The Game Awards Is Ramping Up Security To Stop Stage Invaders

thegamer.com:

In 2022, Elden Ring won Game of the Year, but the acceptance speech was hijacked at the last minute by a stage invader who 'nominated' his "Orthodox rabbi Bill Clinton". Unfortunately, that wasn't the end of Geoff Keighley's events being interrupted. Earlier this year, during Gamescom Opening Night Live, a member of the stage ran up to Keighley and started yelling about Clinton wanting GTA 6.

As reported by VGC, Keighley and the event organisers are pushing to ensure it doesn't happen again on December 7 during 2023's TGA. "We don't want to talk about that stuff too publicly, just because it's security. We definitely have plans and we're trying to do all we can to keep me safe, but also everyone watching the show, the audience, people participating in the show, and everything."

[Stage invasions are] something that is top of mind for us, but we also want to put on a great show that celebrates these games, and celebrates our love of video games, so that's an important thing to keep in mind as well.

Both stage invaders were luckily little more than trolls, but it's a safety concern for those on stage if people can get on so easily and stick around for so long. Keighley hasn't divulged the extent of the ramped-up security this year, no doubt to keep a tighter ship, but hopefully, these measures prevent another incident.

For context, the first stage invader to crash a Keighley event last year didn't show up at the last minute. He hung around behind Hidetaka Miyazaki during his acceptance speech. When Miyazaki and other FromSoftware developers started to leave the stage, the invader walked up to the mic and began his rant. He was there the whole time, with many watching from the audience confused as to who he was. Since that