Do The Game Awards Matter?
It’s mid-October, which means for a lot of us it’s time to bring out the hoodies and pumpkin spice lattes. Holiday season is just around the corner, and there’s something about gaming during Christmas time which just feels extra special. It’s also the time we collectively get to look back on all of the games we’ve gotten this year and discuss them. Possibly the biggest platform for that is The Game Awards. Award shows have always been a hot topic for debate. Some see them as a fun way to celebrate a specific art form and its creators. Others see them as a shallow and masturbatory way to gloat and only discuss the biggest commercial products in said industry while ignoring smaller and more heartfelt works.
The Game Awards specifically have been a target of scrutiny since its very inception. It spun off of the Spike Video Game Awards, which I vaguely watching the final one being hosted by Joel McHale- which was weird. In 2014, Geoff Keighly left Spike and established his own show- The Game Awards. Geoff is kind of a hard guy to talk about since it seems like he’s constantly getting made fun of and scrutinized. But the general vibe I get is that nobody really hates him, but he’s the kinda guy that people would put the “kick me” sign on back in school and make fun of his parents divorce. He’s got this goofy over-the-top enthusiasm for everything he does. Which- hey, it’s a nice change of pace from constant anger that that terminally online gamers spew every day. Honestly, there’s really only two things I don’t like about the guy. Number one- sneakers with a suit- just why?
Number two- Geoff Keighly is obviously a corporate shill. And he’s been one for a while now. If there’s money to be made from drinking a dirty puddle of rainwater, the dude is gonna slurp up every last drop. And I get it to an extent, I’m sure it’s really difficult to fund a show like this. Because at the end of the day, I’m sure that publishers (the people with the actual money) don’t really give a shit about his award show. It seems like most of the respect and prestige goes to the D.I.C.E Awards or The BAFTA Game Awards. But the frustrating thing about Geoff being a sellout is that it feels like he could cut the cost of the show in half but he doesn’t choose to. He’s probably paying appearance fees for the constant celebrity guests who almost never feel warranted, they always feels like some desperate attempt at validation. “Hey guys, look! We have a dazed and confused Harrison Ford and Al Pacino here! Video games are just as important as movies!” I’m sure he’s slinging some bucks at Kojima and other publishers to try and get his trademark announcements, because again, these publishers don’t need his show to announce anything.
The announcements are a whole other corny aspect of the show. It’s really the only reason most people watch The Game Awards, because the entire show is clearly built around them and prioritizes them. It would be one thing if maybe there was a limit to four or five big announcements in the whole show. But it almost feels like it’s built for the TikTok attention span. Like the producers behind the stage are like “Oh no, it’s been 37 seconds without a game announcement! We need to hurry up!” Back in 2023, even Kotaku blatantly said TGA should “stop pretending to be an award show and just become winter E3”.
It just seems like no matter what format Geoff and his team try to do, it always ends up being unprofessional or embarrassing. In 2021 he refused to call out Activision Blizzard by name after their sexual harassment scandal. Why? Well, I covered that earlier. In 2023 the pointless celebrity guests were allowed to talk to their hearts content, but the actual developers kept getting a “Please Wrap it Up” sign shoved in their face, even when one of them was talking about a fellow team member who passed away. In 2024, the show sparked the hot debate on if a DLC should be eligible for Game of the Year.
I don’t want to dogpile on the show too much because I think the intent is actually pretty nice and I think they’re getting better at recognizing games that deserve attention. Last year Balatro which was made by one guy was competing against Final Fantasy VII Rebirth, Astro Bot, Metaphor: Re Fantazio and the Elden Ring DLC. That’s absolutely insane, and you know what? That’s totally valid, because Balatro is amazing and absolutely deserved that nomination. So to me, it’s a sign that the people behind the scenes are paying attention to what’s happening in games.
When you compare the gaming industry to the film or television industry, it is so much younger than those two. So it makes sense that we’re still kinda seeing the growing pains of these types of shows. I know Geoff isn’t reading this, especially after the rainwater comment, but if anyone on the team is- just try to cut a little bit back on the constant barrage of advertisements and announcements and make sure the focus is on the developers. Because without them, we wouldn’t have any games to talking about in the first place?
