Writers Guild of America abolish 'Gaming' category from 2020 awards

There is multiple awards to earn when developing video games, and one of the most prestigious awards you can obtain is for the games written story.

The Writers Guild for America (WGA) has now said that they won't be recognizing the 'Gaming' category that they have been handing out awards in since 2008. The 2020 WGA awards ceremony won't feature this category, and according to a statement to Gamasutra, "[the awards will] be reinstated when there is a critical mass of video games covered by the WGA in order to provide a meaningful award selection process."

In the entirety of this article you will find WGA's script submission requirements which seems to be where the problem has originated from. The WGA believe that there isn't enough good competition go around to warrant and award being handed out to a game script writer. This decision by the WGA will certainly come as heavy news to the writers who have worked on Death Stranding or other upcoming highly anticipated games. God of War will be last title to receive an award of outstanding writing.

• Have received a writing credit on at least one produced videogame. (Credits which are not easily discernible as writing credits will be reviewed along with submitted written materials by the Videogame Writers Caucus Steering Committee.)
• Have been employed to write a design document, or any other written videogame material, which in the judgment of the Videogame Writers Caucus Steering Committee is equivalent to writing a thirty (30) minute television script.
• Have been hired to write videogame material under a Writers Guild contract