It’s 2012. Barack Obama is president. Players are melting down over the ending of Mass Impact 3. Harvey Smith and Raphael Colantonio, then at Dishonored developer Arkane Studios, are flying on a Bethesda-chartered non-public jet to Los Angeles for the Spike Video Sport Awards, hosted by Samuel L. Jackson and held at Sony Photos Studios.
Dishonored is up for a number of awards, together with Sport of the Yr (it loses to Telltale’s The Strolling Useless), Finest Xbox 360 Sport (it loses to Halo 4), Finest PS3 Sport (it loses to Journey), and Finest Motion-Journey Sport (it wins). Jessica Alba presents Smith and Colantonio with their trophy.
“Man, when you get it good, and when someone says, ‘Here’s a bonus, and by the way, we’re going to take you to The Game Awards,’ you cry. Literally. We literally cried,” Smith instructed me over a video name.
Issues are slightly totally different 13 years later. Donald Trump is president. Players are melting down over whether or not or not Lara Croft is scorching sufficient for them. Arkane Austin doesn’t exist anymore (although each Smith and Colantonio are nonetheless engaged on video games). And the Sport Awards streams on-line as cable TV is dismantled and sold for parts. The one fixed is the person who labored on each exhibits: Geoff Keighley.
However the online game business wherein he operates has modified dramatically. Again-to-back years of layoffs and studio closures, market consolidation, and a race to embrace generative AI have left many builders dazed, confused, and unemployed. Video game launches don’t have as much fanfare as they did in the aughts—there aren’t any appearances from Paris Hilton or Lindsay Lohan. And the Sport Awards, whereas nonetheless boasting some Hollywood expertise, isn’t as star-studded because the defunct Spike ceremony.
Organizing gaming’s Oscars
There’s a variety of behind-the-scenes organizing for awards ceremonies that doesn’t get as a lot consideration. The groups that work on placing collectively these occasions are huge, and infrequently contain a number of corporations that aren’t immediately tied to the business being honored that night time (they could be manufacturing corporations, safety companies, contractors, and seasonal employees). The Peacock Theater, the place The Sport Awards is held, seats as much as 7,100, and Keighley and firm must resolve how all of them get divvied up.
The price of placing on an awards present broadcast on cable TV is offset considerably by the advert gross sales from the commercials that air throughout breaks, however the Sport Awards are solely accessible on streaming platforms (no commercials), so Keighley sells coveted spots for reveals, trailers, and previews, in addition to sponsorships for specific awards. Whereas some slots are reserved for the largest surprises and Keighley curates free slots for what he personally needs to champion, others must pay to get in entrance of the millions of eyeballs watching from home.
And the costs preserve going up. In accordance with two sources aware of this 12 months’s present, a 60-second trailer throughout the 2025 ceremony can value as much as $450,000. A 3-minute trailer prices over $1 million. Two separate sources within the online game publishing world stated that whereas they’d not been briefed on this 12 months’s charges, these sounded according to what they’d count on from earlier years.
However what about attendance? Tom Cruise will get to go to the Oscars, however he could solely be allowed a single visitor, and the general public behind the most recent Mission: Unimaginable flick doubtless received’t get an invitation. You don’t see the gaffer from Challengers sitting on the desk subsequent to Zendaya, and Keighley clearly needs to evoke Hollywood-style attract for his annual ceremony (why else would Al Pacino be invited?).
Nevertheless, the online game business isn’t Hollywood, regardless of its finest efforts. It’s not financially viable to ask 100-plus-person studios to attend the Sport Awards at no cost, however have you learnt of a single awards present that gives for-sale tickets to its potential honorees, tickets that are pulled from the identical pool as these bought to most of the people (i.e., followers)? The Sport Awards does.
In accordance with a number of builders from each smaller indie studios and AAA monoliths who wished to stay nameless, the Sport Awards solely gives two tickets to attend the ceremony to studios that get nominated, although there was a minimum of one occasion wherein a developer acquired greater than that, and a few total confusion about which studios get preferential remedy (aka greater than the 2 usually allotted). The Sport Awards’ organizers didn’t reply to a request for remark.
