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The Game Awards 2023 largely delivered on its promise of celebrating the games industry, with a veritable smorgasbord of game announcements and trailers. However, one thing that was obvious to anyone watching is that award winners were not given much time on the stage to speak, following Kratos voice actor Christopher Judge’s snafu last year.
Watching on the livestream, we noticed a musical interlude would kick in moments after the speaker got started. “The clock’s ticking,” The Last of Us creator Neil Druckmann joked when he went on stage to collect the HBO TV show’s Best Adaptation gong. Sam Lake, who was called up twice, barely had a moment to gather his thoughts upon receiving Alan Wake 2’s well-deserved awards.
And it turns out that in the auditorium, there was a large teleprompter encouraging speakers to “please wrap it up” once their speech had hit a certain mark. Obviously, we understand the importance of keeping the event on schedule, but this does feel disrespectful to those going on stage – especially when their speeches generally have to reflect their entire teams.
It’s something that the show is understandably getting ripped for – just take a look at these two scathing Hard Drive headlines:
Perhaps the real kick in the teeth here is that a lot of time was dedicated to the likes of Hideo Kojima, who is an industry icon undoubtedly, but didn’t really have much to show. This hastily assembled meme, which has been shared thousands of times, succinctly sums up the situation:
Keighley has generally been very good at listening to feedback, and will likely admit he made a mistake here. But every year there’s always an underlying sentiment that The Game Awards isn’t sure what it wants to be. Yes, it needs the blockbuster announcements to draw eyeballs, and it requires the commercials to sustain itself – but what’s the point of an awards show when the recipients have no time to talk, and the vast majority of the gongs are footnotes rifled through as quickly as possible?
Comments 58
The second twitter article is just hilarious lol
I do think they could let people talk a bit more but at the same time most of these speeches are just not that good ahah I guess Judge really screwed everything for everyone.
They can’t really win tbh. If they let the winners talk for too long then people complain that the show drags on, but if they hurry winners up to try and keep a brisk pace then they also receive complaints.
I didn’t watch it, but was there any mention of the Israel/Palestine conflict?
There was an open letter sent out by the Future Class members demanding acknowledgment.
Lose-lose situation.
What can he do though? No one tunes in for the awards & the ads make the show happen. Also can’t have the show running for too long either.
Maybe the publishers/voting committee could fund part of the show to allow for less ads & more time for speeches.
The best wrap up will always be Mr T at the WWE HOF. He spent 30mins+ thanking his mother at which point the WWE just hit Kane’s music & got him to wrap it up😂.
That Kojima meme tells my thoughts exactly. 😆
Like I get that he's your bro Geoff but Kojima really didn't deserve that much time for what was a trailer of some faces spouting nonsense.
Damned if they do, damned if they don't.
Everyone already complains that it's too long, there aren't enough variety in the awards and games that shouldn't be in that category should be in another (that often doesn't exist), they have to speed it up somehow.
Everybody knows viewers come for the trailers not the awards themselves. That said the balance still isn't right, they could do with cutting a few segments and giving winners a little more time.
It was exactly the right move in my opinion.
It was really bad. Watching him blast through three or four awards at a time without any celebration just so he could get to the next ad was grim. And even when winners did get a chance to speak they were so rushed they barely had a chance to say anything of substance or actually be celebrated for their achievements. It was actually pretty sad.
This is what annoys me about the whole thing. It’s a corporate event masquerading as an award show. Which is crazy considering the recent layoffs.
The industry makes more money than Hollywood yet he insists on bringing out Hollywood people to pull views to get that ad revenue and more eyes on trailers, yet only gives some, not all, award winners 30 seconds to speak.
But if we had more time to the people behind the games and not the content creators, eSports players and the voice actors, and more time to the award winners in a similar timeslot that he keeps giving Kojima, then the people behind the games could become as big as the Hollywood names and it'll all work out.
And sure, it'd drag on, but its already 4 damn hours of ads for crying out loud. It drags on as it is.
For a show that wants to award the best games and the best the industry has, we sure dont see them.
@Fight_Teza_Fight "Was there any mention of the Israel/Palestine conflict?"
I play games to escape the real world. I'm so sick of politics being injected into every little thing that brings me joy.
I think I'd rather see award winners get a little more time to enjoy their moment than have Keighley's mates say nothing about a teaser trailer for 10 minutes, or A-list actors tell people to shut up.
Haha those memes are great
Better than people making 15 min speeches
Oh man, just saw the Anthony Mackie clip. So he wasn’t told to wrap it up but you told bloody Aonuma to get a move on. Crazy.
@LifeGirl I feel the same way. Time & place. It just that members & thousands of devs signed this open letter.
