{"id":1048633,"date":"2026-01-18T05:33:46","date_gmt":"2026-01-18T05:33:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.polygon.com\/?p=486104"},"modified":"2026-01-18T05:33:46","modified_gmt":"2026-01-18T05:33:46","slug":"our-goty-expert-untangles-the-logic-of-the-game-awards","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/arcader.org\/news\/our-goty-expert-untangles-the-logic-of-the-game-awards\/","title":{"rendered":"Our GOTY expert untangles the logic of The Game Awards"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Hideo
<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

This year Polygon launched GOTY Watch<\/a>, led by our senior editor Oli Welsh. The section \u2014 separate from our own Game of the Year picks<\/a>, coming soon \u2014 is a home for analysis of upcoming Game of the Year contests and awards shows, including the most notable one, the annual Game Awards<\/a> in December. Styled after the Oscars and the Emmys, the Game Awards is an increasingly formal event with ever-stronger implications (and potential sales returns) for its winners and advertising participants. And just as the race toward the Oscars and Emmys has become a point of fascination for readers, it made sense for a similar beat to form around the various game awards. Over the past few months, we\u2019ve seen readers enjoy participating in in the GOTY Watch analysis, sharing their own theories in the comments and on social media in response to our own.<\/p>\n

Earlier this month, Kotaku reporter Ethan Gach\u2019s newsletter Dead Game published an interview with Oli Welsh about GOTY Watch<\/a> that gives readers an even closer look at his process for thinking about the \u201caward season,\u201d the contenders, and the meta around The Game Awards in particular. Oli lays out the patterns he\u2019s observed about what types of games tend to win Game of the Year, which he\u2019s put together after analyzing years of winners.<\/p>\n

\u201cI would say that it needs to have strong narrative elements, so it should be quite story forward, ideally,\u201d Oli told Dead Game. \u201cPerformance should be quite a big part of it. So you want to have it be fully voiced, maybe even motion capture performance, high production values\u2026 like AAA narrative-led action adventures or RPGs.<\/p>\n

\u201cI’ve analyzed the nominees between the genre categories and Game of the Year, and you nearly always have an overlap of four out of the six Game of the Year nominees are in the action adventure category. The overlap with RPG is smaller, but they are, if anything, more likely to win if nominated.\u201d<\/p>\n

That data analysis has fueled our regularly updated predictions post<\/a> for The Game Awards\u2019 2024 winners \u2014 but none of us know for sure what\u2019s going to win, and that\u2019s all part of the fun.<\/p>\n

As Oli put it to Dead Game: \u201cI’d say it’s all part of elevating the medium and part of elevating the medium is saying, \u2018This is nonsense, I just want to talk about Arco<\/a><\/em>,\u2019 and part of elevating the medium is saying, \u2018Why does, I don’t know, why is Dragon Age<\/em> far more likely<\/a> to get nominated for a Game of the Year award than Arco<\/em>?’ What are the systems that support that?\u2019 We can clarify that for people and maybe it will will change some thinking.\u201d<\/p>\n

Read the full interview and more of Gach\u2019s commentary on the TGAs at Dead Game<\/a>. <\/p>\n

Source<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This year Polygon launched GOTY Watch, led by our senior editor Oli Welsh. The section \u2014 separate from our own Game of the Year picks, coming soon \u2014 is a home for analysis of upcoming Game of the Year contests and awards shows, including the most notable one, the annual Game Awards in December. Styled after the Oscars and the Emmys, the Game Awards is an increasingly formal event with ever-stronger implications (and potential sales returns) for its winners and advertising participants. And just as the race toward the Oscars and Emmys has become a point of fascination for readers, it made sense for a similar beat to form around the various game awards. Over the past few months, we\u2019ve seen readers enjoy participating in…<\/p>\n

