The Game Awards Have Been Announced Because We Need Another One…

Geoff Keighley has announced that it is time for The Game Awards show, another awards show just for video games

I was thinking the other day “Why don’t we have another awards show for video games?” Looks like someone was reading my mind as it looks like we have The Game Awards just announced by Geoff Keighley coming our way to celebrate the video game industry. If the VGX and other award shows of the past weren’t proof enough that most gamers out there don’t care for an awards show then I don’t know what else will. Although to be honest after hearing a bit more on The Game Awards show some doubts could be put aside as it doesn’t sound like one network’s way to grab some quick cash using our beloved subculture.

So what is making The Game Awards a bit different than the train wrecks we’ve seen before is that first it isn’t going to be a network only experience and will stream live via whatever you can play and watch your video games on. There’s bonus number one so we won’t have to see the Spike logo and all of their commercials “aimed” for the audience. Hopefully that will lead to less of the bull shit that goes on during the event that usually derails any and all award shows to date but there will have to be some corporate backing somewhere. That means we will still be subjected to some but with the second aid to it all hopefully it will be 100% targeting correctly.

The second bit here is that we have a team of people from the video game industry helping guide The Game Awards toward a decent experience for all of us. The short list so far is:

• Reggie Fils-Aime (President and COO, Nintendo of America)
• Yves Guillemot (Co-Founder and CEO, Ubisoft)
• Hideo Kojima (Executive Contents Director, Kojima Productions)
• Shawn Layden (CEO, Sony Computer Entertainment America)
• Peter Moore (COO, Electronic Arts)
• Rockstar Games
• Phil Spencer (Head of Xbox, Microsoft)
• Martin Tremblay (President, Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment)
• Valve

Hopefully they are doing more than just guiding and actually backing the event as well. That would lead to more “exclusive” looks at upcoming games that we all want to hear about in the mix of the giving credit where it is due in the industry. Unfortunately like all other shows like this I have a feeling that The Game Awards will still end up being one long commercial for these companies and a load of trailers most of us could sit around and wait to see at a later date instead of in the mix of all the posturing. That is of course basing everything off how ALL past award shows play out though.

If you are interesting in hitting up The Game Awards though it will be open to the public who purchase tickets to attend. The Game Awards also takes place in Las Vegas the day before the PlayStation Experience kicks off so all of those people heading to Vegas for that can make things easier and hopefully more fun by bumping their travel forward just a bit and dropping an extra $45 to hit up The Game Awards. Or they can watch it all from the comfort of their favorite streaming service.

Just in case you haven’t been able to tell by now I am not a huge fan of award shows but hopefully The Game Awards at least tries to change that feeling. I think if the fans of your games buy millions of copies that is more of an award than some piece of metal given out from a group of people who most likely don’t share the opinions that I do. That or are part of the ‘old boys’ network just around to make sure their buddies have something else to gloat about to try and show all of us why they are the developer we should be pining over. Why don’t sales show more proof than these little awards for the mantel or trophy case?