Copyright Polygon
It’s easily forgotten that The Game Awards 2025 won’t exclusively reward games made in 2025 — or shouldn’t, anyway. With the awards ceremony taking place in early December, and the nominations and voting process happening across November each year, there’s a cutoff date for eligibility, typically in the second half of November. In 2024, no games released after Friday Nov. 22 were eligible for consideration. But this means Saturday Nov. 23, 2024, was also the start date for eligibility for the 2025 awards. While December is typically a quiet month for new game releases, there were a few titles released that month that merit consideration in some categories — even Game of the Year, as strange as it would be to crown a 2024 game the best game of 2025. Polygon is one of the 100-plus outlets that form part of The Game Awards jury, and right now we’re starting to formulate our nomination ballot. As a timely reminder for ourselves — but also for the GOTY-watchers out there — we put together a list of the 2024 games (and one movie) that should be kept front of mind as we head into the heat of 2025’s awards season. Indiana Jones and the Great Circle MachineGames’ take on the midcentury adventurer immortalized by Harrison Ford probably would have been nominated for Game of the Year 2024 if it had been released a couple of weeks earlier. It was widely played and loved in games media circles and has a strong reputation for its polish and design. But the recent DLC expansion didn’t make much of a splash and its reviews, whilst good, don’t quite challenge those of the top 2025 releases. Categories: Game of the Year, Best Performance, Best Game Direction, Best Action/Adventure Game Chances of nomination: A GOTY nomination seems unlikely at this stage, but Troy Baker is almost certain to make it into Performance for his turn as Indy. A nomination in the Action/Adventure category is definitely not out of the question, although it’s a very competitive field (as always). Caves of Qud This is a hardcore, old-school, science-fantasy roguelike role-playing game from indie developer Freehold Games. With its 8-bit art and deep, Dwarf Fortress-inspired world simulation, it’s a pretty unlikely contender at The Game Awards. It also spent several years in early access before its 1.0 release on Dec. 5. But its critical reputation is solid gold, with 91 on both OpenCritic and Metacritic, and its indie credentials are unimpeachable. It also won the 2025 Hugo Award for best game or interactive work. Categories: Best Independent Game, Best Role-Playing Game Chances of nomination: Sadly unlikely, as both the indie and RPG categories will be ruthlessly contested by much more recent titles. Marvel Rivals Yes, NetEase’s massive Marvel-licensed hero shooter actually came out last year, on Dec. 6. As is the way with live-service games, it’s so ever-present that it feels both older and younger than that. Recency bias isn’t such a factor in the categories a game like this will be contending in, so of the 2024 games, this might be the likeliest to see nominations or even a win. Categories: Best Multiplayer Game, Best Ongoing Game Chances of nomination: Pretty high, especially in Multiplayer. It may be too soon for an Ongoing Game nomination, especially considering the poor reputation of Marvel Rivals’ community support. Infinity Nikki The gacha dress-up adventure didn’t quite turn into the long-term Genshin Impact competitor many thought it might be, but it still had quite a sustained cultural moment through December and January. Its large Chinese fanbase will serve it well in player-voted categories. Categories: Best Mobile Game, Best Ongoing Game Chances of nomination: Stands a decent chance of a nomination in Mobile, where games of Infinity Nikki’s genre have been doing well recently. Look out for it in Players’ Voice, too — in 2024, four of the five nominees were Chinese, and three of those were gacha adventures. Sonic the Hedgehog 3 No, not the 1994 Genesis game — we’re not going back quite that far. The third Sonic movie could be the biggest 2024 dark horse in the 2025 awards in the Best Adaptation category. Season 2 of The Last of Us wasn’t universally beloved, so Sonic may have the best shot at giving A Minecraft Movie a run for its money in this category. Category: Best Adaptation
