http://www.ign.com/videos/2016/01/08/why-rise-of-the-tomb-raider-is-the-xbox-one-game-of-the-year

Great news! This game deserves all that and more! Definitely the best game of last year on the Xbox with Halo slightly behind them! I am so pumped for Uncharted because of it! Truly a great TPS that I wish all people could've played but I am glad nothing was standing in my way! :)

GOTY that only sold a million..

Which makes no sense considering that the Witcher III is on the XB1 and won game of the year,

So if ROTTR is really that good, the publicity they could've got if they a)released everywhere b)released some other time - could've made this *possibly* sell more than the original very quick. All major third party games have easily hit the 1 million in first week, many 2 or more. No one I know has this game (yet) and that's a first for me. A shame because this could've been big on the sales

This, this and this.

I didn't check but many times, the game of the year is exempt from all other awards categories. So, for example, if Tetris was GotY, it wouldn't win puzzle game of the year despite being a puzzle game.  Crazy but true!

Lol and the marketing check has just cleared the bank. So much passion!

There is a category for best xbox game of the year. Some just call it best xbox game. 

I've played most of them. Witcher was definitely better but I think they were trying to give it the attention it deserved. It reminded me so much of Uncharted 2. Not as good as Uncharted 2 but it was going into that territory.