Games still in early access have generally not been considered for the industry 's top awards , since they have technically not yet been published yet and received in-depth critical reviews . However , the question of whether early access games can qualify for these awards was raised in 2017 when '' PlayerUnknown 's Battlegrounds '' was nominated for several awards including Game of the Year for The Game Awards ; at the time , '' Battlegrounds '' was nearing its first non-early access release , but had yet to officially publish outside it . '' Gamasutra '' considered the concept of early access , particularly Steam 's approach , as one of the five trends in 2013 that defined the direction that the video game industry was headed
The Game Awards
The Game Awards 2017
Early access