A supply instructed Kotaku that Sandfall Interactive, the studio behind this 12 months’s Clair Obscur: Expedition 33, purchased a swath of tickets at face worth (round $300 every) to make sure extra of the staff may attend. Expedition 33 just lately set a report for essentially the most nominations in Sport Awards historical past with 12, so the will to ship as many individuals to the ceremony as potential is smart. Sandfall didn’t reply to a request for remark.
However not each studio has the means or the will to ship a big crew of builders to the ceremony—whether or not it’s resulting from ticket pricing, the price of journey, or different components.
One developer who labored on a sport nominated for Finest Accessibility on the 2024 Sport Awards instructed me that their studio needed to “buy the rest” of the tickets, as there have been “only two up front for our nomination.” The 2 staff members who got the free tickets by way of the Sport Awards sat in a single space, whereas the bigger group was scattered all through the Peacock Theater. The supply stated that the tickets the studio bought for the builders seemed to be full value.
“I was told that the team was offered two tickets as nominees (these tickets come with access to the red carpet and green room experiences), and then provided a link to a page where additional tickets could be purchased,” a lead designer nominated final 12 months who wished to stay nameless instructed me. “As far as I could tell, the page was just the publicly available ticket page, and there were no discounts or special access to ticket allotments (i.e., particular seats in the theater) available.”
Due to this, the sport director bought their very own ticket from the public-facing ticket pool for round $700. “I didn’t want to miss a likely once-in-a-lifetime experience of being there in person for a nominated game that I’d had a major hand in, so I paid.” The Sport Awards didn’t reply to a request for remark.
Seat fillers and superfans
Whereas restricted availability for nominees will be chalked as much as restricted house and funds, issues get sophisticated whenever you open up attendance to an business’s award present to most of the people. Matan Even, the 2022 stage crasher, told Polygon he purchased a ticket to the ceremony throughout the basic sale and “simply walked up from his seat in the audience alongside the award winners.”
This 12 months, tickets have been launched on October 30, whereas nominees were revealed on November 17. “Don’t watch the surprises—be in the room,” The Sport Awards official announcement for ticket gross sales learn.
By November 7, I used to be instructed by the Sport Awards’ organizers that there have been already no extra free tickets accessible for press (I acquired one final 12 months as a freelancer and the 12 months earlier than by way of my work at Kotaku). On that day, the Game Awards tickets ranged in price from $58.92 for higher mezzanine seats to over $1,000 for resale tickets behind middle orchestra (a lot of the high-profile attendees sit within the entrance of this part). Final week, there have been three tickets accessible within the middle orchestra for $997 every (resale), and a smattering of tickets surrounding that part, ranging in value from $500-$800. Higher and decrease mezzanine seats, additionally sporadically accessible, have been going for between $300 and $545.
A contract narrative author who labored on a sport nominated this 12 months expressed frustration in regards to the Sport Awards’ ticketing course of. As a result of they’re not beneath contract with the nominated studio, they weren’t invited by way of the everyday e-mail from the Sport Awards’ organizers, however nonetheless wished to attend the occasion to rejoice their work.
“Even if I had wanted to pay the inflated prices for scalper tickets, I couldn’t find 2 seats together,” they instructed me, with stated tickets, in response to them, operating between $600-$1000. “At the very least, TGA should wait to sell general release tickets until after the nominations are announced…or have a separate bucket of tickets for devs who can provide proof that they worked on a nominated game.”
As a substitute of shopping for tickets that value greater than some individuals’s month-to-month hire, the dev signed up for the seat filler program, which is organized by Gotham Casting. It’s unclear what number of free tickets are put aside this fashion, however they puzzled if the Sport Awards prioritizes giving followers tickets over business members as a result of “the fans will scream and cheer for the trailers and the devs won’t.”
The Eventbrite itemizing for seat fillers is directed at “ALL GAMERS and Video Game Fans & Enthusiasts!” and guarantees “huge special performances to be announced” and directions for what to anticipate on the day of the occasion. Seat fillers must arrive two hours earlier than the present begins and are instructed on find out how to gown (“men: upscale casual attire/button down shirts ok,” “women: cocktail dresses/upscale outfits”) and instructed to not put on cosplay, ripped denims, or sneakers (not like host Geoff Keighley).
