‘GTA 6’ is already a frontrunner for Game of the Year at The Game Awards, but there may be a big problem that few have considered.
Rockstar
While there are many video game award shows in a given year, one has become “official” enough to be, more or less, the video game Oscars. Though if the Oscars showed about 30 movie trailers in between giving out awards. That is The Game Awards, and now there’s surprising talk about how the biggest game of 2026, Grand Theft Auto 6, may not be able to, or shouldn’t, win the top Game of the Year prize at that show.
This breakdown comes from video game writer Alanah Pearce, who says that, given the GTA 6 release date and the game’s length, it may not work with the current schedule. Or at the very least, it would need to be voted on with little playtime possible for those who actually have their hands on it early. Here’s the issue:
- GTA 6 will be released on November 19, 2026
- First-round voting for nominations was previously on November 4, then on November 11, voters could adjust those nominations.
- Then, the nominees were announced November 17, and then Game Awards voters voted for them on November 24, around two weeks before the awards themselves on December 11.
- She does not mention that the eligibility cutoff for nominated games is November 21, so technically GTA 6 would qualify on those grounds (This was the date last year and not established so GTA 6 could slide in this year).
But you see the problem here. If the schedule stays the same, nominees would need to be announced two days before GTA 6 is even out. Obviously, many voters, especially journalists and influencers, will have some time to play the game pre-release to review it, but clearly not every voter will have that chance, nor do we know how much time those who do have the game will even get to play. Pearce says this is likely untenable:
“So, November 19 for people to play and vote on an 80-hour game. If they made it there at all, it would be indicative of a jury who voted for a game they didn’t play,” she said. “They can’t change it. It’s too close.”
A compromise, she notes, is that GTA 6 might be nominated for other, lesser awards than GOTY, similar to what happened with Dispatch, which had only released some of its episodes rather than being fully out when the cutoff occurred.
It is almost unthinkable that there would be a Game Awards show in 2026 with GTA 6 unable to be nominated until the following year. It’s indicative of a problem with the show overall that a game released 43 days before the end of the year is barely elligable for the awards and would be nominated before the public can even play it. There is a reason other award shows, like the Oscars and Emmys, do not take place until well into the following year, and nothing from that period is disqualified as a result.
If there are accommodations being made for GTA 6 that specifically alter the above schedule, we are unaware of them. It’s already been announced that The Game Awards will air on December 10, 2026. The nomination process and even the show itself would likely have to shift for a more “fair” look at GTA 6. I very much doubt anyone will get this game before November 4, and Rockstar may be extra selective for GTA 6’s release to try to prevent leaks. It’s doubtful all 150+ contributing outlets to Game Awards voting will have their hands on it before November 19.
Game Awards creator Geoff Keighley has not weighed in on this at all, but this is the first time anyone has really spoken about how this could be a possibility. We’ll see if he can clarify anything soon.
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