The Game Awards' eligibility system can sometimes create strange situations for games released late in the year. Every year has a cutoff date, usually sometime in mid-November, meaning games released after that point are pushed into the following year's awards instead of immediately competing against the year's other major releases. For 2026, The Game Awards is scheduled for December 10, while its eligibility rules continue the same basic system used in previous years.

December releases are perhaps the clearest example of this, since a game launching after The Game Awards' November eligibility window cannot realistically compete at the ceremony taking place weeks later. Several major games have ended up being recognized in the awards cycle following their release year, although it's worth highlighting that these games have never won the big one: The Game of the Year Award at The Game Awards. Perhaps the strangest situation yet is how one 2025 game was nominated last year and remains eligible for 2026.

GTA 6 reportedly risks missing out on TGA 2026 race on a technicality, despite being widely seen as the favorite for the GOTY award.

Dispatch now presents a particularly unusual version of the cut-off date issues with the show. The episodic superhero narrative game from AdHoc Studio released all eight episodes of its first season by November 12, 2025, putting it ahead of The Game Awards' November 21 eligibility cutoff for the 2025 ceremony. It even received a nomination for Best Debut Indie Game in 2025, meaning it was present at the show.

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