Geoff Keighley And The Game Awards Are Getting Better, But We (Probably) Shouldn't Give Either Too Much Credit For It

So... The Game Awards Sure Did Come And Go, And Somehow They Weren't The Worst Thing Ever

Is anyone other than Keighley able to pull something like this off?

It's been about a week since they happened, but the 2024 edition of The Game Awards came and went and was met with moderate, though tepid, praise. The event's proverbial host, Geoff Keighley, modified this year's structure in light of recurring criticism that it does nothing to recognize the growing difficulties of working in the games industry. These modifications have muted some of the event's most common sources of consternation. I won't sit here and say that it was a perfect event by any stretch of the definition. Still, as someone who has been watching these since they were on Spike TV and at one point featured a wrestling match between WWE's Chris Jericho & Victoria vs. Rey Mysterio & Trish Stratus, I have to be honest. This year's awards show wasn't that bad. For the first time in a while, I laughed with the jokes on the stage rather than at them. Similarly, the framing of the awards alongside promotional game trailers and Geoff's salesmanship did not always lead to a groan-inducing viewing experience this year. That was a pleasant surprise as someone who went into it committed to watching everything from start to finish and expecting to eat my eyeballs out before the midway point.

However, as you can already tell from the title of this blog, none of that should lead anyone to give Geoff credit for making a minimal improvement over the previous incarnations of The Game Awards. A lot, and I mean A LOT, of the same issues that plague virtually everything that Geoff hosts were still present at The Game Awards this year. For someone who claims to be a champion of all levels of the industry, it's atrocious that trailers for AI-generated game slop get minutes during the main show, whereas awards for studios and game genres are pushed to the pre-show. Additionally, Geoff's Achilles' Heel continues to be his inability to filter games he allows to take up his airtime. Every time I popped to news of a game project like Okami 2, an Onimusha revival, or The Witcher 4, there were plenty of times when games like Catly, Squid Game: Unleashed, or Game Of Thrones: Kingsroad ate up more than one whole minute of my life, and I felt like my soul was escaping my body. And even in his best moments, where he made concessions to long-standing criticisms about his events and what he does and does not take the time to discuss on his platform, there's no denying where Geoff's ultimate loyalties lie. Sure, he's loyal to himself and what he's spent years creating, but the biggest studios and manufacturers in the industry are keeping the lights on, and that's very clear at this point.

But hey, it's progress, which means that bullying Geoff to take stands that require a backbone might be a workable strategy to continue to improve The Game Awards! Or, maybe not, because we immediately saw Geoff return to his old habits once the confetti was done falling. He's remained mum about the recurring and well-documented harassment of Amir Satvat after giving him an award AND has repeatedly failed to reign in on the toxicity that his GOTY award spawned. I obviously don't expect Geoff to have the solutions for all of these problems or to secretly have a magic wand to make them go away, but saying nothing in the light of multiple disasters and instead taking to Twitter to promote his viewership or advertise a glorified self-assessment on social media? Come on, man, read the room! Instead, what more is there to say other than Geoff Keighley is still Geoff Keighley? Part of the reason why I stopped reviewing The Game Awards or Keighley's Summer Games Fest is because there's no point. It's almost admirable that Keighley has practically laid out exactly who he is to the internet and has not deviated from that mold since he first graced televisions in the 2000s.

Let's Talk About The Good Stuff First!

One of the MVPs of the 2024 Game Awards.

However, let's give Geoff the flowers he deserves. First, the Statler and Waldorf skits were great, and I don't care what everyone else says about them. For the first time in the history of a Geoff Keighley event, there was a recurring comedy sketch that was genuinely funny and didn't make you want to die. When I look back at the poorly executed character impersonations or extended skits with drawn-out punchlines or repetitive gags we have seen in the past; the Statler and Waldorf skits were Oscar-worthy by Game Awards standards. I remember when Zachary Levi joked about microtransactions while awkwardly presenting "Best Action Game" in 2017. You can tell that someone at The Jim Henson Company knows a thing or two about video games because their Kojima joke was genuinely hilarious. Opening himself up to a recurring salvo of jokes by Statler and Waldorf at his expense was equally entertaining and part of one of the more significant praiseworthy things about the 2024 Game Awards: Geoff is finally showing some humility. He let an outside source write their own material for once, and doing so bore fruit. It wasn't a lot, but hey, it was something.

