Hideo Kojima and Gonzo from The Muppets had just as much time on-stage at The Game Awards as the award winners themselves, who were hurried off-stage with a teleprompter reading "please wrap it up".
It's no secret that The Game Awards has more of a focus on game reveals and advertisements than it does the actual awards that the show is all about, but 2023 was a lot more egregious about it than usual. Not only did Geoff Keighley fail to mention the many layoffs that the industry suffered this year, but there was also very little time spent on celebrating the people that created the award-winning games that everyone was gathered to see.
The speech-rushing started early when Christopher Judge took the stage to give out the Best Performance award and made it clear that speeches as long as his was in 2022 weren't going to be allowed this year. Neil Newbon even made a reference to this when he accepted his Best Performance award, noting that he "doesn't have much time" and only talking for 78 seconds before the music cue hurried him off and more trailers were shown.
Newbon wasn't the only award-winner at the show who was hurried off-stage, either. Nobody who accepted an award spoke for more than 90 seconds, with some speeches even only lasting a little over 30, likely due to the "please wrap it up" sign on the teleprompter that would reportedly flash after 30 seconds on-stage. A lot of the winners also acknowledged the lack of time they were given, such as Neil Druckmann who said "clock's ticking" as he accepted the award for Best Adaptation.
Keighley wasn't just silent about the layoffs in gaming industry, as he also ignored an open letter signed by 79 Future Class members and more than 3,000 additional people that urged a
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