Wondered if it was addressed or not. Guess not.
Honestly I watch TGA (a couple of hours after) for the game announcements only. That's it.
Anyone talking? Fast-forward button.
I'm in the minority here, but I watch for the commercials so was glad to see they kept it moving. Music did start about 2 seconds in, though.
They hit the music during the first speech when Neil/Astarion was trying to say some genuinely meaningful personal things about how what they were doing was even more important to some people than just "playing games" And then Geoff is in robot-host mode and just laughs it off to do his next read 🤦♂️
And then some speeches they didn't even allow for that winning moment to sink in.
I get saving time, but 30 seconds is not long enough to take in the fact you are getting recognition in your industry and are standing in front of people who want to congratulate you for it and share in that small moment by hearing what it means to you.
Sam Lake, Alan Wake and the Alan Wake dancers were amazing though. At least they had that moment. The rest of the show didn't really celebrate this year's other games that well though, considering. Even Game of the Year was like "yes, here's game of the year... see you next year folks."
Reveals and trailers are fun to a point, but so is looking back on what we've all been playing and collectively acknowledging how good it has been.
@Fight_Teza_Fight They set their stall out with Ukraine though. Made a big deal about that but they’ve already censored people at the Golden Joysticks and Geoff’s clearly ignored people at these awards. Either you have nothing at all or you let people say their piece but they opened that can of worms last year.
Whos the curly haired dude in the orchestra ,more of him please ,I could watch that guy all night ,he's great.
@Fight_Teza_Fight That moment never came, thank God. There's a time and place to talk about things like that, and the damn Game Awards is not the time nor the place.
@Fight_Teza_Fight why would there be recognition of the war?? People use gaming as a means to get away from real life stuff and be bombarded by stuff like this.
I'm so glad they didn't
FINALLY SOMETHING NEW TO COMPLAIN ABOUT. WAH WAH WAAAAHHHHH. Holy smokes, just enjoy the show. Geoff's gotta run his show his way because it's his show.
While I do think people need to keep things somewhat brief, when it comes to someone that requires a translator, give a little more leeway because the speech has to be said twice!
Also English may not be a first language and requires a little more time to get out their thoughts if they are speaking English.
We just wanna see new games...not long speeches and musical performances
@nessisonett Did he mention anything thing about Ukraine last year? I don't recall it.
Here's an irrational thought: stop making The Game Awards about announcements and release dates - that's what E3 (or that time in June since E3 is dead) was for. If you're going to make an AWARDS show, make the main subject matter the AWARDS.
Nobody wants to hear people blabber on all day.
@nessisonett "It’s a corporate event masquerading as an award show." That pretty much sums it up perfectly.
It's called The Game Awards, but it's really just a way to show commercials and trailers. Basically, a televised E3 without the show floor. I get that Judge's speech went on for far too long last year, but damn, Geoff went to the total other way.
I guess that it's time to accept he's never going to find the right pacing and structure for the show. He's had too many years now to figure it out and he clearly hasn't. If this was a way to try to shorten the show, that's not the way. I still saw comments about it being too long anyways.
@Savage_Joe I agree that it draws a lot of eyes, but it draws eyes for the wrong reasons.
When dedicating the award to a member of a GOTY-winning team who had died during development and saw the words “Please wrap it up” while Kojima gets more airtime to talk about nothing, there's a massive problem.
People are too soft these days. The teleprompter doesn't go far enough. Let's reintroduce that classic Vaudeville custom of dragging people off the stage with a curtain hook if they go on for too long.
OK folks, that more than 30 comments. Time to wrap up this comment section.
@LifeGirl "I'm so sick of politics being injected into every little thing that brings me joy."
I agree that there shouldn't be mention of any war going on however the rest of your statement is very silly. Many games have politics heavily ingrained like BioShock series, Metal gear Solid series, Fallout series and Mirror's Edge to name a few.
And all that thanks to Christopher Judge.
Geoff is the most overhyped person in the industry. It is an AWARD show, not a REVEAL showcase.
I think it was good. The long winded acceptation speeches get boring and ruin the pace of the event. Seems to me it was enough time for the thanking everyone needed, but not enough for speeches. I liked it.
People are so...
Who the literal f cares about the awards.
its an advertisement show. was this your first tga?
have you never watched the Oscars?
@Grimwood have you ever watched the oscars? the oscars dont show 1000 advertisements of upcoming movies. Also, you SHOULD care about the awards, it’s ‘the game awards’.
But yeah, it’s a smirking Keighly ad reel. Where all developers apart from Kojima get treated like dirt. That’s all it is.
Even when thanking your colleagues who passed away during development you get told to ‘wrap it up!’
And most awards are given like ‘award for this: that. Next!’
