The Game Awards has finally figured out the formula.

For the past 10 years, The Game Awards has been perfecting its recipe. Geoff Keighley’s annual gala has always tried to blend the E3 press conference with traditional award ceremonies like the Oscars. This has historically had mixed results. Last year’s show got some of the lowest scores, especially for experimentation. That’s because the winners rushed off the stage as quickly as possible to squeeze out a deluge of exhausting gameplay trailers. When I left the Peacock Theater in Los Angeles last year, I was afraid it was all downhill from here.

I left this year’s awards show singing a very different song. Since becoming an event planner in the gaming sector, Keighley has put on some of the best stage shows he has organized. The show delivered uncut speeches, dazzling musical performances, and a truly show-stopping game reveal. Like it or not, The Game Awards was an event designed to prove that it would be here for the next decade.

don’t wrap

It was difficult to gauge how successful this year’s event would be. This is because there were problems scattered throughout the construction process. Some were understandably equal, such as the predictable field of candidates featuring puzzling exclusions in categories like Best Mobile Game and Best Sports/Racing Game. Others felt that the show’s format had longstanding problems reaching a boiling point. This can be seen in this year’s fan-voted Players’ Choice race. After several rounds of elimination voting, the final five included three free-to-play gacha titles. That list includes: genshin impactAs a game with a history of dangling in-game rewards in front of players to encourage them to vote, this has seemingly become standard practice for similar games. It was hard to shake the feeling that the awards portion of the show was compromised in some way and that Keighley wasn’t all that worried about it.

A more troubling signal came from the absence of any statues at all. This year, The Game Awards quietly scaled back its annual Future Class award, which previously awarded “inspirational individuals who represent a bright, bold, and inclusive future for video games.” No official reason was given as to why the category was removed, but questions were raised about the timing. It comes a year after previous Future Class winners urged Kayleigh to speak about Israel’s war in Palestine at last year’s awards ceremony. This request was ignored. These cuts are noteworthy, considering the rise in online vitriol and harassment targeting diversity in gaming in 2024. Read on the surface, the absence of Future Class felt like Keighley was trying to keep all controversy out of the show in order to appease even the worst actors among the massive audience.

All of this doesn’t leave too much room for optimism heading into Thursday’s broadcast. The biggest problem with the Game Awards has always been the lack of appropriate response to feedback. As criticism over the lack of time given to the 2022 awards ceremony reached a fever pitch, the following year’s awards infamously played faster off-stage speakers with the message “PLEASE Wrap It Up,” which has since become a meme.

Nonetheless, the 2024 awards will be held by Keighley. is listening. The nearly four-hour show felt like a course correction, addressing a number of complaints without significantly changing the format. It started with the actual award. Unlike last year, all winners were given ample conversation time. The dreaded “Please Take Out” sign was not run at any point during the show. The event took on a more human feel thanks to both of the production crew’s moving speeches. Astrobot and Final Fantasy VII Rebirth Made for a moving show highlight.

That feeling continued throughout the performance. While past years have focused too much on shocking trailers to create great moments, Keighley embraces what has long been known at events like the Oscars. The thing is that a good speech can become a viral moment. This was seen when Swen Vincke, CEO of Larian Studios, gave an impassioned speech to present the Game of the Year award. Moments when Vincke took issue with the gaming industry on a number of topics, such as mass layoffs, drew some of the loudest applause of the night. It was a memorable moment that defined the awards show for decades, and something The Game Awards has always been hesitant to deliver.

Some of the show’s best moments followed this pattern. Keighley has long been criticized for not using his platform to acknowledge labor issues in the video game industry. This year, he faced the feedback head-on in a segment where he transparently acknowledged that the show hadn’t found the right approach. This year’s solution was awarded to Amir Satvat with the newly established Game Changer award. He received the award for his efforts to help laid-off developers find jobs through resources that compile vacancies. Satvat received the award and a standing ovation as he gave one of the most moving speeches in the show’s 10-year history.

This is a legitimate moment where the show desperately needs more. The event has long been hyper-focused on entertaining fans, but at its core, it’s a show created to celebrate the people who make games, not just play them. In fact, having these voices express their anger, joy, and optimism directly to their peers made me feel closer to a proper awards ceremony.

