Geoff Keighley failed to acknowledge a horrible 12 months for sport builders

At this level, you can not discuss how wonderful 2023 has been for the standard of video games launched this 12 months with out additionally mentioning how it’s been totally disastrous for the individuals who made them. However that’s precisely what Geoff Keighley did throughout this 12 months’s Sport Awards.

The numbers fluctuate, however estimates say wherever between six and 7 thousand employees have misplaced their jobs simply this 12 months. No stage of studio dimension or success has been spared. And people who have been let go are actually being pressured to contend for an ever-dwindling variety of open job postings.

“This has been one of the crucial unstable durations within the video games business within the final 15 years,” stated Jakin Vela, government director of the Worldwide Sport Builders Affiliation, in an interview with Polygon.

To be clear, Geoff Keighley isn’t chargeable for these layoffs, and layoffs are an unlucky however common a part of this and plenty of different industries. However with the platform Keighley has, he does have an obligation to his viewers to acknowledge the circumstances below which the video games his occasions rejoice are made. He’s carried out it earlier than.

In that very same thread, he additionally acknowledged the ability and visibility of his platform.

“I additionally notice now we have a giant platform which may speed up and encourage change,” he posted. “We’re dedicated to that, however all of us must work collectively to construct a greater and a extra inclusive atmosphere so everybody feels secure to construct the world’s finest video games.”

All through this 12 months’s awards present, Keighley and builders spoke concerning the impression video video games have on our tradition and their radical capability to vary minds and broaden views. (Inasmuch because the present’s organizers would permit builders to talk earlier than taking part in them off or, in a single case, reducing them off solely.) Ostensibly, The Sport Awards is about celebrating video video games and recognizing the achievements of the individuals who made them.

Video video games don’t get made with out individuals, and people persons are struggling proper now at a heretofore unseen scale. To not memorialize that in any respect, even after acknowledging the ability of his place, is, at finest, an abdication of the accountability of his platform if not outright cowardice. It’s a state all of the extra disappointing since Keighley has already demonstrated that he does take note of the broader online game neighborhood past hyping up “world premieres” and paling round together with his business besties — and Muppets.