“The Game Awards 2023 largely delivered on its promise of celebrating the games industry.”
No, it did not. It was a three hour commercial and did nothing to honor the achievements of game developers and the game industry. The closest to good thing that happened was that segment with Abubakar Salim and him founding a game studio with a personal story about his father, but that was it.
I didn't watch it. I watch the trailers on Youtube and be done with it. But I do agree that award winners deserve an appropriate amount of time to speak their minds during their time on stage. There has to be a balance somewhere.
Maybe knock off a few of the ads if you're that pressed for time? Well as long as Geoff is there with you then you can talk as long as you want. It's just a bit disrespectful that this is supposed to be a celebration of developers and their hard work and they barely even get 10 seconds to talk.
In a year when nearly 10.000 people have lost their jobs it was the final insult that when a show that's supposed to celebrate them they decided not bother highlighting that nor allowed them any meaningful time for their acceptance speeches.
Geoff Keighley needs to make his mind up, either commit fully to it been an awards show and cut down on the trailers. Or ditch the awards format and just call it Winter Game Fest.
With the show getting speedrun I'm guessing they had some tight, systematic coordinated security protocols this time especially after the previous shows, when looking they had guards on the main entrance/exit paths and they had the announcers/presenters stood at variable positions, obviously for the cameras but it didn't seem like this last year.
Damned if you do, damned if you don't. People are never happy I swear. They complain about the length of the Game Awards. So Keighley gets the award winners to wrap up there speeches quicker to cut down on the time. Then people bit#$ about that. Smh 🤦♂️
I think the show was one of the best I've watched, and hope Geoff keeps this format going forward.
It was funny the first time they did it with judge but afterwards , it just seemed in bad taste
I love Kojima for MGS, ZoE and Death Stranding but man those memes are just funny.
At the end of the day, I just think Geoff don't want a repeat of Judge's speech last year and I'm sure it's not his intention to disrespect the winners
Keighley sucks. He’s totally in bed with the studio heads. If him not strongly condemning Activision in fear of losing his connections wasn’t proof enough, this should be. He has admitted the music cues were screwed up, but denied he cut off anyone, which is BS.
I fully support this decision. If I'm expected to sit through over 3 hours of content, I would much rather it be game trailers and not some dev thanking everyone they know.
I mean there is saying things, there is what meaning we as an audience get from them that we ourselves don't feel but they do when expressing themselves. 3-4 hours, did they cut it down or make it longer. Some jokes/skits/memes/moments drag on and I just don't care. I came for announcements. It watched it when it ended so skipped what didn't care to see thankfully. XD
There is the tons of advertising, the trailers. I mean the Joystick awards have better flow for one but not as much reveals as the Game Awards as it's not it's goal. But also fan versus industry/critics awards presentation differences.
I don't take it as rude, I can take the 'thanks my staff in a manner of speaking, my family and more' but I mean there is only so much to say without dragging it on and to mean that or something else that can bend it way too far sometimes.
If you're not going to place emphasis upon awards at the game awards, don't call it the game awards. We can see announcements literally anywhere. Upload them to YT, like GTA and Dragon Age.
I never watch awards ceremonies for anything... BAFTAs, Brits, Oscar's, Emmys, TGA... nothing. As much as I appreciate what they do, there's not much more tedious than watching a group of people telling each other how wonderful they are. It can get quite vomit-inducing.
You can't win. People love to complain. It was a great show. Any longer would have been too long. Let people talk for ages and people will complain the show is too long. Can't win.
I thought it was a great show.
There are some pretty anti-celebrating gaming takes here. The reality is that in 3 hrs, just 30 mins of it involved award recognition.
Pretty sad when even game of the year winners trying to recognize dev team members who passed during development were interrupted 30 sec into their speech with a wrap it up sign and music.
There should just be two seperste entities here. The game preview/advertisement show, and a seperste actual awards show. Right now it's just embarrassing and clearly an ad revenue driven cash grab disguised as an awards show.
@jorel262 Same here I just watch the trailers on YouTube.
@KundaliniRising333 That's really disgusting the way they said is not really the right way.
@CastelloGG Was it really that bad I guess It was the right thing to just to watch the trailers on YouTube and on the Pushsquare.com.
@Flaming_Kaiser You'd have a far better time watching this conversation between Abubakar Salim (Bayek from Assassin's Creed Origin) and Ben Starr (Clive from Final Fantasy XVI) if you want some great discussion about video games, voice acting and game development.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uLD-9L_PN2M
Another aspect of society ruined by a racist man's ego.
@CastelloGG I'm a anti big corp and these are there just shove some ads in your face I rather watch the good things the game trailers and the developers to do their things.
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