Early this year, I started my annual quest to identify the front-runners for the coveted Game of the Year award at The Game Awards, placing Resident Evil Requiem firmly at the top. However, things haven’t unfolded as expected. This year’s potential GOTY contenders face significant hurdles – either genre biases or simply a lack of overall quality.
The Rockstar Shadow
It was always going to be a strange year. Before 2026 even began, there was a presumptive winner: Grand Theft Auto 6. While Rockstar’s reluctance to release it has created anticipation, it also casts a long shadow over the rest of the competition.
This looming behemoth has understandably sucked the air out of the room. However, it’s surprising how quiet the race for second place has been. A series of games have approached the quality bar but stopped just short, or perhaps the game critics haven’t been as generous as usual.
I expected things to change this week with the release of The Blood of Dawnwalker, a vampire RPG from some of the team behind GOTY winner The Witcher 3. It seemed destined to be a “critical darling” and a contender for Game of the Year. However, despite its pedigree and narrative ambition, it comes from an upstart studio, which adds authenticity but also faces challenges.
While Polygon loves this game, the wider gaming media is lukewarm. It currently sits at a respectable 83 on Metacritic, perhaps not enough for a nomination, even considering the bizarrely resilient Crimson Desert. Players seem merely “whelmed” with it, with English Steam reviews only being “mostly positive.”
Two other games received similarly mild approval this week: Onimusha: Way of the Sword and Orbitals, an indie co-op game in the vein of GOTY winner It Takes Two. Both were dark horses, but now they’re not even that.
The magic 90+ Metacritic scores, combined with genre favorability, which usually announce a likely GOTY nominee, have been elusive. The few games that have reached that mark face hurdles to secure nominations. Big Walk, an indie multiplayer game, is best experienced with friends. Forza Horizon 6, a racing game, faces the same challenge as its predecessor, which couldn’s secure a nomination in a historically weak year. Mina the Hollower is cultish and not widely played.
Even below the 90 mark, the field is riddled with weaknesses. Crimson Desert is outright hated by many critics. The jury typically doesn’t take Pokémon or life sims seriously, so Pokopia will struggle. 007 First Light looks stronger than most, but licensed games often face prejudice.
This leaves us in September with only one game that can be considered a lock for a nomination: the solid, if not spectacular, Resident Evil Requiem.
Historically, the fall months have been a treasure trove of contenders. There’s still potential for things to shift as publishers sprint to release their wares before the arrival of the GTA 2025 meteor: there’s Marvel’s Wolverine, Gears of War: E-Day, Fire Emblem: Fortune’s Weave, Phantom Blade Zero, and a few others. None currently looks like a 90+ smash, but I could be wrong. The one game assured of that kind of universal acclaim is the Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time remake, but there’s no guarantee it will be released before the cutoff date, and as a remake, it too faces challenges.
Several factors are at play here, including a historic wobble in AAA game production and the halting return of mid-sized games like last year’s GOTY winner, Clair Obscur: Expedition 33. The net result leaves an impression of an industry, and a critical class, and a playerbase who are all just waiting for Grand Theft Auto 6 to arrive. Maybe its win is a foregone conclusion. But, as I’ve said before, Rockstar can be beat, as it was in 2013 (by The Last of Us) and 2018 (by God of War). I’d love to see one game, just one, step up and try.
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