This year's Game Awards ceremony garnered a lot of justified criticism for the way it rushed winning developers off stage in favour of adverts, rambling conversations with Hideo Kojima, and celebrity cameos from the likes of Timothée Chalamet.
14.12.2023 - 14:52 / rockpapershotgun.com / Swen Vincke / Geoff Keighley
Larian's CEO and founder Swen Vincke has shared the rough full text of his Game Awards 2023 acceptance speech for Baldur's Gate 3's Game of the Year trophy, after having his thoughts cut short by the event's crowded scheduling, which allotted more time to Kojima chitchat, trailers and celebrity cameos than the actual award-winners.
On the night, Vincke got halfway through honouring the memory of friends and family members lost during Baldur's Gate 3's development, including lead cinematic animator Jim Southworth and Vincke's own father, before being told to "wrap it up" over teleprompter, so as to make room for the next avalanche of game reveals. Had he been allowed to continue, he would have also have paid tribute to the Wizards of the Coast employees Larian collaborated with earlier in development of Baldur's Gate 3, who were laid off by Hasbro this year. The toy manufacturer chopped around 800 jobs in January 2023, and plan to lay off 1,100 more people over the next six months.
"I'm really sorry to hear so many of you were let go," Vincke wrote in a Xitter thread. "It's a sad thing to realize that of the people who were in the original meeting room, there's almost nobody left. I hope you all end up well."
It would have been one of the show's few references - indeed, I think its only reference to job losses following a year of mass videogame industry layoffs, with corporations such as Microsoft, Epic, Sony, Embracer Group, Unity, CD Projekt and SEGA dismissing thousands of staff in a bid to make "efficiencies" following a boom period partly fostered by Covid-19 lockdowns and social distancing measures. The obstinate silence around this and other broader issues from the event's organisers isn't surprising - the Game Awards are primarily a marketing and advertising reel, after all - but that doesn't make it defensible. And yes, I acknowledge that we're part of the picture, here, in focussing our own reporting on the trailers and announcements rather than the individual developers being celebrated, but we have also written up dozens of layoff stories this year. TGA host Geoff Keighley avoided the subject during his opening presentation.
While praising the Baldur's Gate 3 team, Vincke gave special mention to "a group of people that don't always get the credit they deserve", namely "Team QA, team localisation, team customer support, team operations, team publishing [and] team play testers".
It's worth noting that QA staff and testers are perennially vulnerable to being "let go" when publishers decide to "restructure", because they are often regarded as superfluous despite ample precedent for videogames failing to sell thanks to quality-of-life or technical issues at launch. Take Bungie, where
This year's Game Awards ceremony garnered a lot of justified criticism for the way it rushed winning developers off stage in favour of adverts, rambling conversations with Hideo Kojima, and celebrity cameos from the likes of Timothée Chalamet.
The Game Awards have enjoyed consistent growth since the first showcase took place in December 2014, to the point where they have become an integral pillar for the community, especially in terms of new reveals and announcements by developers and publishers all around the world. This year’s showcase, like previous years’, was another one to exhibit continued growth for the event.
The Game Awards 2023 has broken its own viewership record, clocking up around 118 million livestreams.
The Game Awards has come and gone again, with 2023's show proving somewhat contentious, depending on who you ask. Something that became increasingly apparent as the show progressed was the pressure winners appeared to be under to wrap things up. Even Larian Studios founder Swen Vincke, who managed to snag Game of the Year with Baldur's Gate 3, appeared to be whisked off the stage after around 30 seconds, surprisingly spry in a suit of armour.
With The Game Awards 2023 now squarely in the rear view mirror, it's time to reflect on what was shown during Geoff Keighley's big end of year bash. Criticisms of the format and actual award presentations aside, the event did give us some significant game reveals.
The Game Awards are always going to be something that is hotly debated for various reasons. But one thing that you must give them, even if you don’t want to, is that because of their platform and being streamed all over the place, they have done incredible numbers from when they started in 2014. They got 1.9 million viewers that first year, which isn’t too bad considering the period. But when you fast forward to 2023, you see just how big things have gotten, as the latest show had 118 million viewers worldwide. That’s a 15% increase from the previous year and proof that the show is still growing.
The Game Awards 2023 broke the event’s viewership record with an estimated 118 million livestreams.
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After his acceptance speech was cut short, Larian Studios CEO Swen Vincke has published what he “wanted to say” when Baldur’s Gate 3 took home the top prize at The Game Awards last week.
Game developers have a problem with this year’s Game Awards.
Following scrutiny from developers, The Game Awards founder and host Geoff Keighley has said he agrees the allotted speech time for each winner was too short this year.
The Game Awards has faced a slew of criticism about its format as developers were urged off stage. Its creator, director and figurehead Geoff Keighley responded and recognized the widespread frustration the next day on social media.