Gamescom host Geoff Keighley on the "pressure and responsibility" he feels

radiotimes.com:

If you've been following the online conversation around gaming for the last couple of years, Geoff Keighley is a man that will need no introduction. And he'll be appearing on our screens again soon, as he takes to the stage to host Gamescom Opening Night Live next week!

Keighley, of course, has been hosting The Game Awards for a while now. But when the COVID-19 pandemic hit, scuppering plans for in-person events like E3 and Gamescom in 2020, it was Keighley who stepped up, producing and hosting the online Summer Game Fest showcase to plug the gap in the industry's yearly promotional cycle.

Flash forward to 2023, and now Keighley has three big dates circled in his diary every year: he still hosts Summer Game Fest in June (which now has an in-person element to boot), and he hosts Gamescom Opening Night Live in August, and he hosts The Game Awards in December. And he doesn't just turn up on the day, either; he produces the shows too.

Ahead of this year's Gamescom, RadioTimes.com had the opportunity to send Keighley a few questions over email. One of the things we wanted to ask him was this: does Geoff feel a lot of pressure/responsibility now that he hosts three of the main beats throughout the gaming year?

Keighley wrote back, «That’s a good way to frame it – lots of pressure and responsibility. I’m deeply honored our team is trusted to produce these shows. I also know that fans have an insatiable appetite for new game announcements and surprises.

»Unlike a 1st party or publisher we don’t make or develop games – our shows are platform agnostic. That allows us to pull from a larger potential pool of games, but it also means we are very much at the mercy of which games are ready to be announced or not committed to other