On the night of Thursday to Friday last, the Game Awards 2023a ceremony organized by Geoff Keighley since 2014 and which rewards the best released during the year, in the style of Oscars for the world of cinema. This is in theory, because this year’s edition clearly did not appeal to members of the industry.
30 seconds. This is the time that the winners of a Game Award to make a speech on stage and thank the hundreds, even thousands of people who participated in the development of the games AAA who have marked the industry, even for the price of Game of the Year, before any music is started, a sign that it is already time to leave. When the winners were not simply revealed to the channel between two commercials for Fortnite, or even before the ceremony, during the pre-show. In total, the ceremony lasted three hours, but only 10 minutes were allocated for acceptance speecheswhich are often the only opportunity for developers to express themselves publicly about their work and their passion, in front of 3.6 million spectators this year, especially since the Internet allows a certain flexibility in timing, unlike the television. Geoff Keighley apologized afterwards, explaining:
I agree that the music was played too fast for this year’s winners, and I asked our team to relax this rule as the show progressed. Even though no one was cut off, this is an issue that needs to be addressed in the future.
The rest of the ceremony was therefore commercials, “World Premiere” trailers of now highly anticipated games, Hideo Kojima and Jordan Peele talking for long minutes about a game that no one still knows anything about after the ceremony, but also industry leaders who came to present awards. Like Christopher Judge (Kratos in the last God of War) who made the spectators sweat when coming on stageeveryone remembers his endless speech last year after winning the prize for Best performance. The actor made a bit of humor this year by saying that “his speech was longer than this year’s Call of Duty campaign”.
Okay, the single player campaign Call of Duty: Modern Warfare III was very criticized, because in addition to being short, it is not very exciting, the fault of a visibly complicated development. But in a ceremony supposed to highlight the entire industry, the independents as well as the AAA, the joke goes badly, especially among people who have crunched on the design of this campaign. On X (formerly Twitter), several developers expressed their astonishment after hearing this unwelcome quip, in messages sometimes deleted, but Eurogamer shares some of them, including those of Ajinkya Limaye, former member ofInfinity Ward :
It’s funny. But yeah, the stats that Call of Duty absolutely destroys all God of War games (probably combined to be honest) are also just as laughable (if not more so).
I deleted the tweet because it was generating unnecessary attention and was meant to be a roundabout response to a joke that seemed quite difficult to hear given all the circumstances of the development. Not well brought and I apologize! Obviously, no hatred towards GoW! Peace !
Well, comparing the statistics of single-player games with titles essentially designed for multiplayer is not very relevant, but the idea is there. Another developer of Call of Duty also spoke out on social networks, in a message since deleted following death threats:
Honestly, as Call of Duty developers, we’ve heard a lot worse.
But I totally stand by that. The chronic overwork, brutal deadlines and callous layoffs that plague our industry, in the name of profit, regardless of the human cost, are an absolute fucking disgrace.
It is also good to note that the Game Awards Future Classa program with more than 150 members which aims to improve the video game industry, shared an open letter to Geoff Keighley asking him to discuss the humanitarian crisis in Gaza during the ceremony. A request rejected by the organizer of the Game Awards 2023, it must be said that the Israeli-Palestinian conflict divides many across the Atlantic. But besides this point, Geoff Keighley didn’t say a single word for the thousands of developers laid off this yeara major subject in the video game industry and which would have had its place in the Game Awards 2023without cutting back too much on advertisements and World Premiere.
Geoff Keighley therefore has a lot to do to organize a ceremony of Game Awards 2024 meeting industry expectations. Or completely change the formula to only have a conference dedicated to trailers, which would still be a shame, the rewards of Game Awards are very recognized. As a reminder, it is Baldur’s Gate 3 who was elected Game of the Yearyou can find it at €59.99 on GOG.com.
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| Clint008 Editor – Tester |
