From Cyberpunk 2077 to The Witcher 3: Why videogame music matters, told by some of the best composers in the indsutry

From Disco Elysium to The Witcher, how does music contribute to our experience playing?

Like a perfectly balanced recipe or a well-oiled machine, a videogame needs a handful of vital components to really come to life.

You've got graphics, mechanics, narrative, all that good stuff.

But perhaps one of the most underappreciated aspects that really helps tie a game together is its music.

Good videogame music pulls you straight into the world and creates some real powerful memories that attach themselves to the scores you hear as you play.

Everyone has that one track that brings back floods of nostalgia or giddy stomach butterflies whenever they hear it—maybe it's the delicate piano of Aerith's Theme from Final Fantasy 7 , the roaring of the choir during Skyrim's title song, or the heart-pounding melodies of Mass Effect 2's Suicide Mission.

So many of us here at PC Gamer are absolute suckers for a good videogame song, so our Video Producer Midas Whittaker sat down with some of the composers we love the most to talk about exactly why gaming music matters.

From long-time videogame composers like Baldur's Gate 3's Boris Slavov and Cyberpunk 2077's P.T.

Adamczyk, to bands like Sea Power who put their knowledge and expertise of making their own music to use for crafting Disco Elysium's excellent score.

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Mollie spent her early childhood deeply invested in games like Killer Instinct, Toontown and Audition Online, which continue to form the pillars of her personality today.

She joined PC Gamer in 2020 as a news writer and now lends her expertise to write a wealth of features, guides and reviews with a dash of chaos.

She can often be found causing mischief in Final Fantasy 14, using those experiences to write neat things about her favourite MMO.

When she's not staring at her bunny girl she can be found sweating out rhythm games, pretending to be good at fighting games or spending far too much money at her local arcade.

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