We ended up selecting the PC version of Cyberpunk 2077 from The Witcher developer CD Projekt Red as our GOTY for 2021. Either way, we’ll have to wait till GOTY 2022 to find out.

Would Halo Infinite have won IGN Japan’s Game of the Year if it had been eligible for nomination? The game is excellent, but the series is relatively niche in Japan, so it’s hard to tell. Its multiplayer mode was actually released separately three weeks earlier, but technically as a beta, so that was ineligible too. However, the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic have led to delayed releases for many of the more ambitious games, and this has played havoc with our GOTY award system.įor example, Microsoft’s long-awaited Halo Infinite was finally released for Xbox and PC - after a 12-month delay - on December 8, a week after our eligibility period ended. Traditionally, all of the major holiday releases would come in November anyway, and so all the main contenders would be eligible for that year’s Game of the Year. That means the actual eligibility period is not simply the same as the calendar year: We based our GOTY 2021 on games that were released in Japan between December 1, 2020, and November 30, 2021. Once all the votes have been cast and the totals combined, the core editorial team then begins a gladiatorial process of arguing over how to deal with close calls and ties, before we emerge, bloodied, with a complete ranking.įurther complicating the issue is that, like many other publications, we publish our GOTY list before the end of the year.

So, a game that has been chosen as No.1 by a particular editor counts more than their No.2, and so on. IGN Japan’s GOTY Top 10 ranking and related category awards are compiled and voted for by our editorial team and many of our freelance contributors, with a weighted points system that places extra priority on games that place highest in each voter’s list. Game of the Year - or GOTY, as many outlets call it - is a chance to take stock of the year while praising some of the games that defined it. As we reach the end of another year, my team at videogame and movie news site IGN Japan are focused on preparing a raft of coverage looking back over the past 12 months - and ahead to the next.

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