Read More…<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1048634,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1048633","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-polygon"],"yoast_head":"\nOur GOTY expert untangles the logic of The Game Awards | Arcader News<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"This year Polygon launched GOTY Watch, led by our senior editor Oli Welsh. The section \u2014 separate from our own Game of the Year picks, coming soon \u2014 is a\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/arcader.org\/news\/our-goty-expert-untangles-the-logic-of-the-game-awards\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Our GOTY expert untangles the logic of The Game Awards | Arcader News\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"This year Polygon launched GOTY Watch, led by our senior editor Oli Welsh. The section \u2014 separate from our own Game of the Year picks, coming soon \u2014 is a\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/arcader.org\/news\/our-goty-expert-untangles-the-logic-of-the-game-awards\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Arcade News\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2026-01-18T05:33:46+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/arcader.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/our-goty-expert-untangles-the-logic-of-the-game-awards.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"480\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"320\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Arcade News\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Arcade News\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/arcader.org\\\/news\\\/our-goty-expert-untangles-the-logic-of-the-game-awards\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/arcader.org\\\/news\\\/our-goty-expert-untangles-the-logic-of-the-game-awards\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Arcade News\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/arcader.org\\\/news\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/8460f5e5076b52fb2369f2f7ce6f2839\"},\"headline\":\"Our GOTY expert untangles the logic of The Game Awards\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-01-18T05:33:46+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/arcader.org\\\/news\\\/our-goty-expert-untangles-the-logic-of-the-game-awards\\\/\"},\"wordCount\":485,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/arcader.org\\\/news\\\/our-goty-expert-untangles-the-logic-of-the-game-awards\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/arcader.org\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2024\\\/11\\\/our-goty-expert-untangles-the-logic-of-the-game-awards.jpg\",\"articleSection\":[\"Polygon\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/arcader.org\\\/news\\\/our-goty-expert-untangles-the-logic-of-the-game-awards\\\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/arcader.org\\\/news\\\/our-goty-expert-untangles-the-logic-of-the-game-awards\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/arcader.org\\\/news\\\/our-goty-expert-untangles-the-logic-of-the-game-awards\\\/\",\"name\":\"Our GOTY expert untangles the logic of The Game Awards | Arcader News\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/arcader.org\\\/news\\\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/arcader.org\\\/news\\\/our-goty-expert-untangles-the-logic-of-the-game-awards\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/arcader.org\\\/news\\\/our-goty-expert-untangles-the-logic-of-the-game-awards\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/arcader.org\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2024\\\/11\\\/our-goty-expert-untangles-the-logic-of-the-game-awards.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-01-18T05:33:46+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/arcader.org\\\/news\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/8460f5e5076b52fb2369f2f7ce6f2839\"},\"description\":\"This year Polygon launched GOTY Watch, led by our senior editor Oli Welsh. The section \u2014 separate from our own Game of the Year picks, coming soon \u2014 is a\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/arcader.org\\\/news\\\/our-goty-expert-untangles-the-logic-of-the-game-awards\\\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/arcader.org\\\/news\\\/our-goty-expert-untangles-the-logic-of-the-game-awards\\\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/arcader.org\\\/news\\\/our-goty-expert-untangles-the-logic-of-the-game-awards\\\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/arcader.org\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2024\\\/11\\\/our-goty-expert-untangles-the-logic-of-the-game-awards.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/arcader.org\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2024\\\/11\\\/our-goty-expert-untangles-the-logic-of-the-game-awards.jpg\",\"width\":480,\"height\":320,\"caption\":\"Our GOTY expert untangles the logic of The Game Awards\"},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/arcader.org\\\/news\\\/our-goty-expert-untangles-the-logic-of-the-game-awards\\\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\\\/\\\/arcader.org\\\/news\\\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Our GOTY expert untangles the logic of The Game Awards\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/arcader.org\\\/news\\\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/arcader.org\\\/news\\\/\",\"name\":\"Arcade News\",\"description\":\"Free Arcade News from the Best Online Sources\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\\\/\\\/arcader.org\\\/news\\\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/arcader.org\\\/news\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/8460f5e5076b52fb2369f2f7ce6f2839\",\"name\":\"Arcade News\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/3fea48a614d86edd987bc7bb25f4707c69546d4b1f78ad4aa20b26316bad1f9d?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/3fea48a614d86edd987bc7bb25f4707c69546d4b1f78ad4aa20b26316bad1f9d?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/3fea48a614d86edd987bc7bb25f4707c69546d4b1f78ad4aa20b26316bad1f9d?