'The Game Announcements' is what this year's The Game Awards should have been called. For an event that gamers, as well as developers, and even casual audiences alike have waited for a literal year, it turned out to be a massive disappointment, and not because of the awards themselves.
Geoff Keighley, the host, creator, and producer of the live event, presided over an evening where the spotlight shone brightly yet briefly on its winners. Everything about how this year's Game Awards were run, especially in regards to the acceptance speeches, which are typically a moment for heartfelt thanks and reflection, was shameful.
For those who can recall last year's event, Christopher Judge, the man behind the voice of Kratos in God of War, gave a lengthy speech, spending over eight minutes on the stage. This time around, it felt like the show's producers were overcompensating in the other direction.
When the winners were announced and walked up to the stage to accept their awards, the producers pushed to keep their speeches short with an orchestrated nudge that signified their time was up. In fact, when the developer for the Best Debut Indie Game was called up, she looked unsure if she was even allowed to speak.
Probably due to the flack The Game Awards received, Keighley took to Twitter to acknowledge the mistakes that were made, saying, "By the way - I do agree that the music was played too fast for award winners this year, and I asked our team to relax that rule as the show went on. While no one was actually cut off, it's something to address going forward."