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    OPINION: The Game Awards Were Better This Year…But It Still Has A Long Way To Go To Truly Be Better

    Or, How Geoff Keighley Poked Fun At All The Things Fans Called Out And Didn't Fix What He Should
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    The Game Awards

    The gaming industry is in a unique place right now, and not exactly in a good way. 2024 has been a roller coaster of great highs (via some of the games that have been released) and epic lows (layoffs, developers shutting down, publishers blaming gamers for their own failures, etc.), and you have to wonder what will happen next. That brings me to The Game Awards, where, every year, Geoff Keighley likes to note how “epic” it is and how it’s the “must-see event” for all gamers worldwide. At the end of this year’s show, I’ll admit it was better than last year’s show, but there are still plenty of problems with it… and Keighley either doesn’t seem to know that or doesn’t care about that, so long as what he does at the show “makes him and those close to him happy.”

    You might recall that last year, I wrote an opinion piece about the 2023 Game Awards and how it was bloated and controversial. I maintain it is still that for various reasons, but this time, I’m going to point the finger at very specific things that Keighley and the show did that prove how little those in charge actually listen to gamers, developers, and those who watch the show. Shall we begin?

    Issue #1 – The Arrogance of Geoff Keighley

    The Game Awards, Geoff Keighley

    Yes, I am starting with a rather blunt statement, but it’s not made from a place of malice but one that can be backed up by the various things he’s said or done in key spots within the 2024 show and past ones.

    In truth, you either really like Geoff Keighley and all he does or you’re tired of him acting a certain way just because he “rules the gaming roost” in terms of shows. Between The Game Awards, Summer Game Fest, and Gamescom’s Opening Night Live, Keighley is everywhere, and he’ll repeatedly tell you how much he loves the gaming industry, but how he conveys it and proves it are two different things.

    Case in point, near the beginning of the show, Geoff noted that he used to write pieces about video game developers, stating that he knew they were just as important as the games themselves and needed to be respected and honored. A nice thing to say, for sure. Yet, if you watched the show this year, you’d have seen that, once again, the acceptance speeches for the winners of the awards were VASTLY shorter than everything else the show offered. I’ll be touching on specific points on that later, but for a guy who continually says he loves game developers and wants to support them… he doesn’t let them truly revel in the victories they got. The longest acceptance speech was about 3 minutes for Astro Bot’s GOTY victory, and that was partly because one of the studio heads thanked Nintendo for helping keep the platforming genre alive.

    Just about every single other one was under a minute or barely above it. If Keighley really cared about the devs, he would’ve told all the potential winners to “bask in the glory of their victory” and talk for a bit to show what the award meant to them.

    Then, at the end, he said to the crowd, “Thank you for believing in me.” One might take that as a simple statement for having the show on for 10 years, but if you really think about it, we didn’t NEED him to have this happen, and that statement was really about making The Game Awards all about him… instead of the developers, games, and gamers who REALLY make this show possible.

    And if you still need proof about how arrogant Geoff Keighley is when it comes to his show and how he’s really not going to change things, you need to only ask a pair of Muppets.

    Issue #2 – Making Fun Of The Criticisms

    Arrogance can be shown in various ways, but one of the biggest ways is how someone takes criticism and either pushes beyond it to get better… or tries to make it seem like the ones who make the critiques are the problem. For Geoff Keighley, he pushed the second button and brought in Statler and Waldorf from The Muppets to basically “roast Keighley” on stage in front of everyone to “have a good laugh.”

    And sure, it was funny at times, but when you look at the jokes that were made throughout the show, and then realize that these were the main criticisms that fans have had for YEARS about The Game Awards… only for them to not get changed that much… you soon figure out that the joke was on us, literally.

    Don’t believe me? Let’s break down the jokes they made. They referenced “Wrap It Up,” and the acceptance speeches were still incredibly short. They referenced the relationship with Kojima, and Kojima had one of the longer presenter speeches of the night. They talked about how “the awards were an interruption,” and that absolutely felt like the case given the show’s pacing. Or how about the multiple times they referenced the show length… and the show went about three hours and 40 minutes.

    And on the jokes went. The sad thing here is that I’ve seen people stating that these Muppet bits were the “best part of the show,” and that proves that Geoff got his way and made people “not think as much about the problems” because he was “acknowledging them” through comedy. That’s not how it’s supposed to work, Geoff.

    This was further highlighted by arguably the best moments of the night… which Geoff Keighley helped punctuate in the worst ways.

