Following another GTA 6 delay, Palworld lead says "expect to see many games (especially AAA ones) swerve to avoid the 2027 awards season"

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GTA 6's current release date "puts them outside the nomination window for most games awards in 2026"

GTA 6 Cal Hampton in a pool on a pink flamingo float
(Image credit: Rockstar Games)

Palworld lead Bucky reckons that GTA 6's new release date will cause some publishers to try and avoid the 2027 awards season.

Reacting to the news of GTA 6's delay, Pocketpair publishing manager John "Bucky" Buckley notes that "interestingly," launching on November 19, 2026 puts GTA 6 "outside the nomination window for most games awards in 2026," with Bucky wondering if it's an intentional date due to that. Bucky continues: "Either way, expect to see many games (especially AAA ones) swerve to avoid the 2027 awards season."

The implication there is that some games may move their release dates forward to be earlier in 2026 so as to not compete with GTA 6 at gaming award shows. Of course, there's always a chance with GTA 6 in the mix; the cutoff could be pushed back somewhat, because if you were Geoff Keighley, surely you would want to have GTA 6 at your show at the time it would be the most relevant.

This also begs the question: do publishers care that much about awards shows? I could see Sony being part of that conversation given how much it prides itself on its prestige award-winning exclusives, but outside of that, I can't imagine it matters that much, aside from probably getting a bit of a sales boost around the awards.

And of course, there's the other question: is GTA 6 as much of a given to win Game of the Year as we think? Even without the possibility of a Cyberpunk-style disaster launch, I don't think it's completely set in stone. God of War bested Red Dead 2 in 2018 at the Keighleys, and The Last of Us overtook GOTY discussions in 2013 when GTA 5 was released. All it takes is something like a new FromSoftware game, a new 3D Mario or Zelda, or the ultimate awards-bait developer Naughty Dog to release in the same year, and the conversation will be very different.

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Scott McCrae
Scott McCrae
Contributor

Scott has been freelancing for over three years across a number of different gaming publications, first appearing on GamesRadar+ in 2024. He has also written for the likes of PC Gamer, Eurogamer, VG247, Play, TechRadar, and others. He's typically rambling about Metal Gear Solid, God Hand, or any other PS2-era titles that rarely (if ever) get sequels.

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