The Golden Joystick Awards revealed 12 Ultimate Game of the Year nominees, including 007 First Light, Big Walk, Resident Evil Requiem, Crimson Desert and Forza Horizon 6. Fan voting runs until 11:59 PM GMT on Friday, Oct. 30, with winners announced at the Nov. 11 ceremony at Troxy in London, hosted by Alix Wilton Regan. GTA 6 is absent because it launches Nov. 19, after voting and the show.
Because the event occurs on November 11, just eight days ahead of the Grand Theft Auto 6 release date, and polls close October 30, the title cannot qualify.
2026 stands out as a particularly strong period for video game launches.
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Shigeru Miyamoto has been chosen to receive Japan’s Order of Culture, the first video game industry figure to earn the distinction. The award, presented by the emperor on November 3, honors major contributions to Japanese culture across arts and sciences.
Auroch Digital, the Bristol studio behind Boltgun 2, said it has begun a redundancy consultation affecting around a quarter of roles as it restructures. It is owned by Roundtable Interactive. Support for Boltgun 2 and Warhammer Survivors (launching Nov 10) will continue. It gave no headcount.
Phantom Blade Zero's PC pre-load opens October 26 at 7:00 PM PDT (10 PM AST), per the game's official X account, which says the game is about 145 GB and asks players to reserve at least 300 GB of free SSD space for the pre-load. The game unlocks October 28 at 7:00 PM PDT (October 29, 10 AM Beijing) for everyone at once, on PS5 and PC.
HoYoverse said in its Oct 23 livestream that Genshin Impact Version 7.2, Hour of Ruin, will arrive on November 4, adding an Archon Quest, a new eastern Snezhnaya region and two Electro characters, Mitya and Valeriy.
Capcom says about 11.77 million CAPCOM ID records were exposed, each with an email address and login metadata. 43 also exposed birth date, gender, country and nickname, and 196 accounts had passwords changed without authorization and reset. Capcom says it has not confirmed any compromise of customer-set passwords, and credit card information was not included.