“As a seatfiller, there will be an opportunity that you will be on camera,” the outline reads. “Seat fillers will begin their night seated in the holding area in the theater. As PAID TICKET HOLDERS ARRIVE, we move seat fillers as needed.” Seat fillers are additionally reminded that “guests have paid upwards of HUNDREDS a ticket for their seats!” and to ensure they “enjoy show [sic] & have fun!” Gotham Casting didn’t reply to a request for remark.
Gaming’s greatest night time
Keighley clearly needs the Sport Awards to be large and daring and glossy—the very best annual celebration of video video games that monolithic studio cash and Outdated Spice deodorant should purchase. However there’s a clear, constant rigidity between placing on a present that honors the individuals engaged on video video games and one which retains the tens of millions of followers watching within the hopes of seeing a trailer for The Elder Scrolls 6.
“It’s a balancing act,” Keighley instructed The Game Business in a current interview. “There’s the awards aspect of the show, there’s the announcement aspect, and yes, there are some people that would like to see the show be all awards. Some would like to see all announcements.”
Nobody feels the wobble of that balancing act greater than the builders, particularly those who aren’t studio executives or artistic administrators and who battle to even get tickets to the Sport Awards yearly.
Regardless of the dear trailer slots and costly ticketing downside, many business members acknowledge how essential the Sport Awards are to those that have spent their careers engaged on video games. Smith and Colantonio spoke at size about how life-changing attending the then-Spike Video Sport Awards was.
“It’s career-changing, the market opens up to you in a way,” Smith stated. “If you work in games for decades, you’ve probably gotten your teeth knocked out a few times. I’ve worked on games that got 60 percent ratings, I’ve worked on games that got laughed at, I’ve worked on games that got me fired, I’ve worked on games where the studio was shut down…Then I worked with Ralph, and we made several pitches that got killed, and we almost went under. Then we made Dishonored.”
“It was easy for us to enjoy it, because there was Bethesda behind us, so we did not have to worry about paying for flights, what to organize, when to be there,” Colantonio stated, referencing the 2010 acquisition of Arkane by Bethesda’s mother or father firm, ZeniMax. “If Arkane in 2005, when we shipped Dark Messiah, had been nominated, it would have been just me there, period. It’s expensive, and it would have felt like a sacrifice.”
Smith, well-versed in Arkane’s humble beginnings (the studio was began in 1999 by Colantonio and simply 4 different males), acknowledged the battle indie studios face when attending gaming’s greatest night time. “If you’re a tiny French studio like Sandfall [the team behind Clair Obscur: Expedition 33], the pay difference [between countries] means getting to LA, flying from Europe, staying in a hotel, eating there, all of that is way more expensive,” he stated.
For some, the Game Awards has felt more like an E3 presentation the place everybody wears fits (lastly) than a correct ceremony honoring the individuals who made the 12 months’s finest video games. But for these making video games, particularly at smaller studios, the significance of a Sport Awards nomination can’t be overstated—an enormous win on the annual occasion may reinvigorate a struggling studio, or assure a second sport will get greenlit.
Some assume we should always all simply ignore the Sport Awards and their hyper-promotional strategy, and as a substitute direct our consideration to extra celebratory affairs, such because the BAFTA Sport Awards and the Sport Builders’ Alternative Awards, the place the main focus is extra squarely on honoring the earlier 12 months’s video games fairly than on selling video games but to come back.
“Tickets for [the BAFTAs] are also paid (and include dinner), but the entire vibe of the event and the apparent reverence it holds for the nominated games and their creators was so much of a better experience,” the aforementioned lead designer nominated final 12 months stated. “It was an extremely stark contrast.”
The Sport Awards, just like the online game business itself, characterize the chasm between the studios that develop video games and might shell out for a million-dollar advert slot throughout gaming’s greatest night time with out hesitation, and the individuals who work on them, who battle to afford a ticket to the ceremony meant to honor their work.
Further reporting by Ethan Gach.
