Game Awards nominees drop Nov 17, two days before GTA 6, and the timing is kind of hilarious

by opNov 13, 2026, 07:33 PM
op
opAdmin
Nov 13, 2026, 07:33 PM

So Insider Gaming is reporting that The Game Awards is announcing its nominees on November 17 at 9 a.m. PT. GTA 6 comes out November 19. Two days. That's the gap.

I keep thinking about what that room is going to look like. Everyone in the industry is either already playing it, mad they aren't, or pretending they're not thinking about it. And the nominee announcement lands right in the middle of that mess.

There's an obvious wrinkle here too. GTA 6 isn't out yet when the nominees get read out, so it can't really be in the running for anything this year, can it? Unless the cutoff works differently than I remember. Feels like the show is going to spend the whole night being one giant countdown to a game that just came out.

why this is funny to me

Launch week is already going to be chaos. Servers, downloads, the whole internet groaning about install sizes. Now we get a bunch of nominees announced on top of it, and every outlet is going to be splitting coverage between award chatter and GTA 6 coverage. Good luck to whoever's running socials that week.

I don't have a strong take on who actually gets nominated. I just know the timing is going to make for some weird moments on stage, because half the audience is going to be thinking about one game and it's not the one being handed a trophy.

Nominees on the 17th. Game drops on the 19th. That's a scheduling decision somebody made and I want to know what they were thinking.

Also, two days out is exactly when I'll be doing my final preload and probably not reading any award news at all. Sorry to whoever's PR team worked on that rollout.

Anyway, nothing here changes my plans. I'm still counting down the hours. Just thought it was worth pointing out because the overlap is going to be unavoidable.

Do you think GTA 6 gets a nod at this year's show at all, or does it just get a trailer slot and nothing else?


Source: Insider Gaming · Curated content.

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