The Game Awards 2025
What was that mysterious statue?
The Game Awards is the prestigious award event for the gaming industry and I’ve been watching it every year since it’s inception in 2014. I also have attended 3 of them personally at the time of this writing in 2025.
I had the privilege of attending the 2025 show last week and I’m here to give my retrospective on the event as a whole and my thoughts on it.
Who runs The Game Awards?
The Game Awards is the brainchild and creation of journalist Geoff Keighley who used to run the Spike Video Game Awards and was on G4, Gametrailers, and many other shows.
The Game Awards has been subject to a ton of criticism and ridicule which some of it I can agree with. However, in recent years, Geoff has taken the criticism and made massive improvements to the show which has earned my respect. However, there were some problems and issues I’ve had with the show in the past which I will address in this article.
Attending the Show
In order to attend The Game Awards, you can go to their website and purchase tickets ranging from $150-$300+. Luckily, back in 2019, my old YouTube MCN (Multi Channel Network) Screenwave Media got me on the mailing list for both The Game Awards and Summer Game Fest which I mentioned in my Summer Game Fest article from a while back. Since I’m local to the area in Southern California and it’s only a 1 hour drive north for me, I definitely ain’t passing up getting into a prestigious awards show for free!
I had a great time in 2019 seeing the event live and especially a live show by one of my favorite bands, Green Day. However, after the pandemic, I skipped the 2021 show which I just watched on twitch and decided to come back in person in 2022.
Rabbi Bill Clinton and Not Coming Back for a While
After Elden Ring won Game of the Year in the 2022 show, a prankster named Matan Even walked up on stage with the Elden Ring developers and talked about “Rabbi Bill Clinton”. I couldn’t see it since we were all busy giving Elden Ring a standing ovation and I barely heard Matan Even over the crowd clapping.
As funny as Matan Even’s prank was, it set a bad precedent that security at the Peacock Theatre wasn’t as tight as I had hoped. This could also set the stage for an unhinged lunatic to come up on stage in a future show and do some unspeakable things.
Not too long after this, some moron came up on stage during Geoff Keighley’s presentation at Gamescom 2023 hyping up GTA VI trying to get his 15 seconds of shame.
I have to admit ever since the Christina Grimmie incident, I’ve been a bit more fearful for my own safety at large events. I’m always relieved when I see we have to pass through metal detectors and security which is at the front door at The Game Awards so a lunatic doesn’t bring a loaded weapon.
I decided not to come back to the 2023 show unless security was improved and I felt like I dodged a bullet since 2023’s show was probably my least favorite of them all.
Please Wrap it Up
I stayed home and watched the 2023 show on twitch and I felt that certain presenters went on for too long and there were issues with winners not being able to make longer speeches on stage.
My personal game of the year in 2023 was Zelda Tears of the Kingdom and I was appalled that Eiji Aonuma, the director of the game was forced to make a small speech in comparison to some of the other more preferred presenters.
For an event called “The Game Awards”, alot of the criticism has been based on the show being more of a showcase for game previews and announcements and more focus on celebrities rather than the actual developers who make the games we play.
I understand there needs to be a lot of corporate backing to make this show work and exist at all, but in my opinion, the real celebrities and rockstars of the show should be the developers. Being an indie developer myself, I want to know who’s responsible for creating the games we enjoy and their stories. The Game Awards has been heavily criticized over the years for being a corporate shill show. After the disastrous 2023 show, I decided I wasn’t going to come back anymore.
I will admit that I was happy to see more security in front of the stage to prevent another Matan Even incident, so at least that was properly resolved.
Redemption
I decided to not attend the 2024 show and watched it on twitch with my good friend Hell Yeah Gaming.
I was very surprised that Geoff Keighley took all of the criticism of the 2023 show to heart and massively improved on everything.
The developers who won awards were able to give longer speeches, there was less emphasis on the Hollywood celebrities, and the massive layoffs were also addressed.
I was also happy to see my personal game of the year Astro Bot win as well!
Even though the majority of the show was still previews and announcements for upcoming games, I’m glad the actual developers got far more spotlight than from previous years.
Coming Back
Since the 2024 show was a massive improvement over the 2023 show, I finally decided to come back to the 2025 show in person and had a great time. This was also the first time I actually got a ticket for my memorabilia as I never got a physical ticket from the previous shows. The most I would get are the emails and QR codes needed to attend, so having an actual ticket for my collection is nice!
I can’t begin to talk about how many games I’m excited for and how fun the show was. Seeing Leon in Resident Evil 9, the return of Lara Croft, and my biggest highlight: the 12th mainline Mega Man game: Mega Man Dual Override. I was sitting on the far right in the audience, so I could barely see Mega Man’s head, but I did recognize the Wily music from Mega Man 2 play which gave away that a new Mega Man game was being announced.
I even got to see Evanesence on stage which was awesome and brought me back to the days where everyone and their mother made Naruto AMVs (Anime Music Videos) to Sasuke’s Curse Seal from the early episodes to the song “Bring me to Life” in the early 2000’s.
The 2025 show was the best one out of the three I had ever attended and you truly could feel the love for gaming in the Peacock Theatre inside.
A True Celebration for Gaming
Everyone already knows this, but gaming is the largest and biggest entertainment medium in the world and has been that way since the early 2000’s, even surpassing movies and music.
Geoff Keighley has been trying for the past 30 years to find a way to honor gaming in the way the Oscars and Grammys honor movies, television, and music. While it hasn’t always been a smooth road and I’ve had my issues with it in the past, I do believe that Geoff has been able to give gaming the show it truly deserves which has earned him my respect. I don’t think Geoff is the gamer showcase boogeyman that some detractors play him out to be and he truly has love and a passion for the medium of gaming. I remember watching the Oscars and Grammys every year as a kid and would always wonder “Why don’t they do a gaming oscars? I wanna see Mario and Mega Man on stage to accept their awards!”.
It took a long time, but Geoff was finally able to do it and has been doing it for over a decade.
However, The Game Awards isn’t the end all authoritative show to tell you which games are worth checking out. It’s up to you to decide which games are good and the ones you want to play. You can always have your own Game Awards show or celebration in any platform or venue you wish amongst your friends and peers.
As a developer myself, will I ever win an award? Well, if anything I ever made got nominated, then there’s something wrong (or awesome) with the game industry (lol). But all joking aside, I don’t really need to ever win an award for my games. I’m a fan first and a developer second. I’m fine being a fan and cheering on all of the games my peers made and getting inspired as well.
If I ever get nominated or win, then great! I’ll make sure to dress up and have my speeches ready. It was cool seeing my fellow Game Maker Studio devs from Tour De Pizza get nominated for Pizza Tower a while back, so anything is possible.
I’ve already played the awards song and dance when I used to enter AMV (Anime Music Video) contests at an anime conventions. I actually had an AMV play in the very same venue where The Game Awards is held (back when it was called the Nokia Theatre) during Anime Expo 2008 (Spoiler: I didn’t win that year). It’s still pretty surreal knowing I had a video of mine play up on the same big screens where The Game Awards is held and also where David Cook won American Idol a few months prior in 2008.
The Game Awards is just more than an awards ceremony, it’s a year end celebration of games.
With that said, I gotta give Geoff and his crew major props for hosting another Game Awards show and looking forward to the next one. I’ll be there in person for sure.
