How are the winners of gaming awards determined?

Game Awards It's back this December, but how are the nominees chosen and who decides which game actually wins? Does the public have any say? These are all questions you might want to know ahead of next week's event, and here are the key details we know.

Which games are eligible?

become qualified For this year's Game Awards, games must be “available for public use” on or before Friday, November 21st. Any games released after that will be eligible for next year's ceremony. This also means that games released on or after November 22, 2024 are eligible for this year's event.

Live service games released in the previous year are eligible for all categories if the voting jury deems them “worthy of inclusion due to new content, improvements or service updates”. There is also a dedicated category, “Best Ongoing Game,” which honors such games.

How are nominees selected?

An international jury of more than 100 media and influencer sources, including GameSpot, formed a coalition to vote to decide the nominees, according to The Game Awards website.

“Each polling organization completes a confidential, unranked poll listing the top five choices in each category based on the collective and diverse opinions of its entire editorial staff,” the website reads.

After the votes are tallied, the five races with the most appearances on the ballot will be chosen as nominees. Any tied category will receive six (or more) nominations. This year, there are six nominations across multiple categories, including Game of the Year, Best of Show, Best Indie Game, and Best Family Game.

For the Esports, Accessibility and Best Adaptation categories, these categories are selected jointly by a “professional” jury.

How are winners selected?

Game awards are ultimately decided by the same voting jury, but public fan voting is also involved, which is why you may see developers calling on their fans to vote for their games. The voting panel controls 90% of the votes, with public fan votes accounting for the other 10%.

People can vote on the Game Awards website, or in China, people can choose on Bilibili. Voting ends Wednesday, December 10 at 6pm PT/9pm ET.

Some have called for The Game Awards to adopt a stance of 100% public fan voting, where fans have all the say, but organizers said this would pose “some challenges”.

“First, given that some games are unique to one platform, public voting puts single-platform games at an inherent disadvantage relative to multi-platform games. Additionally, it is important that winners are not socially engineered in any way. We found that hybrid voting is the most credible and authentic way to select a winner,” the team said.

No fees

All games are “automatically eligible” for The Game Awards and there is no submission process at all, meaning publishers or developers don't have to pay anything to submit their games for consideration. “The Game Awards firmly believes that no game developer or publisher should have to pay to have a nominated game considered,” the team said. As a developer/publisher, not all award shows are run this way Pay to have their games entered in the Gamescom Awardsstarting at €440 ($508).

Is Jeff Keighley involved?

Geoff Keighley is the founder and presenter of The Game Awards, but is not a member of the voting jury. He's been very public about his close friendship with Death Stranding director Hideo Kojima, which has raised some eyebrows at The Game Awards over the years.

Other bias issues

The Game Awards are partly funded by sponsors – some of whom have games competing for the awards. Organizers claim there is “no link” between sponsorship and nominations/awards. According to The Game Awards, the voting jury had “no idea who was sponsoring or involved in other parts of the scheme”. The organization also claimed that nominees and winners were not shared with developers in advance and that the team learned “at the same time as the public.”

“The Game Awards does not reveal winners ahead of the live awards ceremony. There are no exceptions to this rule,” the organization said.

The Game Awards will take place on December 11 and will be broadcast live around the world. In addition to announcing the names of all the winners, the event also promises game announcements, trailers, and other content.