The Game Awards Future Class members call for a statement on the Gaza crisis at this year's awards show

29.11.2023 - 23:39 / pcgamer.com / Geoff Keighley / Class

66 members of The Game Awards Future Class, a program intended to honor people «who represent the bright, bold, and inclusive future for video games,» and hundreds of others involved with the videogame industry have signed an open letter calling for a statement acknowledging the ongoing humanitarian crisis in Gaza during The Game Awards show in December.

Gaza has been under siege since mid-October, following an attack on southern Israel by Hamas militants that reportedly resulted in 1,200 deaths, mainly civilians, and more than 240 people taken hostage. In response, Israel unleashed an attack on Gaza that has thus far killed more than 15,000 people, according to Gaza health authorities, roughly 6,000 of whom were children. Alongside the military assault, Israel also cut off food, water, fuel, and communications to the enclave, deepening a humanitarian crisis that United Nations secretary-general António Guterres described as "inhuman collective suffering."

The open letter, addressed to Game Awards host Geoff Keighley, Future Class director Emily Bouchoc, «and the whole The Game Awards team,» begins by noting that members of the Future Class were not selected «as symbols of what the game industry currently is, but of what it could be: a diverse, inclusive and caring workplace. A positive force in the world that can influence billions of people… You gave us the role of ambassadors of a better future – as such, our duty towards you and all the players world-wide compels us to speak up.»

«Like many of our peers, we are appalled by the war crimes the Palestinian people are victims of, and we grieve the loss of so many civilian lives,» the letter states. «Adding to that pain, is the knowledge that our industry is playing a role in this.»

The letter states that the mainstream videogame industry «systematically produces works that dehumanize and vilify Muslims, Arabs, and the many brown and black people living in the regions of South-West Asia and Northern Africa,» a point made previously by multiple well-known game developers including Rami Ismail and Meghna Jayanth; yet when Jayanth expressed a desire to make a statement on Gaza as a presenter at The Golden Joystick Awards earlier this month, she was told it wouldn't be allowed. She withdrew from the program as a result. (The Golden Joystick Awards are produced by Future PLC, which operates PC Gamer.)

«With the current state of the game industry, silence is a message,» the letter states. «Silence is tacit support. Silence is dehumanization of Palestinian lives.» It then asks for a statement to be read during The Game Awards broadcast, calling for:

The games industry's silence on the Palestinian genocide is disgusting, and this needs to change.To all