Geoff Keighley
Geoff Keighley led quite the career over the past two decades and doesn’t seem to have any intention of slowing down anytime soon, having just started up The Game Awards back in 2014 which he paid for out of his own pocket. Before that he produced and often hosted a myriad of different video game based programming with G4, Gametrailers, Viacom, and most notably Spike TV, where he produced the Video Game Awards (or VGX) and brought E3 coverage to television. Geoff’s entire career has been centered around elevating the artform and industry into the mainstream so that it may have the same amount of attention and most of all, appreciation, that other forms of media like film and music do – and I would say, for the most part, he’s succeeded. His time with Spike and the Video Game Awards he produced with them helped bring quite a bit of mainstream attention to the industry, and I personally can attribute my interest in gaming journalism to Geoff’s coverage of E3 which was also aired on Spike TV – and I’m very confident that I’m not an isolated case in that.
In addition to helping bring gaming into the mainstream, The Game Awards themselves are bringing certain levels of appreciation and acknowledgement into the established community itself with recognitions like the Industry Icon award, which last year went to one of the first females in the industry, Carol Shaw (I had no idea who she was before then, did you?), the Student Game Award, and Games for Impact, a category that focuses on games whose narrative or mechanics bring attention to global or societal issues that may not be addressed as much as they should. Last year, the Games for Impact award went to Hellblade: Senua’s Sacrifice for its realistic portrayal of someone living with psychosis – a pretty important issue in a world where mental health is only beginning to be discussed. Now, all of this isn’t to say the Game Awards aren’t subject to criticism, there’s definitely some room for improvement here and there – but overall these shows are huge pluses for the industry and community at large. But there’s one moment in particular that I’d like to mention that really highlights Geoff’s cojones, and the freedom that owning this awards show affords him – you probably already know what I’m talking about.
2015 was a rough time for Hideo Kojima (who won the Industry Icon award the following year and is also featured on this list!). In the final months of Metal Gear Solid V’s development, Konami canceled his Silent Hills project with Guillermo Del Toro and Norman Reedus and isolated him from his development team. They began removing his name from promotional materials for the Legacy Collection and both parts of Metal Gear Solid V, as well as the official Metal Gear website. Konami restricted communications access including corporate internet, emails and phone calls for senior staff at Kojima Productions. They even removed his name and dev team’s logo from the MGSV’s box art. That’s not the way you treat someone who has been a central pillar to your company and industry as a whole for 30 years, and Kojima’s fans were, to put it lightly, fucking livid, as the hashtag #FuckKonami trended for days on end in response to the poor treatment of the legendary developer, and Del Toro himself even tore them apart on Twitter.
The final twist of the knife came during the 2015 Game Awards, where MGSV was nominated for a handful of awards and won two, which were Best Score/Soundtrack and Best Action/Adventure game. Kiefer Sutherland, who provided the voice and MoCap for Big Boss in the game, was present to accept an award on Kojima’s behalf. Immediately following his speech, the camera cut to Geoff, who thanked Keifer for accepting it and began to give an unrehearsed speech explaining Kojima’s absence. Please, check out the clip here.
“As you noticed, Hideo Kojima is not here with us tonight and I wanted to tell you a little bit about that. Mr. Kojima had every intention of being with us tonight, but unfortunately, he was informed by a lawyer representing Konami just recently that he would not be allowed to travel to tonight’s award ceremony to accept any awards. He’s under an employment contract and it’s disappointing and it’s inconceivable to me that an artist like Hideo would not be allowed to come here and celebrate with his peers and his fellow teammates, but that’s the situation we’re in. Hideo is in Tokyo right now watching the show – and we wanted you to know Hideo that we’re thinking of you – and we miss you. We hope to see you at The Game Awards 2016.”
Konami’s public image may never recover as their behavior put a black mark on them from the majority of the gaming community, but that’s not the point – Geoff calling out and holding that company accountable was a big risk on his part, and that could have been a big bridge to burn. Seeing how professional and composed he is even in this speech, it’s clear that he’s not saying it as a middle finger to Konami, he was saying it to let them – and the entire industry – know that we are watching them and keeping tabs on this kind of behavior, a sentiment the community still echoes as you can see from this year’s highly publicized issues regarding unpaid overtime, crunch, and toxic workplaces, and the condemnation of the people responsible in response to that. I wouldn’t hold my breath for a similar moment at this year’s Game Awards, but I wouldn’t doubt that Geoff would refrain from doing something to similar effect in the future provided it’s necessary, while still bringing the medium into the mainstream and making his best effort to see that its creators are recognized for their achievements.