The Golden Joystick Awards celebrates 50 years of games this November

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The Golden Joystick Awards is back for another virtual show and will focus on gaming's 50th anniversary

Golden Joystick Awards 2021
(Image credit: Future)

The Golden Joystick Awards 2021 are officially returning this November and will be a celebration of 50 years of games.

The awards show will once again be a virtual one and, as part of our celebrations of 50 years of games, will include two brand new categories: Ultimate Game of All Time and Best Gaming Hardware of All Time. 

Pretty big awards, right? Well, here's where you come in. The Golden Joystick Awards are voted for by fans, so as well as having your say in the usual categories - such as Most Wanted, Best Studio, and Best Storytelling to name a few - you'll be voting for the hardware and game you think towers above all the others throughout the past five decades. No pressure.

Daniel Dawkins, Content Director of Games and Film, explains: “We’re inviting players to celebrate ‘50 Years of Games’ with us in a landmark moment for the gaming industry and the Golden Joystick Awards. The world’s first commercially available video game: Computer Space, released in November 1971. As the first coin-operated arcade machine, it represented the first time a videogame was ever played in exchange for money: the birth of videogames as a commercial industry."

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Voting for this year's awards will begin in October, where we'll be announcing all the categories alongside nominees for this year's awards. You can then see which games, studios, and developers will be taking home prizes on Tuesday, November 23. Be sure to head back to GamesRadar for more details on how to watch this year's Golden Joystick Awards. 

Ben Tyrer
Ben Tyrer
Contributor

Ben Tyrer is a freelance games journalist with over ten years experience of writing about games. After graduating from Bournemouth University with a degree in multimedia journalism he's worked for Official PlayStation Magazine as a staff writer and games editor, as well as GamesRadar+ (hey, that's this website!) as a news editor. He's also contributed to Official Xbox Magazine, Edge, PC Gamer, GamesMaster, PC Games N, and more. His game of the year - no matter the year - is Rocket League.