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Elijah is a freelance news writer at Polygon. He was an associate editor at The A.V. Club and Paste, and has been featured in outlets like Game Informer, Fanbyte, Unwinnable, and more. He loves media in all forms, from fighting games and horror flicks to slow cinema and visual novels. He's from the Greater Boston area.
This year's biggest game just barely makes the cutoff date
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With 2026’s most anticipated game, Grand Theft Auto 6, releasing so late in the year, many have wondered whether it would make the cutoff for the game industry’s biggest celebration of pomp and circumstance. We now have an answer.
The Game Awards updated an FAQ on its website, revealing that games must be commercially released before midnight ET Nov. 20 to qualify for awards in 2026. This date is close to last year’s cutoff of Nov. 21, 2025. To be eligible for the Player’s Voice category (the fan vote), games must ship on or before Nov. 30. GTA 6 releases at Nov. 19, so it gets in just under the wire.
Game industry insider NateTheHate recently claimed that Rockstar is sending critics review codes before the end of October, which would give judges ample time to play the game before they cast their votes. Last year, nominees for the 2025 Game Awards were announced on Nov. 17, four days before the cutoff. If Rockstar delays sending out codes because it's concerned about leaks, the judges would have very little time to decide whether it should be Game of the Year.
How has The Game Awards been received in recent years?
While The Game Awards is undeniably the most popular gaming-focused awards show, it has been criticized over the years for coming across more like a mini-E3 than the Oscars. Instead of focusing on accolades and speeches that celebrate the past year, it has historically been full of trailers for games that haven’t even been released yet. Last year’s version of the show was more positively received because it left far more time for winners to reflect, as Jennifer English did in a lovely acceptance speech for Best Performance.
What are the frontrunners for 2026’s Game of the Year?
Although it hasn't launched yet, Grand Theft Auto 6 has a good chance of leading Game of the Year discourse, given Rockstar’s track record. There have been many excellent releases in 2026, but review aggregators like OpenCritic and Metacritic show few obvious top candidates, though there is a big cluster of similarly high-scoring titles. Fire Emblem: Fortune’s Weave, Mina the Hollower, Forza Horizon 6, Big Walk, Pokopia, Pragmata, Star Wars: Zero Company, Blood of the Dawnwalker, and Resident Evil Requiem will all be in contention. So far, this year lacks a conversation-dominating frontrunner like Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 or Baldur’s Gate 3. GTA 6 could change that when it comes out this November.