Let's Never Settle on the Meaning of 'Game of the Year' Signifies
The difficulty of uncovering innovative titles persists as the video game industry's most significant existential threat. Despite the anxiety-inducing age of corporate consolidation, growing revenue requirements, workforce challenges, extensive implementation of AI, platform turmoil, changing generational tastes, progress in many ways returns to the dark magic of "achieving recognition."
Which is why my interest has grown in "accolades" like never before.
Having just a few weeks remaining in 2025, we're deeply in annual gaming awards period, a period where the small percentage of players not experiencing similar six no-cost competitive titles weekly complete their backlogs, discuss development quality, and recognize that they too won't get every title. Expect detailed top game rankings, and we'll get "you missed!" comments to these rankings. A player broad approval chosen by media, streamers, and enthusiasts will be announced at The Game Awards. (Creators weigh in next year at the DICE Awards and GDC Awards.)
This entire celebration serves as good fun — there are no right or wrong choices when naming the greatest games of the year — but the stakes seem more substantial. Every selection made for a "GOTY", either for the grand top honor or "Top Puzzle Title" in community-selected recognitions, creates opportunity for wider discovery. A medium-scale adventure that went unnoticed at debut may surprisingly attract attention by competing with higher-profile (meaning well-promoted) major titles. When 2024's Neva was included in consideration for recognition, I know without doubt that numerous people immediately desired to read a review of Neva.
Historically, award shows has established little room for the variety of releases released annually. The challenge to overcome to consider all feels like an impossible task; about 19,000 titles launched on PC storefront in last year, while just 74 titles — from recent games and continuing experiences to mobile and VR specialized games — were represented across industry event nominees. While commercial success, conversation, and storefront visibility determine what players play each year, there is absolutely not feasible for the structure of awards to properly represent a year's worth of releases. Nevertheless, there exists opportunity for improvement, assuming we acknowledge its significance.
The Familiar Pattern of Annual Honors
Recently, the Golden Joystick Awards, including interactive entertainment's most established recognition events, published its finalists. Even though the vote for Game of the Year proper happens soon, it's possible to see the direction: 2025's nominations made room for rightful contenders — major releases that garnered praise for refinement and ambition, hit indies celebrated with blockbuster-level hype — but in a wide range of award types, there's a noticeable concentration of repeat names. In the enormous variety of creative expression and gameplay approaches, top artistic recognition creates space for two different open-world games set in ancient Japan: Ghost of Yōtei and Assassin's Creed Shadows.
"Suppose I were constructing a 2026 Game of the Year ideally," a journalist wrote in digital observation that I am chuckling over, "it must feature a Sony open world RPG with turn-based hybrid combat, party dynamics, and RNG-heavy roguelite progression that leans into risk-reward systems and has modest management construction mechanics."
GOTY voting, in all of official and informal iterations, has turned foreseeable. Several cycles of finalists and winners has established a formula for which kind of refined extended title can earn a Game of the Year nominee. Exist titles that never achieve top honors or including "important" crafts categories like Game Direction or Story, frequently because to innovative design and quirkier mechanics. Most games released in a year are expected to be ghettoized into genre categories.
Case Studies
Hypothetical: Will Sonic Racing: Crossworlds, an experience with review aggregate just a few points less than Death Stranding 2 and Ghosts of Yōtei, reach highest rankings of annual GOTY category? Or even one for excellent music (because the audio absolutely rips and warrants honor)? Unlikely. Excellent Driving Experience? Certainly.
How good does Street Fighter 6 require being to achieve top honor consideration? Will judges evaluate unique performances in Baby Steps, The Alters, or The Drifter and see the best voice work of the year lacking a studio-franchise sheen? Does Despelote's two-hour play time have "adequate" plot to warrant a (justified) Best Narrative recognition? (Also, should annual event need Excellent Non-Fiction category?)
Overlap in choices over recent cycles — within press, within communities — demonstrates a process increasingly skewed toward a certain lengthy game type, or smaller titles that generated enough of attention to check the box. Problematic for a sector where exploration is crucial.