And while the pacing was by no means perfect, it was better this year than in previous ones. It was still awkward having Geoff praise Ken Kutaragi as the "father of the PlayStation," trot him in front of the cameras for a bit, and then not let him give even the briefest speech. Still, Kutaragi getting a rehabilitation tour has been long overdue. And therein lies one of the better aspects of the 2024 TGAs: it was at least willing to recognize the people who make this industry special between all the glitz, glamor, product placement, and gratuitous game trailers. Swen Vincke's speech about the need for a better video game industry was the genuine highlight of the event, and two or three years ago, I would have never imagined Keighley allowing for a speech like that to take place or happen at The Game Awards. Good on Keighley publicly admitting that he doesn't know how to frame discussions about layoffs and studio closures and instead needs to rely on others from within the industry to help breach those subjects. I have some qualms with Amir Satvat getting the "Game Changer" award, but hey, good on Geoff for using some of his event's airtime to communicate how those who work in the industry can find and form support networks in light of dire circumstances. And while I desperately need Geoff to cut the fake crying shit when hyping up a game trailer, I liked how he articulated the announcement of Okami 2. He made it clear as day that the game was connected to Hideki Kamiya, and that Kamiya's old team at Clover Studios, not Capcom internal, were the ones that made the first game in the series truly special.

Harrison Ford just continuing to live his best life. What a boss.

Then there were the celebrity cameos, and look, I agree that they were terrible on paper, but they were a guilty pleasure this year, and I'll take that. Yes, Aaron Paul awkwardly struggled through a comedic skit with Laura Bailey, which was not good. However, seeing a visibly LOADED Harrison Ford barely slur through his script while trying to promote Indiana Jones and the Great Circle was incredible. Ford hasn't been giving a shit about any time his agent or staff forces him to hit up the press circuit for ages, and seeing him doubly not give a shit during The Game Awards was especially funny. I felt the same way about Snoop Dogg's appearance, but that felt like a more honest attempt by Geoff to concede that his awards show has an incredibly wonky past. Given that Snoop Dogg headlined the 2004 Spike Game Awards, Snoop standing next to his son to talk about diversity in games and that leading to a CLEARLY weed-fueled musical set felt almost perfect for The Game Awards' 10th anniversary. We have seen some musical performers fall flat at the TGAs before, and Snoop going through the motions while high as a kite just worked. It was goofy and probably not the best use of time, but Geoff always has at least one musical performer per TGA, and having someone willing to jive with this awkward behemoth of an event is likely the best you can do.

Why Geoff Still Doesn't (Entirely) Deserve Unfettered Accolades

The lead behind Catly has denied that this used AI-generated art, but... come on now.

But The Game Awards are still an ungodly awful watching experience when you don't cut out the chaff. Geoff's lack of a filter when selecting game trailers for his events remains his most significant flaw from an outsider's perspective. I'm not alone in saying this point, but there's no reason for The Game Awards to last over three and a half hours, plus more if you include the pre-show. While Geoff showed this year that he does indeed hear the criticisms directed at him and his events, he only took this year's event so far. Even though Geoff tries to frame himself as an ally to those who work in the games industry, he still lets slop take away stage time from actual award winners. Considering how long the event lasts, it feels gross that whole awards that should be laudable moments for individuals or studios don't even have speech time, and some are still being pushed to the pre-show. And what are Geoff's priorities? I understand that the developer behind Catly is on "damage control" and currently claims their game isn't AI-generated, but come on now, it doesn't require an engineering degree or MBA to see that including it alongside The Witcher 4 and Intergalactic probably shouldn't have happened in the first place. Making gestures that you care about indie developers as much as AAA studios and then rattling off the nominees and winner for "Best Indie Game" in under two minutes did not sit well for me, and it hasn't for the past decade.

There's also "something" to be said that Geoff's "Game Changer" award went to someone who helped people find work in the same abusive system that everyone hates, which is still good, sure, rather than to someone or something that supports or funds unions. Again, Amir Satvat's developer network is undeniably a net good for those who work in the industry. I have no doubt that it is invaluable to those impacted by the worst brunt of the capitalist savagery we saw this year. However, his contributions were the centrist solution to what stands in front of underpaid and overworked game developers in a dysfunctional system. The fact that one of the most significant industry-wide changes and revolutions we have seen in 2024, which is the collective movement to push for unionization among Q&A testers, designers, programmers, and more, didn't get a single mention or nomination once again speaks to how much of an ally Geoff is willing to be. Also, let's go back to Swen Vincke's speech. It's incredibly telling that of all the widely praised and complemented moments from The Game Awards 2024; it remains the only one that Geoff and the official TGA social media account have not clipped and promoted. Slightly curious if you ask me. The shameless product placements and even Aaron Paul's award skit with Laura Bailey are there, but Vincke's call for better treatment of the people who make video games unique and special? NOPE, it's as if that never happened!

