Grand Theft Auto 6 was the presumptive Sport of the Yr for 2025… till it acquired delayed to Could 2026. Since then, it’s been the presumptive 2026 Sport of the Yr as an alternative. Following its newest delay, it’s nonetheless the sport to beat at subsequent yr’s Sport Awards — in concept. However in follow, its new launch date makes issues quite sophisticated.
GTA 6 is now set to be launched on Nov. 19, 2026: a Thursday. The Sport Awards, which takes place in early December yearly, has a cutoff date for eligibility in late November. Sometimes, this date is ready because the Friday of the third week in November, guaranteeing that the jury can have had a chance to play eligible video games by the point the nomination and voting course of takes place. Final yr, as an illustration, the cutoff date for eligibility was Friday, Nov. 22.
You’ll be able to see the place I’m going with this. The seemingly cutoff date for eligibility in 2026, if The Sport Awards follows its typical sample, shall be Friday, Nov. 20. Sooner or later after GTA 6 is launched.
So, Grand Theft Auto 6 shall be eligible for the 2026 awards, nevertheless it’s slicing issues very high quality. And this might create a serious headache for the present’s organizers and its voting jury.
Nominations for the Sport Awards are introduced in mid-November — this yr, the nominees shall be revealed on Monday, Nov. 17. It follows that the nomination course of takes place within the early a part of the month, and voting on the winners occurs after the nominations are introduced, across the similar time because the eligibility cutoff date.
All that is designed to make sure all the pieces is prepared for the awards present in early December. It’s additionally scheduled on the presumption that jury members can have entry to early evaluation copies of video games launched throughout these first three weeks of November by the point they submit their nominations ballots early within the month.
That is often the case. Sometimes, by mid-November, the annual recreation launch calendar is winding down; most main titles that you’d count on to compete for Sport of the Yr are out by the primary week of November. Barring December outliers like Indiana Jones and the Nice Circle in 2024 and Metroid Prime 4: Past this yr, the final huge launch of the yr is often Name of Responsibility, in early-to-mid November — a identified amount that’s not often in critical competitors outdoors the multiplayer and motion classes.
Grand Theft Auto 6 is one thing else solely. It is going to be categorically the largest launch of the yr, definitely in stature, and probably in precise recreation measurement too. And with a late November launch date and Rockstar’s improvement course of typically happening to the wire, it isn’t a given in any respect that early copies shall be accessible by the point the jury members are casting their nomination ballots early within the month. If jury members haven’t performed the sport outdoors the managed atmosphere of preview occasions — which Rockstar not often holds, anyway — they are going to be rightly reluctant to incorporate it of their ballots.
This presents The Sport Awards organizers with a conundrum. For the largest recreation of the yr (or certainly decade) to not compete for Sport of the Yr or be represented on the awards in any respect, regardless of being eligible, would look absurd. Nevertheless it’s an actual chance. The organizers shall be hoping in opposition to hope that Rockstar will get evaluation copies out in good time. For its half, Rockstar might be too huge to care about Sport of the Yr — sufficient to regulate its timelines round it, anyway.
The choice for The Sport Awards could be to shift its personal recurring timeline again by per week or two to verify the jury has time to think about GTA 6 correctly. If the Sport Awards 2026 is introduced for a later-than-usual date in December (this yr’s awards happen on Dec. 11), we’ll know why.
Or maybe the Sport Awards will get fortunate, and GTA 6 shall be delayed into 2027… you by no means know.
