The Game Awards wouldn’t exist without the very people it celebrates, so why did they keep rushing them off the stage?

Look, I won’t pretend I don’t watch The Game Awards, mostly to see what new game gets announced. That’s probably the mindset of many out there in the gaming community. It brings in viewership and is, in part, the big reason that makes The Game Awards so successful because, without them, the show probably wouldn’t draw as much attention from the public.

It’s the sad reality of it all, but one can’t deny its effectiveness, which helps bring the gaming industry into the spotlight every year. 

Yet, that very same spotlight and opportunity that comes with it isn’t one that, at least from the public view, goes towards the people making these games and therefore making the show, but rather to sponsorships, celebrity guests, and padded segments that make TGA feel like a glorified E3, taking up several minutes to pitch an idea to the world, instead of addressing their colleagues. 

This year especially, it was noticeable, as many winners had speeches, only to be ruined by a tune of music telling them to get off the stage. I know Christopher Judge, Kratos’ voice actor, had that moment last year, and they joked about it here, but the joke kept running, only for real, limiting speakers to a measly 30 seconds. 

Meanwhile, celebrities were allowed to have what felt like an infinite amount of time to tell bad jokes and ramble on, not to mention the barrage of commercials (that help pay for the show, at least).

Then there was the Hideo Kojima segment. I’m a huge fan, and I mean no disrespect, but there is a time and place to give a whole spiel about a project, and I don’t think a celebration of the gaming industry is one of those places.

OD had the longest segment out of any other game, with the trailer a little over a minute and 40 seconds and the after-chatter being almost a full seven minutes. 

It’s a lot of time to dedicate to talking about a game, telling us it’s a game, without actually showing us it’s a game. Lest we not forget the ego-stroking and hyping of Kojima as a visionary, something we all know very well already. Geoff has said it himself in the past: Kojima is a man who needs no introduction, so why are we spending so much time doing that on a stage meant to celebrate studios and their releases from this year? Again, there’s a time and place, and The Game Awards was not it. Don’t even get me started with the muppet, who had just as much time. Are there people who watch this show that actually like those segments? 

Those minutes, along with the guests’ spots and padded jokes, all add up, and the ones that take the blunt end of it are the very people the show is meant to celebrate.

I really wasn’t planning on mentioning this in a TGA story, but these last few years have been horrible for workers in the gaming industry. Layoffs are at an all-time high, with work conditions also being a focal of the last year with the whole Activision sexual harassment lawsuit. I know there are plenty out there who are disappointed these subjects weren’t acknowledged at the event. I get it from both sides, and it’s not something I’ll divulge into, as we’ve all heard it by now.

But I will say, though the subject was ignored, I couldn’t help but feel it did the exact opposite. We all saw some of these developers take the stage to begin talking, only to be cut off moments later by the music, a sign to stop talking and get off the stage. 

How does the industry expect to improve if one of its biggest events doesn’t even want the devs talking? And I mean that generally, not just about the layoffs and such. 

The last few years have been about bringing this issue into the light, finding out that there are some publishers out there who refuse to listen to those very voices, doing everything in their power to silence them. It felt like The Game Awards was doing that very thing. 

Why are we trying to rush someone who just wants to say thank you? The show isn’t even being broadcast on TV like the Oscars. Outside the venue rental time, running out of air time is next to impossible when your streaming platform is Twitch and YouTube. 

We have all these awards to hand out, and The Game Awards sped through them like a speedrunner trying to break a world record while reminding everyone about whatever ad placement they had. 

How can we have a show celebrating the gaming industry and its developers if we can’t even take the time to celebrate them? 

I want to discuss some of the counter-arguments about this, though. We, the viewers at home, look at a celebrity guest and wonder, why? It’s the same with a few other things that most probably would agree are time-wasting. The truth is, those spots aren’t meant for us to begin with, no matter how directly they address us. I recall a moment from my non-writer job when the company I previously worked for celebrated us employees. They invited some celebrities to talk and be a part of the celebration. It wasn’t a broadcast event, mind you, but regardless, it did make the moment feel special, even though that celeb never worked a day in their life, doing my job at the time. 

I know the community groans every time it happens, but if that same feeling I got when my company did it was something they felt, then at the end of the day, I’m fine with them. Still, even at that event and past ones, I’ve never seen our fellow workers who were spotlighted ever pushed off stage. 

I will say that some of those awards they presented should have been presented by legends in the industry. I’m sure many developers out there look up to some of these older devs, as their games are the reason they got into developing in the first place. It wouldn’t be hard for Geoff to find that information about who the nominees have looked up the most in the industry. Everyone has their preference, but I can’t help but feel a moment would be more special if it were presented by a legend in the industry. 

Timothée Chalamet, one of the main stars of Dune, presented The Game of the Year award to Larian Studios for Baldur’s Gate 3. I’m sure he’s a gamer and a major industry fan, but it felt so off to see. Not to mention that the studio had less than a minute to talk about one of the biggest accomplishments you can earn in the industry. I know their speech was short and ended before the music could be played, but then you see this and realize it’s probably because they saw the sign telling them to wrap it up.

If I won game of the year and was dedicating the award to a member of my team who had died during development and saw the words “Please wrap it up” I’d be fucking pissed #TheGameAwards pic.twitter.com/be0hLfmfT2

— Javiera Cordero 🇵🇸 (@javierabegazo) December 8, 2023

Game announcements, too, help the awards. As I said, it brings attention because if the event were strictly an award show, not many would watch it. That proof is already out there for several other award shows. However, we had a lot of games that ended with a 2025 release splash screen. Do we really need to know what’s being released in almost two years? No matter how exciting some of those announcements may have been, I can’t help but think they would have been better off announced at another event. You know, like E3, or the very event that has replaced it, Summer Game Fest? 

All I’m saying is that The Game Awards needs to do a better job at this. At the moment, from what I saw, it felt like a corporate-driven event that puts sponsors and celebs ahead of the very developers who are the reason the show exists. I’m not saying The Game Awards needs to stop doing these things, as the show needs to get funded somehow. I’m not even saying that game announcements should go away, but there needs to be a healthier balance than what was shown in last night’s show.