Abstract:
It's already September, and the nomination list for TGA's "Game of the Year" looks alarmingly empty. The only candidate is "Resident Evil: Requiem", and it has occupied the top spot since the beginning of the year, not because of how good it is, but because the other works are too crotch-breaking. This is the conclusion reached by a reporter from foreign media Polygon when summarizing the mid-term situation of the game industry this year.
Since January, the biggest hit this year has been "GTA6", and this has not changed at all. The problem is that Rockstar is still hidden, and even reporters from well-known media cannot try it out. Therefore, its "coronation ceremony" has been postponed to the last minute, or even hung in the balance. However, the weird thing about 2026 is not GTA, but the complete lack of decent opponents. The site’s reporters noted that nearly all potential annual hits have either fallen victim to a genre curse or been treated with indifference or even hostility by critics.
The Blood of Dawn Treader
Last week, the industry’s biggest hope was the opening of the time RPG Blood of Dawnwalker, a vampire-themed RPG created by the creator of The Witcher 3 and a former member of CDPR. Polygon deemed the game worthy of attention, but mainstream media was less than enthusiastic about it, with a score of only 83 on Metacritic, a score that probably wouldn't even qualify for a nomination. It was soon followed by Onimusha: Path of the Sword and the indie co-op game Orbital Gemini (in the style of Game of the Year winner Two of Us). Although both games have received good reviews, they have their own shortcomings and no breakthroughs.
Orbiting Gemini
In 2026, only a handful of works can reach the Metacritic threshold of 90 points, and even these works have weaknesses in front of TGA judges. "Big Walk" is an independent game with multiplayer gameplay. Such projects have always been unpopular; "Forza Horizon 6" is an excellent racing game, but its predecessor failed to receive nominations even in its weak years; "Mina Digger" is too niche; "Red Desert", although it has a lot of content, lacks polish, and many critics criticized it.
Even "Pokémon: Pokopia" and "007: First Appearance" cannot escape their fate: the former is restricted by the genre (life simulation and Pokémon are not popular), while the latter is stuck in the identity of a licensed work. Ultimately, reviewers concluded, that left Resident Evil: Requiem, a solid but not particularly outstanding project that looked like a nominee simply because there really was no one else to choose from.
Now, the pressure has come from September to November. The most important works of the year are usually in these months, but it is also a fog here. The coming weeks will bring us Marvel's Wolverine, Gears of Incident, Fire Emblem: Threads, Shadow Blade Zero, and Control: Resonance. However, in the author's opinion, none of these projects currently looks like a future hit that will receive a 90+ rating. The only game that's sure to get full recognition is the remake of The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time. But whether it can be released before the TGA awards ceremony is still unknown, and the status of the remake itself automatically reduces its chances of winning in the eyes of the judges.
The author comes to a depressing conclusion: the entire industry, game media and player groups seem to be frozen in waiting for the release of "GTA 6". This feeling was paralyzing for a whole year. Of course, Rockstar can be defeated. In 2013 and 2018, two games defeated it head-on, one called "The Last of Us" and the other called "God of War". Therefore, the author expresses his great hope to see at least one game and dare to take a step to try it. However, so far, such a game does not exist, Polygon concluded, and the November awards ceremony may become the least suspenseful one in recent years.
Comments