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Arcade News\"},\"sameAs\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/cricketgames.tv\"],\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/arcader.org\\\/news\\\/author\\\/arcade-news\\\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Our GOTY expert untangles the logic of The Game Awards | Arcader News","description":"This year Polygon launched GOTY Watch, led by our senior editor Oli Welsh. The section \u2014 separate from our own Game of the Year picks, coming soon \u2014 is a","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/arcader.org\/news\/our-goty-expert-untangles-the-logic-of-the-game-awards\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Our GOTY expert untangles the logic of The Game Awards | Arcader News","og_description":"This year Polygon launched GOTY Watch, led by our senior editor Oli Welsh. The section \u2014 separate from our own Game of the Year picks, coming soon \u2014 is a","og_url":"https:\/\/arcader.org\/news\/our-goty-expert-untangles-the-logic-of-the-game-awards\/","og_site_name":"Arcade News","article_published_time":"2026-01-18T05:33:46+00:00","og_image":[{"width":480,"height":320,"url":"https:\/\/arcader.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/our-goty-expert-untangles-the-logic-of-the-game-awards.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Arcade News","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Arcade News","Est. reading time":"2 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/arcader.org\/news\/our-goty-expert-untangles-the-logic-of-the-game-awards\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/arcader.org\/news\/our-goty-expert-untangles-the-logic-of-the-game-awards\/"},"author":{"name":"Arcade News","@id":"https:\/\/arcader.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/8460f5e5076b52fb2369f2f7ce6f2839"},"headline":"Our GOTY expert untangles the logic of The Game Awards","datePublished":"2026-01-18T05:33:46+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/arcader.org\/news\/our-goty-expert-untangles-the-logic-of-the-game-awards\/"},"wordCount":485,"commentCount":0,"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/arcader.org\/news\/our-goty-expert-untangles-the-logic-of-the-game-awards\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/arcader.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/our-goty-expert-untangles-the-logic-of-the-game-awards.jpg","articleSection":["Polygon"],"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/arcader.org\/news\/our-goty-expert-untangles-the-logic-of-the-game-awards\/#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/arcader.org\/news\/our-goty-expert-untangles-the-logic-of-the-game-awards\/","url":"https:\/\/arcader.org\/news\/our-goty-expert-untangles-the-logic-of-the-game-awards\/","name":"Our GOTY expert untangles the logic of The Game Awards | Arcader News","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/arcader.org\/news\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/arcader.org\/news\/our-goty-expert-untangles-the-logic-of-the-game-awards\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/arcader.org\/news\/our-goty-expert-untangles-the-logic-of-the-game-awards\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/arcader.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/our-goty-expert-untangles-the-logic-of-the-game-awards.jpg","datePublished":"2026-01-18T05:33:46+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/arcader.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/8460f5e5076b52fb2369f2f7ce6f2839"},"description":"This year Polygon launched GOTY Watch, led by our senior editor Oli Welsh. The section \u2014 separate from our own Game of the Year picks, coming soon \u2014 is a","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/arcader.org\/news\/our-goty-expert-untangles-the-logic-of-the-game-awards\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/arcader.org\/news\/our-goty-expert-untangles-the-logic-of-the-game-awards\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/arcader.org\/news\/our-goty-expert-untangles-the-logic-of-the-game-awards\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/arcader.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/our-goty-expert-untangles-the-logic-of-the-game-awards.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/arcader.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/our-goty-expert-untangles-the-logic-of-the-game-awards.jpg","width":480,"height":320,"caption":"Our GOTY expert untangles the logic of The Game Awards"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/arcader.org\/news\/our-goty-expert-untangles-the-logic-of-the-game-awards\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/arcader.org\/news\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Our GOTY expert untangles the logic of The Game Awards"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/arcader.org\/news\/#website","url":"https:\/\/arcader.org\/news\/","name":"Arcade News","description":"Free Arcade News from the Best Online Sources","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/arcader.org\/news\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/arcader.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/8460f5e5076b52fb2369f2f7ce6f2839","name":"Arcade News","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/3fea48a614d86edd987bc7bb25f4707c69546d4b1f78ad4aa20b26316bad1f9d?s=96&d=mm&r=g","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/3fea48a614d86edd987bc7bb25f4707c69546d4b1f78ad4aa20b26316bad1f9d?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/3fea48a614d86edd987bc7bb25f4707c69546d4b1f78ad4aa20b26316bad1f9d?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Arcade News"},"sameAs":["https:\/\/cricketgames.tv"],"url":"https:\/\/arcader.org\/news\/author\/arcade-news\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/arcader.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1048633","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/arcader.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/arcader.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arcader.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arcader.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1048633"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/arcader.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1048633\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1466132,"href":"https:\/\/arcader.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1048633\/revisions\/1466132"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arcader.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1048634"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/arcader.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1048633"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arcader.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1048633"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arcader.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1048633"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}