Something that has always bugged me when it comes to the game industry’s biggest award ceremony mainly boils down to the timing of the show. While I enjoy The Game Awards each year and always make sure to schedule time to watch it, anxiously hoping the games I voted on to win their category award, I always felt like games that release in December get cheated. These award ceremonies always take place in the month of December, so how can they include games that release in December?

Now, of course, there are a lot of times that titles will simply roll over and be considered the following year. Look at Super Smash Bros Ultimate, which was released in December 2018 but it was a nominee and won the Best Fighting Game award at The Game Awards 2019. While that is great to see a huge title get recognition, isn’t it winning an award for the wrong year? For this year, we have Halo Infinite coming out on December 8th, the day before The Game Awards 2021, and it is sure to be considered for an award during The Game Awards 2022 instead. But why is that? It just seems unprofessionally timed.

When Should The Game Awards Take Place Annually?

The short answer, January of each year. It would make more sense and they could include games that are released in December for the proper year! This cycle of The Game Awards considering titles from December the prior year to November the current year is strange. Also, it only truly considers AAA titles that are released in December. I cannot think of a single indie game that was released in the month of December that has ever been nominated for an award.

What About Other Award Shows?

Some award shows are a bigger upset than The Game Awards when it comes to timing their shows. The Golden Joysticks take place in November, which is a baffling time to give out awards for games that release in the year. For those awards, they would have to consider November the prior year to October the current year. So, I am not just picking on The Game Awards, but at the same time, The Game Awards is the biggest award ceremony for the game industry and thus the main one that should consider moving their ceremony to take place in January.

If any award ceremony has the right timing down, it would be The Steam Awards. The earliest date the winners have ever been chosen is December 31st, but they typically run this event during the first week of January. This allows the judges to consider the nominated games from the same year the awards are being announced for.

Closing Thoughts

Now, I do understand that a lot of effort and time go into making sure these shows run annually and smoothly. There is likely little-to-no hope that the event organizers would ever consider changing the timing of their award ceremony. However, that doesn’t change the fact that it is a weirdly timed setup that makes December titles considered for the wrong award year and has likely inflicted a change in which games would have won certain awards in the past.

Imagine if Super Smash Bros Ultimate was considered in The Game Awards 2018 instead of 2019. Do you still think Game of the Year would have gone to God of War in 2018 if it contended against Super Smash Bros Ultimate that was truly released in the same year? Or perhaps, given that it only won Best Fighting Game, would DragonBall FighterZ, the winning Fighting Game title of 2018, have stood a chance against Super Smash Bros Ultimate?

Ultimately, the timing of the award shows directly impacts the winning titles in a way that can’t be seen on the surface. But once you dive into the idea that the timing is off, the disconnects become clear. January would make more sense for the official award ceremony so all games released within the same year could be considered for their respective categories. There shouldn’t be any months rolling over into the next year on such an official night of recognition.