    Issue #3 – Game Changers and Line-Towers

    As I made known on our Nintendo Entertainment Podcast, I’ve been waiting for The Game Awards for one simple reason… to see if Geoff Keighley would say, “2024 has been a great year for gaming,” even with all the layoffs, shutdowns, bad games, terrible flops, and so on that riddled this year. To his credit, and I do mean credit, Keighley didn’t say that line. Just as important, he made an all-new award called the “Game Changer” award that went to a man named Amir Satvat. Who was he?

    He was a man who loved the gaming industry so much that he did his best, for free, to try and help those who lost their jobs while also helping those trying to get into the industry. His story was beautiful and breathtaking. His acceptance speech brought tears to many eyes, and I absolutely want that Legend of Zelda jacket. His helping over 3,000 people get jobs is something that absolutely should be honored, and I’m glad he got that award.

    Then, there’s the one and only Swen Vincke of Larian Studios, who used his time as the presenter for “Game of the Year” to note via an “oracle” what the next GOTY titles would be in the years to come. He called out the companies that make games just for revenue, have unreasonable expectations, or force layoffs just because it’ll save them money. In fact… I’ll just let him tell you about it:

    These two men did things in the course of five minutes that Geoff Keighley hasn’t done in basically the entire lifespan of The Game Awards. Sadly, you can prove that via the 2024 show.

    In the lead-up to the Game Changer award presentation, Keighley noted that everyone “could debate and disagree with reasons why” the industry is suffering right now and that “as a show, we struggle with how to discuss these topics in a constructive way.” Those are direct quotes, by the way, and they showcase how Keighley won’t go beyond what he feels comfortable saying about the game industry that pays him and “gives him connections” instead of saying what people, especially those in the industry, NEED to hear. That only grows when people in the industry, and even the gamers themselves, KNOW what’s wrong with the industry. Greed. Bad decisions. High-priced acquisitions and mergers that limit creativity, and so on. Those facts are easily proven, yet Keighley wouldn’t even bring that up in a small way.

    Let’s not forget that when the Blizzard workers’ strike and lawsuits came out years back, he briefly stated the situation and then rushed to the next “World Premiere.” Yet, when Konami was exiling Hideo Kojima, he made sure to show support to him personally and then ensured he was back the next year to speak his mind. Why give one person such love when you don’t share that love with others?

    Whether we accept it or not, The Game Awards is one of, if not the most-watched gaming events in the world, with at least 100 million people watching. NOW is the time to take a stand and say, “We need to do better for both our developers and our gamers,” but Keighley won’t do that. Don’t believe me? What happened after the Game Changer segment? They went right to a commercial break and then more “World Premieres.” They didn’t even let Amir’s victory breathe before getting to the “next big thing.” Why? Because while Amir was a “Game Changer,” he wasn’t the point of the show.

    If you recall Amir’s speech, he noted that 34,000 people had been laid off in the gaming industry over the last few years, with more undoubtedly coming. Geoff Keighley could’ve used his platform to spread hope and respect and send a message about what needs to happen for the industry to improve. Instead? He gave an award to a good man and then let that be the end of it. And if it weren’t for Swen Vincke, we wouldn’t have gotten that direct stab at companies like The Embracer Group, Ubisoft, Microsoft, Sony, Square Enix, and others who have hurt the industry with their bad gaming and game development decisions.

    Speaking of bad decisions…

    Issue #4 – The Celebrities Are Still Too Much Of A Focus

    ^That still hurts to watch, by the way.

    Geoff Keighley is always trying to “spice things up” at The Game Awards by bringing in celebrities to make things “relevant.” At this year’s show, we got the good, the bad, and whatever the heck that “skit” was above. Seriously, who wrote that tweet and said these two had “undeniable chemistry?” Look up what chemistry means and THEN get back to me.

    Seriously, though, what was the point of that outside of highlighting a game that most gamers admit didn’t look good? And that was hardly the worst offense of the night (but it was close!). The Snoop Dogg performance once again highlighted Keighley’s need for “modern influences,” even though nothing was game-related about it! Twenty-One Pilots performing music from Arcane? Dope. Snoop performing a rap song from his new album for no reason? Not so much.

    Furthermore, you could tell which presenters were doing their best, which were struggling, and which were just reading from the prompter. You know who you are. And all of this, once again, took away from the REAL winners.

    If you recall the “Best Adaptation” award, Todd Howard and Jonathan Nolan accepted the award alongside Ella Purnell, the STAR of the show, and she didn’t even get to talk! Cut out the Snoop performance and let her speak, okey-dokey?

