Has the Game Awards Lost Its Way? Too many Trailers, Too few Speeches

The Game Awards, one of the gaming industry's most prestigious awards shows, celebrated its 10th anniversary this past week. It was a fun and exciting evening at the time; upon closer inspection, it feels more like a long string of trailers and advertisements with a handful of awards in between.

Even before the evening, critics of the show had raised concerns about a category that has always drawn the short end of the stick: Simulation and Strategy games, two genres that the Game Awards somehow continue to believe are close together even as far back as 2021.

More outrageous still was the short time for acceptance speeches, one of the few times in a developer's career where they can communicate the pride they have in their work and their love of video games. Reportedly, there was a prompter in front of the mic, which, after being activated, waited 30 seconds before reading: "Please wrap it up."

On the Fighting Games front, although it has been the best year of the FGC, it is understandable that neither Mortal Kombat 1 nor Street Fighter 6 earned the right to be Game of The Year Nominees, though the argument could be made that SF6 might have deserved it had it been any other year. Not to mention that, along with other categories, Best Fighting Game was not presented on stage, nor were winner speeches on the balcony stage.

More deflating was Evo 2023's loss to League of Legends Worlds Championship as the best Esports Event of the Year. In a section of the awards show that is already rather rushed, esports, to see the year's key event for an entire genre of games snubbed for Riot's premier event felt frustrating for many.

Geoff Keighley, the founder of the Game Awards, has since taken to social media to quell community outrage, stating that the issue of developers being cut short was addressed during the show and that they will continue to do so going forward.

Yet, there is also the topic of advertisements and trailers, skits that went on for minutes, overshadowing the people who were there to be celebrated. In a world without E3, it seems the Game Awards have naturally shifted to that role, which would be fine were it not also a key moment in these developers' careers.

We will see next year if there will, in fact, be major, meaningful chances for the format of the Game Awards to better represent the values it seeks to pursue. In the meantime, there might be some redemption for these developers in the upcoming DICE awards.