Writer’s Guild Of America Announces Nominees For Best Writing In Games

2017 was an amazing year for video games, and not just in their technical design, but also their writing. We've seen some great tales told this year, from The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild to Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice.

And the Writer's Guild of America has been quick to recognize that, as the group has announced their nominees for Outstanding Achievement In Videogame Writing for 2017, making note of a few great efforts, including Horizon: Zero Dawn, Sony's best-selling adventure for PlayStation 4.

We were kind of hoping that Hellblade would be nominated, but the following folks deserve their due, so here's who could win:

• Dishonored: Death of the Outsider- External Writers Anna Megill, Hazel Monforton; Lead Narrative Designer Sachka Duval; Arkane Studios-Bethesda Softworks
• Futurama: Worlds of Tomorrow- Written by Cas Ruffin, Patric M. Verrone; TinyCo
• Horizon Zero Dawn- Narrative Director John Gonzalez; Lead Writer Benjamin McCaw; Writing by Ben Schroder, Anne Toole; Additional Writing by Dee Warrick, Meg Jayanth; Guerrilla Games
• Madden NFL 18: Longshot- Written by Michael Young, Adrian Todd Zuniga; Story by Michael Young; Tiburon/Electronic Arts

The Writers Guild made it clear that, in order to be nominated, a game had to have been released between December 1st, 2016 and November 30th, 2017 – which would explain why Xenoblade Chronicles 2 didn't get a nomination, since it came out on December 1st. It also noted that the writers needed to be featured with on-screen credits, and they had to have been members of the WGA Video Game Writers Caucus – or applying, at the very least – before finishing up their scripts. (That might explain the scenario for Hellblade.)

The winners of the Writers Guild of America awards are expected to be announced on Sunday, February 11th, and at that time, we'll see who walks away. I'm personally pulling for Horizon: Zero Dawn, as Ben Scroder and Anne Toole, alongside Dee Warrick and Meg Jayanth from Guerrilla Games, have put together a remarkable story – and we can only hope that it will continue on at one point in the years to come.

Congrats to all the nominees! And don't forget to snag Horizon Zero Dawn for PlayStation 4, in case you haven't already.