Often times, many games have an additional variant named "Game X: Game of the Year edition" or "Game X: GOTY edition". Within the same year, there are multiple games that seemingly have GOTY versions.
Obviously there seems to be some discrepancies. On the Steam Store search page for GOTY there are games missing on the Wikipedia List of the GOTY awards. Examples of games that are listed on the Steam Store page that are GOTY editions, yet are not referenced anywhere on the Wikipedia page:
- Men of War: Assault Squad GOTY
- Project Cars: GOTY
And of course, games that seemingly make fun of this:
- Saint's Row IV: GOTC (Game of the Century)
What I would like to know if this is just a marketing gimmick, or does the name Game of The Year actually mean something for the games themselves. Has the game had to been awarded a GOTY award to be able to do so (such as a gaming website that rates the best games of that year)?. Or is just a meaningless title that anyone could slap on to the end of the name of the game?
Best Answer
Short answer:
If you look hard enough, many games have been called "Game of the Year" by some people and sometimes these people come together and agree on this opinion and declare these games their collective Game of the Year. Regardless of how important these people are or aren't, that game can rightfully say it has been called Game of the Year in some way or another.
Longer explanation:
Before Googling Game of the Year for the first time, I assumed that GOTY simply meant "Game + all of the DLC," but it looks like MOST of these games actually won Game of the Year awards from some institution or another.
According to the list of Game of the Year awards on Wikipedia, there are actually a number of GOTY award-givers for a given year (52 to be exact).
Thanks to some steam searching by jojo, it looks like Deus Ex Machina and Rising Storm are not on this list, yet do have GOTY editions. Thus, it may be just a marketing gimmick. However, I was surprised by a number of games that I did not expect to see on the above list, so GOTY may have more credibility than I'd thought.
After doing some careful Googling, I found that all but one of the exceptions to the GOTY recipient idea mentioned in the updated question as well as the other answers actually did receive Game of the Year awards from at least one place, though some are relatively obscure.
Question:
Deus Ex Machina Game of the Year: CTA Game of the Year award (1985)
Rising Storm: PC Gamer Multiplayer Game of the Year (2013)
Project Cars: Techly's Game of the Year Award for Best Graphics (2015)
Badland: App Store iPad Game of the Year (2014)
Answer:
Two Worlds II: Bestes Rollenspiel & Bestes Spiel (translated: Best Role-Playing Game and Best Game) (2011)
L.A. Noire: BAFTA Game of the Year for Best Original Score (2012)
Kohan: Immortal Sovereigns: Academy of Interactive Arts and Sciences Best Computer Strategy Game of the Year & PC Gamer, Computer Gaming World, and Computer Games Magazine Strategy Game of the Year (2001)
Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare:
In Memoriam/Missing Since January: Computer Gaming World's Adventure Game of the Year (2004)
Plants Vs. Zombies: Golden Joystick Awards for Download Game of the Year & Strategy Game of the Year (2010)
Worms: Reloaded: This one is a bit difficult to prove, as the franchise has been awarded multiple "Best Game"-type awards and many are foreign, but due to the fact that there is only one Game of the Year Edition of any game in the Worms franchise, it is very likely that Worms: Reloaded was the recipient of at least one of these Game of the Year awards.
The one and only game listed in the question and answer that I cannot find a definitive award for is Men of War: Assault Squad.
Due to this being the sole exception that I have found, releasing a GOTY version of a game should not be seen as a simple marketing gimmick. That is not to say that the intent of releasing such a version is not to generate more revenue, however, there is definite credibility behind releasing a Game of the Year edition.
While finding awards for the games listed in the question and other answers, I have come to the realization that due to the rising popularity and diversity of games, a singular "Game of the Year" no longer works. One person's Game of the Year may not be another person's Game of the Year. In fact, it most likely won't be.