We Should Not Settle on the Meaning of 'Game of the Year' Means

The difficulty of discovering new games remains the gaming sector's most significant existential threat. Even in worrisome age of business acquisitions, growing profit expectations, workforce challenges, broad adoption of AI, storefront instability, evolving player interests, salvation somehow revolves to the elusive quality of "achieving recognition."

Which is why I'm more invested in "honors" more than before.

With only several weeks left in 2025, we're firmly in GOTY season, a time when the minority of enthusiasts who aren't playing the same several no-cost action games weekly play through their backlogs, argue about game design, and understand that they too won't get all releases. There will be exhaustive annual selections, and we'll get "you overlooked!" reactions to such selections. A gamer general agreement selected by journalists, streamers, and followers will be issued at annual gaming ceremony. (Developers weigh in in 2026 at the interactive achievements ceremony and GDC Awards.)

This entire celebration serves as good fun — there aren't any accurate or inaccurate selections when discussing the greatest titles of 2025 — but the stakes appear greater. Every selection selected for a "annual best", be it for the grand main award or "Excellent Puzzle Experience" in community-selected recognitions, opens a door for significant recognition. A moderate experience that flew under the radar at launch may surprisingly attract attention by being associated with higher-profile (i.e. well-promoted) big boys. Once last year's Neva was included in nominations for recognition, I'm aware without doubt that tons of players immediately wanted to see a review of Neva.

Conventionally, award shows has established limited space for the breadth of releases published every year. The hurdle to address to evaluate all seems like a monumental effort; approximately eighteen thousand titles launched on Steam in last year, while merely 74 titles — including new releases and continuing experiences to mobile and virtual reality platform-specific titles — appeared across the ceremony selections. As commercial success, discussion, and storefront visibility determine what people experience every year, there's simply no way for the framework of accolades to properly represent twelve months of releases. However, there exists opportunity for improvement, provided we acknowledge its importance.

The Familiar Pattern of Annual Honors

Recently, prominent gaming honors, including interactive entertainment's oldest honor shows, revealed its nominees. Even though the decision for top honor itself takes place early next month, one can see the trend: The current selections allowed opportunity for rightful contenders — blockbuster games that have earned acclaim for polish and ambition, successful independent games welcomed with major-studio hype — but across numerous of honor classifications, we see a obvious predominance of repeat names. Throughout the enormous variety of visual style and play styles, top artistic recognition creates space for two different exploration-focused titles set in ancient Japan: Ghost of Yōtei and Assassin's Creed Shadows.

"Were I creating a next year's GOTY theoretically," an observer commented in online commentary I'm still amused by, "it should include a PlayStation sandbox adventure with mixed gameplay mechanics, party dynamics, and luck-based roguelite progression that leans into risk-reward systems and includes basic building construction mechanics."

Industry recognition, across official and community forms, has become predictable. Several cycles of candidates and victors has created a pattern for what type of high-quality 30-plus-hour title can score a Game of the Year nominee. Exist experiences that never achieve top honors or including "important" crafts categories like Creative Vision or Narrative, typically due to innovative design and unique gameplay. Many releases published in a year are likely to be ghettoized into genre categories.

Notable Instances

Consider: Would Sonic Racing: Crossworlds, a game with a Metacritic score only slightly below Death Stranding 2 and Ghosts of Yōtei, achieve the top 10 of The Game Awards' GOTY selection? Or maybe one for excellent music (because the music absolutely rips and warrants honor)? Doubtful. Excellent Driving Experience? Absolutely.

How outstanding must Street Fighter 6 need to be to receive Game of the Year appreciation? Can voters evaluate unique performances in Baby Steps, The Alters, or The Drifter and acknowledge the best voice work of 2025 without AAA production values? Can Despelote's short length have "sufficient" narrative to merit a (deserved) Top Story honor? (Additionally, should annual event benefit from Top Documentary award?)

Similarity in choices across the years — within press, within communities — reveals a method increasingly skewed toward a specific extended style of game, or smaller titles that achieved enough of a splash to qualify. Concerning for an industry where exploration is everything.

{