The Game Awards is set to take place on December 9, and in anticipation of the event, its official nominees have been revealed. ForGame of The Year, the most coveted award,Deathloop, It Takes Two, Metroid Dread, Psychonauts 2, Ratchet and Clank: Rift Apart, andResident Evil Villagewere all nominated. Of course, ahead of any actual wins, many fans have taken to discussing what they think should and what the show has snubbed.
RegardingReturnal, Forza Horizon 5,andTales of Arise, there is currently a lot of debate about snubsand which games should have been received more. Notably, though, many fans may be surprised to seeCyberpunk 2077on this list with its two nominations: Best Score and Music/Best RPG. In these categories, it is pitted againstDeathloop, Nier Replicant: ver 1.22474487139, Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy,andThe Artful Escape, as well asMonster Hunter Rise, Scarlet Nexus, Shin Megami Tensei 5, andTales of Arise, respectively.
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One could make the argument that, due to its rough launch,Cyberpunk 2077may not even deserve to be in the running. Many did enjoy it, clearly, but there was a lot of controversy attached to its launch. The game has certainly gotten better, to CD Projekt Red’s credit, but it’s still a far cry from what many expected. Even then, that’s not the reason it received nominations this year, why a 2020 game is appearing in the 2021 Game Awards.
Cyberpunk 2077’s Release and Game Awards Nomination
The short and simple of it is thatCyberpunk 2077was released after the cut-off date last year. In other words, it wasn’t eligible for The Game Awards last year because it wasn’t out, and so it rolls over to the next year. This is a big issue with The Game Awards for a couple of reasons, beyond just nominating a game for awards in the year after it releases: time impacts reception.
For example,Halo Infinite’s multiplayeris out (if with limitations), but it’s after the cut-off date and a little too soon to judge for now. Thus, it’s very well possibleHalois nominated GOTY and other things next year, but it’s also possible that, because time passes, anything that comes after impacts its nominations. It’s similar to what happened here; there’s little chance that, hadCyberpunk 2077qualified for The Game Awards in 2020, it would have actually received any nominations.
TheCyberpunk 2077controversies at the time were much higher, more prevalent, and more in the online conscience than now—where it has grown, if slowly. The same thing will inevitably impactHalo—good or ill, post-launch will not be something someone can easily factor out.
It’s happened before too, with just about any game that falls into this gap.Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Orderwas a 2019 gamethat didn’t qualify until 2020, and it can be argued that this impacted its awards and nominations. Same for it, same forCyberpunk 2077, and same forHalo.
But, good or ill, this time, distance, and release date all impactCyberpunk 2077’s nomination here. These details have led to many arguing that the Game Awards should be pushed back to closer to the end of the year, if not the next. Unfortunately, that seems unlikely to happen because developers and others will be on vacation if done too late in December, while the holiday season remains one of the most engaging times in the games industry. January could impact that. Who knows, though, asThe Game Awardsbecome more and more dominant in the industry, this could eventually change and these oddities ironed out.
Cyberpunk 2077is available on PC, PS4, Stadia, and Xbox One. PS5 and Xbox Series X versions are in development.
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