When Geoff Keighley launched The Game Awards (TGA) in 2014, the promise was to celebrate the developers who make the games we love. Over the past five years, that promise is starting to feel hollow.
The show has grown into a massive spectacle, with little space left for the people who give the ceremony its purpose.
When Developers Needed Support, TGA Didn’t Step Up
2023 marked the start of the labor crisis that’s still affecting the video game industry. Mass layoffs swept through studios. Developers who’d poured years into projects suddenly found themselves unemployed. Entire teams were dissolved.
That December, none of that pain was acknowledged during The Game Awards that night. Not a word was said about the tens of thousands out of work or the shuttered studios. The show just carried on like nothing had happened.
“I’m incredibly disappointed in Geoff Keighley for his silence on the state of the industry this year,” Monomi Park environment artist Dillon Sommerville told The Verge. He wasn’t the only one feeling that way.
Performative Gestures
Due to the backlash, the 2024 ceremony acknowledged the layoffs and how it was impacting the industry. They also introduced the Game Changer award, given to Amir Satvat for helping laid-off developers find work. It was something, sure but it didn’t feel genuine.
Especially since throughout the 2023 ceremony, developers were rushed off stage in seconds while special guest (and close friend of Geoff Keighley) Hideo Kojima had five minutes to discuss his upcoming project OD. The event still played out like a three-hour commercial that was occasionally interrupted by awards and Flute Guy. The spectacle remained the priority.
The Disappearance of The Future Class
The Game Awards established The Future Class in 2020. It was a program meant to support aspiring and marginalized developers through mentorship and networking.
It was a promising initiative that had little investment from The Game Awards. Members complained about minimal support from organizers. As members spoke up and pushed for better treatment, their relationship with Geoff Keighley deteriorated.
In 2023, The Future Class wrote an open letter urging The Game Awards to acknowledge the war in Gaza, just like they did for Ukraine during the 2022 ceremony. The request was ignored.
Shortly after, several members held a virtual presentation with Keighley and Future Class organizer Emily Weir to express their concerns about the program’s future. According to member Younès Rabii, Keighley was “visibly frustrated” during the presentation. Another member described him as “incensed.”
By 2025, the program is basically dead. “At this time, we are not planning a new Future Class for this year and do not have any active programming plans for Future Class,” Weir told Game Developer.
Many feel that the program’s closure was just another example of The Game Awards following trends. This is coming on the heels of companies rolling back their diversity initiatives in response to the hostile Trump administration. The Future Class was valuable as long as it made The Game Awards look good. When the concept of diversity was demonized by the far right, TGA decided their viewership was more important.
Pay to Be Seen
Now Kotaku released an article stating that developers pay up to $450,000 for a one-minute trailer shown during The Game Awards. A three minute trailer will cost $1 million. The worst part is that it actually costs less to have your games shown during Summer Game Fest (which is also produced and hosted by Geoff Keighley).
Keighley responded to the criticism by arguing that because The Game Awards has high viewership (the 2024 ceremony had over 154 million livestreams globally), developers are getting exposure for their games. That kind of spotlight could result in a boost in sales. He pointed to Balatro as an example, which saw a massive boost in sales after winning in 2024.
Sure but what about the solo developer working alone without the resources a big studio can give? Or the ones who work under a small, independent studio? These game makers would benefit from having their games shown during the TGA but they can’t afford to pay.
It seems like the only ones who benefit from the exposure are the publishers with large marketing budgets.
It’s Not an Awards Show Anymore
It’s becoming painfully clear that The Game Awards is a marketing stunt for select games and publishers. The awards themselves get squeezed into whatever time remains between the sales pitches.
Keighley said the award ceremony is a “balancing act,” but the balance only tips one direction. Only the ones with strong ties to Keighley or are favored by him get privileges that evade the ones who don’t have that kind of connection.The Game Awards only supports developers when it’s good for business. The show celebrates products, not people. It prioritizes spectacle and whoever can pay the most. That’s not going to stop developers from attending this year’s ceremony on December 11. Because whether people like it or not, The Game Awards is still the biggest event in gaming. Even when the shine is starting to fade.
