Palworld lead Bucky reckons that GTA 6's new release date will cause some publishers to try and avoid the 2027 awards season. Reacting to the news of GTA 6's delay, Pocketpair publishing manager John "Bucky" Buckley notes that "interestingly," launching on November 19, 2026 puts GTA 6 "outside the nomination window for most games awards in 2026," with Bucky wondering if it's an intentional date due to that. Bucky continues: "Either way, expect to see many games (especially AAA ones) swerve to avoid the 2027 awards season." The implication there is that some games may move their release dates forward to be earlier in 2026 so as to not compete with GTA 6 at gaming award shows. Of course, there's always a chance with GTA 6 in the mix; the cutoff could be pushed back somewhat, because if you were Geoff Keighley, surely you would want to have GTA 6 at your show at the time it would be the most relevant. GTA 6 has been "a black cloud that looms over everything," according to a marketing veteran, and thanks to roleplay servers it "competes with Silent Hill somehow" As the industry waits for GTA 6 to land like a meteor, analyst highlights the widening gap in games: "The winners are winning bigger, and everyone else is scrambling for a smaller piece of the pie" GTA 6 dubbed "the largest game launch in history" by Rockstar in job listing, surprising absolutely nobody who has been waiting 12 years for the new Grand Theft Auto to release This also begs the question: do publishers care that much about awards shows? I could see Sony being part of that conversation given how much it prides itself on its prestige award-winning exclusives, but outside of that, I can't imagine it matters that much, aside from probably getting a bit of a sales boost around the awards. And of course, there's the other question: is GTA 6 as much of a given to win Game of the Year as we think? Even without the possibility of a Cyberpunk-style disaster launch, I don't think it's completely set in stone. God of War bested Red Dead 2 in 2018 at the Keighleys, and The Last of Us overtook GOTY discussions in 2013 when GTA 5 was released. All it takes is something like a new FromSoftware game, a new 3D Mario or Zelda, or the ultimate awards-bait developer Naughty Dog to release in the same year, and the conversation will be very different. Devolver Digital tightens its grip on Rockstar, now threatening to launch a game on GTA 6's new November 2026 release date: "You can't escape us"