the lecture/novel was published in its own right on october 7, 2010. house of anansi press' advance publicity for the novel stated that on september 20, 2010, "player one" was announced as part of the initial longlist for the 2010 scotiabank giller prize literary award, coupland's second longlisting for the prize after being longlisted in 2006 with "jpod". however, the book didn't make it any further than the longlist and coupland was denied the honour a second time, with the prize being eventually won by johanna skibsrud for her novel "the sentimentalists".