Let's Not Settle on What 'Game of the Year' Signifies

The challenge of finding innovative games continues to be the gaming industry's most significant existential threat. Despite worrisome age of corporate consolidation, escalating revenue requirements, labor perils, the widespread use of artificial intelligence, storefront instability, shifting player interests, progress in many ways returns to the elusive quality of "making an impact."

That's why I'm increasingly focused in "awards" like never before.

Having just several weeks left in the year, we're completely in GOTY time, a time when the minority of enthusiasts who aren't experiencing identical multiple no-cost action games every week play through their library, discuss game design, and recognize that even they can't play all releases. We'll see exhaustive best-of lists, and we'll get "you overlooked!" responses to such selections. A player general agreement voted on by press, influencers, and followers will be revealed at The Game Awards. (Creators participate next year at the DICE Awards and GDC Awards.)

This entire celebration is in enjoyment — no such thing as right or wrong choices when naming the top releases of 2025 — but the significance seem more substantial. Each choice cast for a "annual best", either for the prestigious top honor or "Excellent Puzzle Experience" in community-selected awards, creates opportunity for a breakthrough moment. A medium-scale adventure that went unnoticed at release may surprisingly find new life by competing with higher-profile (i.e. extensively advertised) blockbuster games. After 2024's Neva popped up in the running for a Game Award, I'm aware for a fact that tons of players suddenly desired to check a review of Neva.

Historically, the GOTY machine has made minimal opportunity for the diversity of titles released each year. The hurdle to clear to consider all appears like an impossible task; about 19,000 releases were released on PC storefront in 2024, while merely seventy-four titles — from new releases and live service titles to mobile and VR specialized games — were represented across industry event nominees. When popularity, conversation, and platform discoverability drive what people play every year, it's completely impossible for the scaffolding of awards to do justice a year's worth of releases. Still, potential exists for enhancement, assuming we accept its importance.

The Expected Nature of Industry Recognition

In early December, a long-running ceremony, one of gaming's oldest awards ceremonies, announced its nominees. Although the vote for GOTY proper happens in January, one can notice the trend: 2025's nominations allowed opportunity for deserving candidates — major releases that have earned acclaim for polish and scope, hit indies received with major-studio attention — but throughout multiple of categories, exists a evident concentration of recurring games. Throughout the enormous variety of visual style and play styles, top artistic recognition makes room for several exploration-focused titles taking place in feudal Japan: Ghost of Yōtei and Assassin's Creed Shadows.

"Were I creating a future Game of the Year in a lab," a journalist noted in online commentary I'm still enjoying, "it would be a PlayStation sandbox adventure with mixed gameplay mechanics, character interactions, and luck-based procedural advancement that incorporates risk-reward systems and has light city sim construction mechanics."

Industry recognition, throughout official and unofficial forms, has grown expected. Multiple seasons of candidates and honorees has birthed a formula for what type of refined extended experience can earn a Game of the Year nominee. Exist experiences that never reach main categories or even "important" technical awards like Game Direction or Narrative, typically due to creative approaches and unusual systems. The majority of titles published in any given year are likely to be limited into specialized awards.

Notable Instances

Hypothetical: Could Sonic Racing: Crossworlds, a game with review aggregate marginally below Death Stranding 2 and Ghosts of Yōtei, achieve highest rankings of The Game Awards' top honor selection? Or perhaps consideration for best soundtrack (because the soundtrack absolutely rips and warrants honor)? Unlikely. Best Racing Game? Certainly.

How exceptional does Street Fighter 6 need to be to achieve GOTY appreciation? Will judges consider unique performances in Baby Steps, The Alters, or The Drifter and see the most exceptional acting of this year lacking a studio-franchise sheen? Does Despelote's two-hour length have "enough" narrative to warrant a (justified) Top Story recognition? (Furthermore, does The Game Awards require a Best Documentary classification?)

Overlap in preferences throughout recent cycles — on the media level, on the fan level — demonstrates a system increasingly biased toward a particular lengthy experience, or independent games that achieved sufficient attention to check the box. Concerning for a field where discovery is crucial.

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