And I don't know who edits The Game Awards, but they need to do a better job. For example, having Geoff stir up this emotional introduction to Okami 2 only for the Okami 2 teaser to smash-cut into an advertisement for Black Desert Online's single-player campaign was one of the worst juxtapositions I have ever seen from a Geoff event. Likewise, with some genre-based awards feeling grim or sparse, it's time for Geoff to throw in the towel, like most gaming publications have, in admitting that genre-based GOTY awards don't work anymore. In a post-Breath of the Wild world, everything is an action game to a certain extent. Sports and racing games have been merged into a category for ages, and the same has been true for simulation and strategy games. Considering that Geoff already ditched the "Best Shooter" award in 2015 and that he puts little emphasis on most of the awards in general, fewer categories will be better for the future, but a more in-depth look at how to define commendations is long overdue.

For A Perfect Case Study On Why Geoff Still Isn't Perfect, Let's Talk About His Inaction On The TGA Black Myth: Wukong And Amir Satvat Situations

Man... people really suck sometimes.

However, Geoff's inactions after his event concluded are also where he needs to be assessed. As many of you are aware, following the announcement of Astro Bot winning The Games Awards' 2024 Game of the Year, the producer behind Black Myth: Wukong had a fit on social media and, in turn, unleashed a torrent of toxic behavior at other studios and individuals in the gaming industry. Presently, Wukong fans are review bombing Bladur's Gate 3 because they have assessed Swen Vincke as being part of the reason why it did not win. It's an entirely unnecessary shitty situation, but one with a clear point of origin. I said it in the introduction of this blog, but Geoff isn't entirely at fault for his awards show spawning a toxic reaction from the gaming community. This behavior happens with every awards show whenever even the smallest sub-community in the gaming hobby feels slighted or ignored, and it has been happening since the dawn of time. However, the fact that Geoff isn't willing to clamp down on what corners or fringes of the gaming community are welcomed in his house speaks volumes. Not saying anything about how this behavior is unacceptable or fails to represent his expected level of decorum will practically guarantee that it will happen again, which will become worse as The Game Awards expands its worldwide reach. At the very least, he can codify how people who wish to be stakeholders at The Game Awards must conduct themselves.

Geoff's need to moderate his audience and reach was also echoed when the "Game Changer" award winner, Amir Satvat, went public about the negative backlash he's faced since winning. If you haven't read Satvat's LinkedIn post about the continual threats his family has faced, be warned; it is a challenging but necessary read. However, as the PC Gamer article I linked points out, the torrent of toxic behavior Satvat faces doesn't come from a single community. Yes, there are angry Chinese Wukong stalwarts, but he's also facing antisemitism and death threats from the anti-woke contingent. I understand that making a public code of conduct for participants at The Game Awards isn't solving anything. I get that. Nevertheless, Geoff's willingness to clip and repost Satvat's award moment on social media while Satvat goes public about his present situation is a miserable reminder that Geoff seems to exist in his own bubble. Like, who does that? For pity's sake, none of the console manufacturers are going to pull their funding for your shows if you take the time to tell people not to be jerks and that you have people's backs! If Geoff honestly wants to be the industry's leading promoter, then he's going to have to admit that there are shitty sides to the gaming community and that he's not immune to them.

All of this leads to the ultimate question that every single op-ed about The Game Awards always asks but never addresses: who is this event for? I think it's been clear that they're for Geoff Keighley, but the biggest names in the industry also benefit because they're still sending him enough material to justify keeping things running. That's why he's only willing to go so far to spotlight the industry's darker sides. There's no denying that smaller studios that pay Geoff's entry fee get some bump by being shown at one of his events, and with his minor improvements, that is getting slightly better. For the longest time, I think many of us outright dismissed Keighley's awards show and even advocated that things would be better if they didn't exist. However, when you look at the viewership numbers it generates and recognize he is reaching demographics that don't consume traditional games journalism or gaming editorial media, he may have found himself in this weird intermediary position as a gateway figure in video games. And if he's finally going to use some of his massive platform to help address foundational problems within the industry, that's worth something as well. I am a full-time middle school teacher, and the gaming club I host at my school site did indeed talk about The Game Awards. They are a majority-minority mix of males, females, and one trans person ranging from eleven to thirteen. The fact of the matter is Geoff is necessary even if he's imperfect. The fact that we have someone who reaches wide swaths of the hobby, both young and old, while also being largely unproblematic, is essential.

Yet, if we want the 2025 version of The Game Awards to be even a modicum better, then it's looking like we have to keep raking Geoff over the coals. I wish that weren't the case, but here we are.