A recent Noclip documentary featuring the mastermind of The Game Awards, Geoff Keighley, gives us some insight as to why and how the award show came to be. You can check out the full video below (and please do, because the Noclip team works super hard), but here’s basically what happens and how Keighley made it happen.
Danny O’Dwyer, Producer of the Noclip series, seems to share just as much passion for the industry as Keighley, as both work on projects that they love. In this documentary, Keighley explained that his love of video games sent him on a quest to make sure that the medium and its creators gain the recognition they deserve.
In reference to the importance of the Oscars, Keighley asked, “What’s the equivalent of that for the video game world?” He wanted to make sure that the medium was taken as seriously (if not more seriously) than film, and even assisted with an early version of an award show for games called, Cybermania 94.
As he progressed, he became more involved with award shows for games, but wasn’t given free reign until he started hosing The Game Awards, back in 2014. Earlier, Keighley worked with Spike TV to put on the VGX ceremony, but felt frustrated as the television company was pushing to reach too wide of an audience. Keighley felt the awards show was disingenuous because it featured pop culture celebrities that were not involved with games, simply to increase viewership.
Now with The Game Awards, Keighley garners millions and millions of viewers, with each year performing better than the last. It’s proof that the industry doesn’t need to appeal to everyone, it just needs to appeal to the hundreds of millions of gamers out there.
