Or, to put it another way, video games have made 2026 a less shitty time to be a fan of Star Wars. In the past couple of months, we've had two exceptional Star Wars games in new, or underexplored, genres for the franchise. With Star Wars: Zero Company, XCOM veterans told a stunning Clone Wars-era story through squad tactics; with Star Wars: Galactic Racer, Burnout veterans evoked the series' roguish, hot-rod vehicular culture in a standout racing game.
Both games have been received with acclaim by critics, especially the innovative Galactic Racer. Their releases have been well-timed to stand out for consideration at The Game Awards in December, too. But Star Wars has a checkered history at TGA — and gaming awards in general.
And while Zero Company and Galactic Racer are better placed for success at the awards than almost any other Star Wars games of the last two decades, they might still struggle for recognition. Part of this story is the general sniffiness of gaming awards bodies around licensed games. This prejudice doesn't exist without reason; for the majority of video game history, the majority of licensed games have been trash.
But there also seems to be general resistance to games based on outside properties, perhaps born of the young medium's protectiveness of its originality. In the early days of gaming awards, these instincts led to licensed games being condescendingly cordoned off in their own play area. If you look back on the history of the Spike Video Game Awards — The Game Awards' predecessor — you most often find Star Wars games restricted to the Best Game Based on a Movie category. (Lego Star Wars 2: The Original Trilogy won that award in 2006.) That category no longer exists at The Game Awards.
But licensed games often find themselves siloed in other ways. With the exception of Insomniac's Spider-Man games and not a whole lot else, licensed games are more likely to be nominated in the genre categories than put up for craft awards, never mind Game of the Year. This has been the fate of Star Wars games during The Game Awards era.
In 2019, Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order had to make do with a Player's Voice nomination from fans. 2023's Star Wars Jedi: Survivor managed one nomination in Action/Adventure and one in performance (in an admittedly very competitive year). It was the same story for Star Wars Outlaws the following year. We are a long way from the halcyon days of 2003, when, at the inaugural Spike VGAs, both Star Wars Galaxies and Knights of the Old Republic were nominated for Game of the Year, and Rogue Squadron 3 got some love too.
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