From pixels to pop culture

10.12.2023 - 02:07 / venturebeat.com

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Here’s my opening speech at GamesBeat at The Game Awards event at the Grammy Museum at LA Live on December 7.

The Game Awards is the biggest celebration of gaming that we have with more than 100 million people watching it. So we felt there was no better time to do an event that helped celebrate gaming with the GamesBeat community. 

We are here today to celebrate gaming’s rise. When I was growing up, gaming was new. For many years, it was stuck in a subculture of nerdiness. It was toxic. It was full of bullies. And there weren’t many women. It was clearly in a subculture off by itself. Fun for some.

I was on a panel not long ago with a young GenZ woman who was a creator. She said that for as long as she remembered, gaming was cool. And that’s the inspiring generational difference in perspective between an older guy like me and a young woman who sees gaming is for everybody.

While gaming started as a subculture, it is becoming mass culture with every day that passes. The average age of gamers is climbing (now at 33), and 66% of Americans play games. And while toxicity isn’t a solved problem, 88% of gamers say that gaming relieves stress. 

It’s great to see this inexorable demographic trend pushing games forward.

Yet we have layoffs in the industry that make it seem like times are really bad and unpredictable. I wouldn’t minimize that hardship, and I realize it is a difficult time for the industry and for the world. But I do want to say there is light on the road ahead. The revelation of the Grand Theft Auto VI trailer – leaked a day early – made me feel like we were turning a corner.

I don’t think we need to worry that gaming is stuck in a cycle of upturns and downturns like in the past. The demographics of the world and the interests of GenZ show that gaming’s growth is constant. And the success of shows like The Last of Us, The Super Mario Bros. Movie, and Five Nights at Freddy’s show that there is more room to grow.

It is worth pointing out, as Strauss Zelnick has said, that gaming is a better and more profitable business than movies and TV. But these shows and the incredible success of the Barbie movie show how movies can expand the number of eyeballs and raise awareness about entertainment even higher.

169 million people have seen the Mario movie, and it has lifted Nintendo’s game sales. We’re not at peak gaming, and the success of gaming and Hollywood is helping us find new audiences at a time when we need it. But as Russell Binder says, gaming is at the center of the hub and spoke ecosystem of IP. It’s not just a spoke anymore.

And despite the looming worries about AI, jobs are