-generated soundtracks created by Toshio Iwai's Electroplankton for the Nintendo DS. The awards themselves will be given out during the MTV VMAs, to be held on August 31st at Radio City Music Hall in New York City - the same location as the first ever Video Music Awards, which were held in 1984.