Big Highlights of The Game Awards 2023

Whether you love them for the spectacle or hate them for snubbing what you love, award shows are a big deal. People tend to remember the movies, shows, and books that can say they’ve got an award for something, and the same goes for video games. Once considered a nerdy, niche interest, video games are now just as celebrated as the biggest shows and movies. Thus, something like The Game Awards gets seen as a big deal. Streamed worldwide on YouTube and Twitch on December 7th, this year’s TGA’s had plenty of surprises and announcements with plenty of people talking online. Unfortunately, only some of the reception was positive. Plenty of people inevitably saw games they loved get snubbed. However, a bigger issue is the need for more time for the people who work in the industry to get onstage.

Too Much to Do, Too Little Time

Last year, actor Christopher Judge broke an award show record. After winning “Best Performance” for his role as Kratos in God of War: Ragnarok, Judge gave an acceptance speech that lasted 7 minutes, 59 seconds. That shattered the record for the longest acceptance speech in award show history, which had remained in place for over eighty years. While his speech was undeniably emotional and epic, it also ate up much of the already limited time the TGAs had to work with, which garnered criticism. 

TGA host Geoff Keighley and the people running the show took this criticism to heart, as many of the speeches this year were far shorter. In addition, the winners of several awards were announced in rapid succession. However, some thought the TGA’s learned the lesson too well, with the people who worked on the games less time than those presenting the awards. In several jarring moments, people accepting the awards were not-so-subtly told to “wrap it up” if their speeches ran too long. As pointed out on social media, the TGA’s even had a prompter saying that.

Plenty of people watching weren’t happy about this, as evidenced by this new meme.

On the plus side, though, Christopher Judge seemed very good-natured about things. He jokingly said his speech last year was longer than the campaign for the new Call of Duty game, much to the Internet’s amusement.

Were the TGA’s Focusing on the Wrong Things?

What made the shortened speech times feel even shorter, though, is how much time was spent on ads and announcements for new games. While the TGA’s are partly a means of announcing upcoming games and projects, so many ads ate up time. While some were better received than others (which I will get to), it felt like salt in the wounds, especially since Hideo Kojima and Jordan Peele got ten minutes onstage. 

Those were all the negatives. Now, let’s look at the positives and upsets.

Plenty of New Games Announced and News on Games Fans Have Waited for.

While the commercials and ads take time, they’re also necessary for something like the TGA’s. With millions of people watching and spreading news about them online, it’s perfect to get the word about new games and news about games that have yet to be released. And this year, the TGA’s gave us plenty of worthwhile games. Examples include:

  • A trailer for the upcoming Dragon Ball Z: Budokai Tenkaichi game
  • A Jurassic Park Survival Game
  • Release dates for games such as Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League and Skull and Bones

In addition, there’s the previously mentioned thing with Kojima and Peele. The acclaimed creator of the Metal Gear franchise and the horror director are teaming up to create a new game, OD. Given their reputations in their respective areas of the entertainment world, it shows a lot of promise.

Baldur’s Gate 3 and Alan Wake 2 Take Home the Gold. Spider-Man 2 Snubbed

Ultimately, though, two games got the lion’s share of the spoils for the night. Baldur’s Gate 3 led with a total of nine different nominations. Tied for the runner-up position was Alan Wake 2 alongside Marvel’s Spider-Man 2, each at eight. In the end, Baldur’s Gate 3 won six of its nominated awards, including the coveted Game of the Year award. Meanwhile, Alan Wake 2 won a respectable three awards for itself. In contrast to this, Spider-Man 2 won none, surprising fans of the game (myself included).

On a more amusing note, though, the Game of the Year award was presented by Timothee Chalamet, star of the upcoming Wonka and Dune: Part Two. He wasn’t introduced as Timothee, though. Keighley introduced him as ModdedController360, a nod to his one-time handle as a YouTuber who made custom Xbox 360 controllers. 

A Bright Future for Gaming

While video games were the night’s main focus, the TGA’s also celebrated that adaptations of video games have finally started to get good. Besides the cast of Amazon Prime’s upcoming Fallout series presenting one award, the TGA’s honored the likes of The Last of Us and The Super Mario Bros Movie for breaking the curse of bad game adaptations. While many would have wanted the Super Mario Bros. Movie to win, The Last of Us got the award for Best Adaptation. Considering it had Pedro Pascal as the main character, though, that’s understandable.

Despite the ups and downs of the event, the future remains bright for video games. They’re growing more advanced, more widespread, and more creative as a whole. Here’s hoping they learn the right lessons for the upcoming 10h TGA’s in 2024, though.