Madden Beat Vice City, KOTOR, and other all-timers in 2003's Game of the Year

Although The Game Awards didn't start until 2014, their Game of the Year lineage dates back to 2003 through the Spike Video Game Awards. In its inaugural year, Madden NFL 2004 was awarded its GOTY, and 22 years later, a new generation of games is trying to figure out how and why it happened.

Not just a new generation of gamers, actually. I was born in 1989, so I was naturally a fully fledged gamer by 2003, and I also wanted to know how Madden was considered the best game of that year, considering its stiff competition. That competition included GTA Vice City, The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker, and Knights of the Old Republic.

How did Madden NFL 2004 win Game of the Year in 2003?

It was a strong year, yet, somehow, whoever was in charge of making these decisions ignored the all-time classics and decided the best game released in the last 12-month period of the football game we get every year. I'm not sure if that decision was challenged at the time, but now that the award has been rediscovered, the gaming world wants to know how it happened.

On screen work began with Michael Vick in Madden 2004

Surprisingly, one of the main reasons given to those looking for an explanation is that Madden 2004 was actually pretty good. I don't doubt it for a second. As someone who fought in the FIFA pits from 2001 to about 2013, I can confirm that there were entries in that annual series that made it into my favorite games rankings.

Here's looking at you, FIFA 06.

However, there is no year in which an entry in an annual sports game franchise must win game of the year. Especially not in 2003, when those games faced competition from titles that are considered some of the best games ever made. Another excuse I see is that, since this was Spike's first game of the year, the brand that would eventually evolve into today's Game Awards was still finding its feet.

Madden's Game of the Year win opened the show

Turns out that Spike not only gave Madden its first GOTY, but it started the show with it. Imagine watching this year's Game Awards and Geoff Keighley warmed us all up for a three-hour reveal by handing Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 the biggest award of the night.

A strange decision, but it was learned quickly. Neither Madden nor any other sports game has been awarded Game of the Year. Indeed, while there will be those who argue for other games each year, there is no standout year like 2003 where almost everyone looks at the winner and goes, “…huh?”

GTA San Andreas won the award in 2004, although it wasn't as good as Vice City (whatever I said), Resident Evil 4 won the award that year, and then Oblivion was crowned the GOTY in 2006. Every main GTA game has received a Game of the Year award since San Andreas, making GTA 6 a potential favorite. GTA 6 is currently scheduled to launch on November 19, 2026, which means it will have to wait until the 2027 Game Awards to potentially continue the 23-year streak.