    And that doesn’t even mention how certain big categories were once again rushed through at light speed just so we could get to the next big celebrity presenter or, in the case of Sam Lake, a really odd, overly dramatic introduction. The pacing continues to be one of the worst elements of the show, and Keighley doesn’t fix it. How are categories like “Best Fighting Game” regulated to the pre-show, and ones like “Best Indie Game” and “Best RPG” rushed through with almost no care for the games that were nominated?

    Apparently, it’s because Geoff wants to “keep things rolling” and see what his next “big guest” will do with their time. Hint: It’s not worth it.

    Issue #5 – Games Both Good, Bad, and…Huh?

    I know it was a while ago, but I did note that I felt this show was better than last year’s, and one of the reasons for that was there were some genuinely surprising games that appeared. Many of them are above, and many are rightfully excited about them.

    Okami is coming back; Naughty Dog revealed its next game; Elden Ring is getting a co-op spinoff; The Witcher 4 looks dope, and so on. It’s great stuff, and you can tell that Geoff Keighley worked hard to get these “big-name games” at the show’s premiere.

    …but…

    When you look at ALL the games that were shown off, you see plenty of “curious picks” and showcases that were clearly paid for just to have the platform of the TGAs. Case in point, Sonic Racing Crossworlds was billed as a “legendary franchise” by Keighley, and then given a less than 30-second trailer. A) no, it’s not. B) a 30-second trailer? Really?

    That wasn’t even the worst offense, though, as there was also an ad for a certain cat game that got called out by fans really quickly:

    Further research by fans found that the person behind this “studio” is one who loves NFTs and Crypto, which means it probably was done by AI, and that’s an affront to the many who are striking to keep AI out of game development. Yet, there it was, on Keighley’s watch.

    Plus, multiple game reveals were the “embodiment” of a TGA trailer in that it was all cinematics, no gameplay, and no true insight into what we were getting. Virtua Fighter, the new title from the ICO/Shadow of the Colossus creator, Intergalactic, and more, fits that bill. They were simply…there, and that rubbed many gamers the wrong way, especially as the show dragged on.

    And that brings me to my final point:

    Issue #6 – The GOTY Controversy

    Astro Bot Wins Over Fans with 99% Likes on YouTube

    Before the show even aired, Geoff Keighley made a big tweet noting that DLC could be considered for “Game of the Year” and other awards if the panel of judges felt “it was worthy” of the honor. The DLC in question was Elden Ring Shadow of the Erdtree. A great DLC, as both Metacritic and fans will tell you, but many gamers will also tell you that it was a “slap in the face” to get nominated for GOTY. Why? Because numerous other “epic DLC,” including a couple of key ones from 2023 that were highly rated, could’ve gotten that nomination in the past but didn’t.

    So, throughout the entire show, many believed that the DLC would win the event’s biggest award, and for a long period… it really felt like that would happen for a basic reason. Every other nominee got at least one award, which many, including myself, felt would be their “consolation prize” for not “winning the big one.”

    Then, in what I feel is a huge swerve, Astro Bot won, and Shadow of the Erdtree won zero awards.

    So… what was the point of nominating it, then? Other FULL games could’ve been nominated, like Stellar Blade, Like A Dragon Infinite Wealth, Legend of Zelda Echoes of Wisdom, and more. Yet, they did this, and then it amounted to nothing.

    And while I don’t mean to go all “conspiracy theory” on you, I can’t help but wonder if Keighley and his panel WERE going to give the award to Shadow of the Erdtree, then saw the controversy and then backpedaled to give it to Astro Bot. I can’t prove that, but it feels like something he would do to not “tarnish’ the 10th-anniversary show.

    For the record, Astro Bot DESERVED that award, but it also deserved to be in elite full-game company, and many will argue that this wasn’t fully the case because of Elden Ring’s DLC and a certain other title.

    In the end, The Game Awards will be back; it’s truly inevitable, and I’m glad that many felt it was better than many of the past several years.

    However, that’s a LOW BAR to clear. The show was still too long, had many controversial elements, poked fun at people who critiqued the show, didn’t give proper time to all who won awards, kept doing big celebrity cameos and performances that weighed the show down, and only acknowledged the layoffs and struggles of the industry in two small moments.

    If this show wants to improve next year, it NEEDS to address these issues. Yet, when it comes to Geoff Keighley and who his “allegiances” are really with… you really can’t make that bet.

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    A self-proclaimed Nintendo fanboy, born, bred, and Mushroom fed! He’s owned every Nintendo handheld and every console since the SNES. He's got a degree in video game development, is a published comic book writer and an author of several novels!

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