Following scrutiny from developers, The Game Awards founder and host Geoff Keighley has said he agrees the allotted speech time for each winner was too short this year.
Winners had 30 seconds to make their speeches, after which the music to play them off stage was started and they were drowned out. Developers criticised the short time, especially in the context of a ceremony which should be celebrating their hard work.
Writing on X (née Twitter) the day after the show, Keighley admitted award winners should have been allowed more time for their speeches, albeit in a roundabout way.
“By the way – I do agree that the music was played too fast for award winners this year,” Keighley began. Keighley stated he “asked our team to relax [the 30 seconds] rule as the show went on” and said while no winners were cut off by the music, it’d be “something to address going forward”.
By the way – I do agree that the music was played too fast for award winners this year, and I asked our team to relax that rule as the show went on. While no one was actually cut off, it’s something to address going forward.
— Geoff Keighley (@geoffkeighley) December 8, 2023
In total, speeches made up 10 minutes of The Game Awards’ three hour runtime. The rest of the time was mostly filled with trailers for upcoming games. Keighley has not spoken on the weighting between time allotted to awards winners and advertising at The Game Awards, which has been highlighted by developers in the wake of the show, nor its omission of a statement on the huge number of layoffs in the games industry this year or the ongoing humanitarian crisis in Palestine.
