The Game Awardshosted by Geoff Keighley has become a signature showcase event in the gaming space. It has become one of the industry’s great year-end award shows featuring star-studded appearances, massive reveals, and viral moments. As the2021 Game Awardsdraws near, Geoff Keighley sat for an interview posted to the Epic Games website that talks about the show’s growth and expectations for this year and the future.
The Game Awards, now in its 8th year, returns to being anin-person live event at the Microsoft Theaterin Los Angeles after the COVID-19 Pandemic forced the show to go virtual last year. That show garnered viewership numbers around the 83 million mark, double over the year before according to Geoff Keighley. The show returns as an in-person event with a live audience, orchestra, stage appearances, and more. With the return to an in-person event, expectations are higher than ever, and according to him, games that are making appearances there will also be at an all-time high.
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Geoff Keighley states that “40-50” games will be featured this year and new game announcements during the show could get into the “double digits” range thanks in part to the show becoming the signature industry event and partially due to the ongoing pandemic. He believes that because many games have been delayed and there have been limited amounts of places for games to be seen and the ability to travel, it primesThe Game Awards to be the place where video game developerswant to show off their game as they head into 2022.
“It’s definitely a very busy year in terms of the number of games we’re being pitched. We’re blessed that pretty much every developer and publisher wants to have some degree of content on the show.”
Along with the expectations that this year’sGame Awardscould have the most game reveals ever, both known games and new, Geoff Keighley expects that viewership will increase once more. He tempers his expectations saying thatanother doubling of The Game Awards' audience sizeagain is an unsustainable goal but he does want to expand ways that the award show can be watched. He wants to expand into options in the “metaverse” which the show has done within the gameCoreand on the Oculus VR platform. However, he is adamant that his show will not go into the NFT space.
The Game Awards 2021hosted by Geoff Keighley airs on December 9 at 8 PM EST across a variety of livestreaming services.
