Cyberpunk 2077 Is Officially Out of the GOTY 2020 Race But There’s a Catch

CD Projekt Red recently announced that Cyberpunk 2077 is delayed and will release on December 10. The game had gone Gold earlier this month where the developers promised ‘no more delays are happening.’ Clearly, this did not age well. Fans lashed out at CD Projekt RED following this disappointing piece of news. Although, apart from the backlash, the game has been dealt another blow.

The Game Awards host Geoff Keighley announced on Twitter that Cyberpunk 2077 will now be eligible for the Game Awards 2021.

“Much like Super Smash Bros. Ultimate a few years ago, Cyberpunk 2077 will first be eligible at next year’s Game Awards.”

Super Smash Bros. Ultimate launches on December 7 and Cyberpunk 2077 launches on December 10. Since this year’s Game Awards is scheduled for December 10, it seems that the games launched in December 2020 will be eligible for next year’s event. This is definitely a huge blow to CDPR, who were definitely the favorites to win the GOTY award.

Also Read: “You Have to Make Some Hard Decisions”- Cyberpunk 2077 Developer Responds to ‘Content Cut’

Although, CP 2077 has already won the ‘Best RPG Game of the Year’ award at Gamescom 2020. But it was still bound to a specific category and didn’t take the win across genres. Additionally, The Game Awards is a highly prestigious event. This makes it a huge deal in the gaming industry.

Consequently, even if individual publishers call CP 2077 their GOTY for 2020, it still won’t be considered for the GOTY at The Game Awards 2020.

Cyberpunk 2077 being excluded from The Game Awards is confusing

There is also a slight confusion regarding the game’s eligibility. As reported by Gamerant, Geoff had recently commented on the eligibility criteria for winning the GOTY on Kinda Funny’s We Have Cool Friends podcast. Any game launched before the end of 2020 is eligible for the GOTY award, according to Geoff. Considering CP 2077 also releases before 2020 ends (hopefully), it should be eligible for the same. There is definitely some discrepancy here which needs to be addressed.

Geoff has replied to several comments, saying that the eligibility criteria are not the calendar year. This supports his announcement for not including Cyberpunk 2077 in the 2020 Game Awards. But this still doesn’t make sense, considering he has given a contradictory take on the podcast.

Nevertheless, it seems that Cyberpunk will miss out on a huge opportunity. This definitely makes TLOU 2, Ghost of Tsushima, AC Valhalla, Genshin Impact, and Watch Dogs: Legion the top contenders for the same. Hopefully, there will be more clarity on this soon.