GTA 6 has lost the 2026 GOTY award due to its delay, and Rockstar still doesn’t know it
The rules of The Game Awards make it very difficult to vote for games that are released around the same time.
Rockstar will not be able to get revenge for what happened at the GOTY with Red Dead Redemption 2. The new delay of GTA 6 has left it out of the running for The Game Awards 2026. Unless Geoff Keighley pulls one of his stunts and changes the rules of the event, it will be very difficult (if not impossible) for the title to even make it onto the shortlist of finalists. The reason? Its new release date.
The Game Awards’ GOTY is usually nominated for games that have been released before December. In the 2025 voting, for example, the deadline given by Geoff is November 22. If your game is released before then, it will be included in this edition, and if it is released after that, it will be included in the next edition.
This is the case with Metroid Prime 4, which is coming out in a few weeks (December 4, 2025), but will compete in the 2026 ceremony, a year from now. Or Indiana Jones and the Great Circle, released on December 9, 2024, and a candidate for this year’s GOTY. (The latter will happen in Indiana if people don’t forget about it. This usually happens when you stray so far from the gala, and if not, just ask Forza Horizon 5, which was left out in the cold for that very reason).
You can imagine the problem GTA 6 will face in terms of GOTY if it finally comes out on November 19. Some might think that analysts will have already tried it and that the public will have had three days with it, enough time to nominate it and gain some time before the final vote. Wrong.
There is one more issue that highlights a huge problem with The Game Awards. Although games released up to November 22 are accepted... the first round of voting closes on the 5th of that month. It is likely that the codes will not even have been distributed by then. In other words, based on the dates, GTA 6 could be eligible for GOTY 2026, but those who vote for it would be doing so blindly.
If it gets nominated, it will be because the journalists who vote for it will have put their hands in the fire for Rockstar, not because they have tried it and know for sure. An exercise of dubious morality, somewhat unfair and disrespectful to the other great titles. It’s not GTA 6’s fault, but the system’s, but that’s the way the game is played.
Whatever happens, controversy is guaranteed. It’s very likely that it will be left out of The Game Awards due to timing, but imagine what it would do to the prestige of the awards if it ends up being the best game of the year and isn’t at the ceremony. Similarly, where would the reputation of the press stand if it nominated a title it had only seen in trailers?
Another issue is whether Rockstar cares in the slightest about the award. After all, considering the figures it generates with each announcement and coming from the most successful game in history, the company is going to have what it is surely most interested in and what many developers really dream of: sales figures.
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