Stupid. Removed any credibility from themselves by not waiting. Whatever you think about FH5 and Halo Infinite, they are both coming out in 2021, so almost everyone is talking about that timing instead of their choice of Ratchet. Just saying there is an arbitrary ‘cutoff’ doesn’t justify anything - they make that up themselves. Nothing to stop them making these choices much later.
And that’s leaving aside the fact that they can pick such a phoned in, by the numbers Ratchet game (which I still liked) as being worthy of an award. It’s actually the first Ratchet I haven’t finished in a long time (although I will at some point.) That’s a little depressing for the state of this year.