There is still more work to be done. The show still routinely rattles off most winners in lightning rounds squeezed in between long trailers and commercial blocks. Awards, such as Accessibility Innovation, were quickly handed out pre-show rather than spotlighted on the main stage. There was very little time for awards during the show’s runtime, which has always been the show’s biggest problem. Although still disappointing, this year has given us hope that we are moving in the right direction.

go big

Despite giving producers more time, Keighley’s top priority was still the spectacle. The show’s production was as extravagant as ever, complete with confetti, fireworks and elaborate stage performances. While the exaggerated nature of the show may be eye-catching, the 2024 event largely got it right. That was thanks in part to a sophisticated musical interlude that energized the show’s otherwise dry spells. A choir appeared on stage to lead a performance of the upcoming song. Civilization VII. Netflix put all its effort into promoting Arcane Twenty One Pilots gave a passionate performance, including an appearance. And, of course, the Game Awards Orchestra stole the show with their annual musical medley from each Game of the Year nominee.

Hollywood celebrities still got into the mix, but with mixed results. Harrison Ford’s shocking appearance got the crowd excited from the get-go, while The Muppets’ Statler and Waldorf got big laughs with scattered roast segments. Other segments dragged on too long, such as Aaron Paul and Laura Bailey’s extended comedy segment, which was likely longer than any acceptance speech of the night. And others felt it was too loosely tied to the video game and was distracting. Snoop Dogg took the stage to perform some new songs and some of his classics. gin and juiceBut it served almost exclusively as promotion for his new album (Keighley did his best to keep it loosely tied together). fortnite After that, not convincing). While fun, these moments felt increasingly unnecessary considering that most of the biggest reactions of the night came from the crowd cheering for the following games. Helldiver 2. The game itself is a celebrity to this audience.

This was especially evident in the trailer selection, which is the bread and butter of this year’s show. There’s been a lot of talk about whether The Game Awards is more than a series of commercials. I’m not going to heat up the argument again because you probably know your position by now. What I’m trying to say is that if Keighley is Above all else, he’s committed to turning his shows into lucrative commercial reels, and this year he’s made a prime example of that approach. This year’s selection was a series of surprises, from the pre-show to the final ‘One More Thing’.

The Witcher IV We’ve got a thrilling trailer for the film that will have the crowd screaming early. Then something shocking happened Elden Ring Multiplayer spin-off. For most shows, little information about the lineup was leaked in advance, so the hits kept coming. We’ve seen the revival of classic franchises like Onimusha and Okami. Naughty Dog, Ryu Ga Gotoku, and Hazelight have released brand-new IPs that are being hailed as if they were sequels. Even in the current game Helldiver 2 and tekken 8 We put extra effort into making new updates feel grand.

The ratio of exciting announcements meant to please the audience and those with enough money to get into the show felt much better than it did in 2023. Every year I attend the show, there are inevitably moments I experience. The marathon was nicknamed “garbage time,” with a brief moment of social media catch-up inside the Peacock Theater while lengthy trailers for gacha game updates played. This year, that garbage time was much shorter, with the show slumping after three hours. There’s still room for curation, but most of the reveals felt like they were put together and spaced out with the audience in mind.

I’ve been critical of The Game Awards for a long time, and I still am to a significant degree. There’s a real disconnect between seeing developers championing a more stable industry where art has value, as well as AI-driven trailers for games that could have made it to broadcast. This is still a show that sells advertising space to the highest bidder at the expense of respected developers.

But over the years, I’ve come to accept more and more what the Game Awards are actually trying to do. As I’ve written before, it’s not the Oscars of video games as it’s often advertised. It’s the MTV Movie Awards. It’s a fun show created to celebrate the year’s great games, prepare you for what’s next, and create even more great moments. It is a social event more than an awards ceremony that occupies the same space as the E3 press conference. It’s not easy to be successful on a three-hour show. The Game Awards format falls apart every time there’s Dead Space (not the good kind), which only gets applause from advertising executives in the box seats at the Peacock Theater.

Judging by the enthusiastic crowd, almost every aspect of this year’s show felt like it was for show. someone. There are always going to be flaws in a show’s plot, but this year’s production is the best version we’ve ever seen.