Image: Push Square

The Game Awards will of course take place again this year, and now that we're creeping towards the big event, details on the voting process have started to emerge.

As you may already know, nominees are decided by a select jury, made up of media and influencers from across the world — but there needs to be cutoff criteria that determines which games are actually eligible.

This year, the release date cutoff is the 20th November, which means that any title launching beyond that date cannot be entered into the voting process.

Naturally, this allows GTA 6 to be a contender, as Rockstar's ridiculously hyped open worlder releases just a day before the cutoff point, on the 19th November.

This realisation has led to a bit of an outcry on social media, and the likes of ResetEra, where the details were first shared. The insinuation being that Geoff Keighley and his mates have moved the goalposts to ensure that GTA 6 makes the cut.

But that's not actually the case, at least based on previous cutoff dates. In 2025, for example, the cutoff date was the 21st November — and it was the 22nd November in 2024.

Having said that, I wouldn't have been at all surprised to see the cutoff date be moved back if Rockstar had settled on a later release date.

After all, GTA 6 is primed to be the biggest video game launch in history — and I simply can't imagine a world where The Game Awards would ignore it.

Do you think any other game has a chance of beating GTA 6 to the big prize? Be bold in the comments section below.

Do you think GTA 6 will win Game of the Year at The Game Awards?

[source thegameawards.com, via resetera.com]