Capcom's horror sequel took Ultimate Game of the Year and three more trophies. The critics' pick went to House House's Big Walk, days after an awards jury row over its tiny bit of AI code.
Resident Evil Requiem won Ultimate Game of the Year at the 2026 Golden Joysticks.
Requiem took four awards in total, and Capcom was named Studio of the Year.
Melbourne studio House House's Big Walk won the Critics' Choice Award.
It comes days after IGF jurors took a stand over Big Walk's tiny bit of AI code.
Crimson Desert won PC Game of the Year, and Meccha Chameleon also took four awards.
Resident Evil Requiem is the first big Game of the Year winner of 2026, taking the Ultimate Game of the Year gong at the Golden Joystick Awards in London overnight, NZ time. Capcom walked off with four trophies for Requiem plus Studio of the Year.
The more interesting result for us is Big Walk. The co-op hiking game from Melbourne studio House House won the Critics’ Choice Award, days after House House admitted chatbots touched a sliver of its code and indie awards jurors started drawing lines over it.
Most Golden Joysticks are public votes, but the Critics’ Choice Award is picked by a panel of critics at Future, the publisher behind GamesRadar, according to indy100. That makes it the closest thing to a jury prize on the night, and it went to the game everyone in indie circles is currently arguing about.
Big Walk was all over the shortlists. It was nominated for Ultimate Game of the Year, PC Game of the Year, Best Indie Game, Best Multiplayer Game, Best Audio Design and Best Game Trailer.
GTA 6 wasn’t in the running for anything except, presumably, everyone’s attention next week. It doesn’t come out until 19 November, and New Zealand gets it first.
Requiem winning the big one is about as shocking as rain in Wellington. It’s a cracking survival horror game from a studio that’s been on a heater for years, and the public voted like it.
The Big Walk result is the bit worth talking about. A panel of critics looked at a game that’s been dragged through the mud over roughly 10 lines of AI-assisted shadow code and said, yeah, nah, it’s still the best thing we played this year.
Good on them. Push for disclosure all you like, but an Aussie studio making one of the most loved games of the year deserves its trophy. Come argue about the winners in the GetRekt Discord, and keep up with everything on our Big Walk page and Resident Evil Requiem page.
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