The Game Awards Is Beefing Up Security Following Stage Invasions

Matan Even’s invasion of the stage at The Game Awards 2022.

Award ceremonies aren’t important, and if we all stopped looking at them, they’d stop existing. Anyway, The Game Awards are coming up next week, December 7, and we’re hearing news about some planned changes for this year’s outing. Will they let women on stage? Ha ha, no one’s mentioned that. But we have heard they’ll try to stop more uninvited men from taking the mic, with improved security after high-profile stage rushes at two Keighley-fronted affairs. Alongside that, there’s also the press-stopping news that the show will be dropping its familiar “World Premiere” branding before reveals of new games and trailers.

This past weekend, Game Awards host and emperor Geoff Keighley took part in a Q&A stream on Twitch about the upcoming event. During this, he was asked if there might be more security measures in place this year, given two recent incidents at Keighley-hosted endeavors.

The first stage invasion was at last year’s Game Awards, during which a ghastly little child ran on stage to garble some incoherent nonsense about “reformed Orthodox Rabbi Bill Clinton” before being dragged away by security. It was therefore even more surprising when something very similar occurred at this year’s Gamescom opening night, improbably also referencing the former president. This time we were informed that Clinton apparently wants to play GTA 6.

“We definitely have plans,” said Keighley on the recent stream, when asked if security would be improved as a result of the events. “We’re trying to do all we can to keep me safe, but also everyone watching the show, the audience, people participating in the show and everything.” He didn’t want to get into any specifics, however, explaining, “We don’t want to talk about that stuff too publicly, just because it’s security.”

My suggestion would be large, threatening humans stood at the bottom of the steps that lead to the stage. You know, a policy to not just let people run up there.

Another tidbit revealed during the Twitch stream was a decision to move away from the endless booming announcements of “WORLD PREMIERE” throughout the event. One viewer had asked how many such exclusives (commercials—they’re called commercials) we could expect to see, and Keighley explained that he hadn’t counted, but then asked the ultimate philosophical question, “What is a world premiere?”

Well, it’s when something is revealed for the very first time, anywhere in the world. Hope this helps. But Keighley continued, “We’re kind of moving away from that, just because everything’s kind of, ‘Is it a first look? Is it an announcement?’” Yup, those would both match the remit. But all that mind-boggling confusion is gone now, and “We just treat it as all great game content.”

The good news is Keighley confirmed they’re trying to keep the show shorter this year, needling Kratos actor Chris Judge for spoiling such efforts last year by “taking his sweet time with his speech.”

So hopefully, this year, we can look forward to a less interrupted run of game adverts and the industry handing awards to itself.

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