The 2023 Game Awards were little more than an overproduced and glorified commercial reel, with little time to spare for actually celebrating the medium.
Here’s the thing: I really want to like the Game Awards! I think that on a purely conceptual level, Geoff Keighley's "Oscars of gaming" could be a neat way to celebrate the most outstanding talent in the gaming industry and give some legitimacy to a medium that still struggles to be taken seriously by anyone not involved with it. But 2023's Game Awards were decidedly not that.
Instead, Keighley's scheme to draw in more viewers with game announcements and World Premieres has turned the show into a mini-E3, with the actual awards feeling more like an afterthought. When less than a third of your awards show has any awards to show, it's hard to even call it an awards show anymore! But I'm not convinced that Keighley and his team have any interest in fixing the issue, considering how callously the 2023 Awards were run overall:
For those curious, Game Awards winners are given 30 seconds for their acceptance speech before a "Please wrap it up" sign starts flashing.
— Stephen Totilo (@stephentotilo) December 8, 2023
Eiji Aonuma, legendary director of Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom being told to "Please wrap it up" at @thegameawards https://t.co/6CIcjQUV4b pic.twitter.com/za7jYgK0EV
— Javiera Cordero PS (@javierabegazo) December 8, 2023
Please Wrap It Up
Hurrying the winners in your awards show off the stage after 30 seconds with passive-aggressive teleprompters and music cues, just to make more time for trailers and commercials, is a pretty bad look overall. Then again, it's easy to forget you're watching an awards show in the first place when it's been 30 minutes since the last actual award has been given out. At least until Geoff pops up on the screen again, quickly rattling off a list of nominees and winners, and the show then cutting back to more trailer footage.
Getting some weird vibes this years #TheGameAwards Rushing through 5 very important awards in a row. Meanwhile, Kojima gets 10+ minutes talking about a game that has no footage whatsoever. No mention of the 7,000+ game developers that have been laid off.
— Kolbe Payne (@kolbepayne) December 8, 2023
Surely more time could've been spared for the actual awards portion of the show? Maybe by cutting out the odd trailer or ad reel? I mean, Geoff certainly gave his favorite gaming auteur Hideo Kojima as much time as he needed to advertise his next game. And what about the Hollywood celebrity appearances? Surely those should be less important than the actual developers whose work we were supposed to be celebrating here?
(Gonzo excluded, of course, he can stay.)
Not Even Gonzo Could Salvage This One
The Game Awards' identity crisis was already noticeable in previous years, but it was especially grating to watch in 2023. Why am I supposed to care about the awards when not even Keighley himself seems to, to the point of treating them like an annoying obligation to fit in between commercial breaks? It all gives the impression that he doesn't genuinely respect videogames and the people making them.
In their current state, the Game Awards are a horrendous viewing experience and an insult to the industry as a whole. If Geoff wants to host the next E3 replacement, he is welcome to do so as far as I'm concerned. But not if it devalues and dismisses game developers in the process.
But evidently Geoff's formula does net him the viewer numbers he wants to see, so unless there is some major industry backlash, I don't expect the show's flawed format to change anytime soon.