Geoff Keighley has shared some new information and changes coming to The Game Awards this year, including stepping back from the "World Premiere" label, weighing in on the discourse surrounding Dave the Diver being nominated as an indie game, and beefing up security to avoid future stage crashers.
In a stream from yesterday's The Game Awards Q&A session, Keighley answered one viewer's question about how many world premieres would appear at the show this year. Keighley disclosed that he is not sure of a firm number and said it would be "around the same," but then segued to discuss what constitutes a world premiere.
"Actually, you'll see this year, we often put up those cards, 'world premiere, world premiere'… we're kind of moving away from that, just because everything's kind of, 'is it a first look? Is it an announcement?' etc," Keighley said. "So we just treat it all as great game content."
When asked if they would add extra security measures to avoid stage crashers, Keighley confirmed they were, but avoided going into specifics (as to not give potential stage-crashers any revealing information). "Yeah, we are," he replied. "We don't want to talk about that stuff too publicly, just because it's security."
“I think I want to thank everybody and say that… I think I want to nominate this award to my reformed orthodox rabbi bill clinton, thank you everybody” pic.twitter.com/xh42LwPoi7
— Jordan Oloman (@JordanOloman) December 9, 2022
Keighley tightening up on security is not surprising. Last year's Game Awards saw someone crash the stage towards the very end, approaching the mic and making the infamous "orthodox rabbi Bill Clinton" comment.
Less than a year after that incident, at Gamescom Opening Night Live, another event Keighley hosts, two attendees crashed the stage during his opening remarks for the show. The crasher made references to the Game Awards intruder, as well as references to Grand Theft Auto 6.
Elsewhere in the Q&A, Keighley also addressed the recent controversy regarding Dave the Diver's nomination for Best Indie Game, explaining that the Game Awards defers to their jury to determine what constitutes an independent game or not, adding that "independent can mean different things to different people and it's sort of a broad term, right?"
"So yeah, Dave the Diver. That game is made by a group named Mint Rocket, it's a smaller game from a smaller group but it's part of Nexon, they're employees of Nexon which is a very large publisher. So I think it's a fair debate and discussion – is that game truly independent, or is it not?" said Keighley. "You can argue it either way. It's independent in spirit and that it's a small game with a—I don't know what the budget is—relatively small budget, but it's from a larger entity whereas there are other games on that list from much smaller studios."
The Game Awards is set for Thursday, Dec. 7. For more on this year's nominees, check out our roundup.
Taylor is a Reporter at IGN. You can follow her on Twitter @TayNixster.
