007 First Light’s GOTY 2026 chances are minimal thanks to one major reasons

007 First Light is out, it has reviewed well, it’s a shiny blockbuster with sophisticated (or somewhat sophisticated) gameplay, and it has serious narrative ambitions. It follows that it’s being touted as a GOTY contender. Yes, just about, but developer IO Interactive’s latest hit finds itself facing an unfortunate impediment, which ironically is also its main selling point. It’s a James Bond game.

Here’s a curious fact about The Game Awards jury members: they have next to no respect for licensed games. They hardly ever nominate them. In the history of the awards, only three games licensed from properties outside gaming have ever been nominated for Game of the Year: Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor in 2014, Marvel’s Spider-Man in 2018, and Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 in 2023. (I’m not counting The Witcher 3, perhaps unfairly — but I think you can argue that CD Projekt has catapulted The Witcher to a level of fame far beyond Andrzej Sapkowski’s books, to the extent that it’s a gaming property first and foremost in the minds of most people.)

Given the jury’s otherwise quite mainstream tastes, and preference for cinematic action-adventure games with strong narrative elements, it’s a funny bit of snobbery. It reflects the film Academy’s similar disdain for comic-book movies. It’s as if the TGA jury is saying, “This is OUR artform, and we don’t need your hand-me-down characters, thanks.”

There’s also the lingering stink of the generally poor quality licensed games that benighted the medium for decades. It’s no longer really a fair complaint. Most licensed games these days are of decent quality; ever since Rocksteady Studios defied preconceptions with Batman: Arkham Asylum in 2009, there’s been a growing trend of heavyweight game studios who are willing to attach themselves to licensed work, and licensors have learned respect for the gaming audience, too.

But prejudices, once formed, have a habit of lingering. Here are some of the major licensed games, all right in The Game Awards’ genre sweet spot, that have missed out on GOTY nominations in the last 12 years: Alien: Isolation; Batman: Arkham Knight; Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order and Survivor; Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy; Hogwarts Legacy; Indiana Jones and the Great Circle.

Some of these omissions are more surprising than others. Hogwarts Legacy, for example, is a mediocre game with toxic associations, albeit very popular. Indiana Jones is much-loved, but had an unfortunate release date, just missing eligibility for the 2024 awards and having to wait a full year for its chance. Some are more surprising: Guardians of the Galaxy won the Best Narrative category but missed out on a GOTY nomination in a generally soft year.

Even as critics’ opinion of licensed games has softened, it has only softened so far. None of the games I just listed, even the widely admired Indiana Jones, managed to break through the magic 90 barrier on Metacritic. Alien: Isolation, now regarded as a survival horror classic, has a Metascore of 79. Perhaps it has something to do with the difficulty of balancing the expectations of a licence and its beloved characters with the very different expectations of a major video game — not to mention the restrictions that might be imposed on the developer by the license holders.

It might be more instructive to look at the exceptions that prove the rule. The Spider-Man games can lean on the pedigree and impeccable gaming cred of their developer, Insomniac Games, and the production values of publisher Sony. By sheer dint of budget and quality control, they have brute-forced their way to higher critical ratings than any other licensed game save Rocksteady’s Arkham Asylum and Arkham City. Shadow of Mordor, meanwhile, has a humbler critical reputation, but is distinguished by a unique, innovative bit of game design — the Nemesis system — that stands out regardless of its license.

007 First Light is good, and it has some unique mechanics, but it seems just a sliver short of reaching either of those windows of opportunity. In the end, it’s just another licensed game. James Bond might be a big deal out there in the wide world, but here in the gaming community, he’s no Leon S. Kennedy. Also, unlucky for him — Insomniac’s take on Wolverine is waiting in the wings later this year to steal his spot. Snikt!