The Game Awards Gave More Airtime To A VTuber Than The Labor Crisis Facing The Industry

Ironmouse gave a 30-second speech at The Game Awards, which is 30 seconds more than we heard about Thirty seconds. That’s how much airtime VTuber Ironmouse was afforded to give an acceptance speech for her Content Creator of the Year honor at The Game Awards on Thursday. That’s perfectly fine.

Content creation is a vital aspect of the game industry these days, and Ironmouse is a big name (I enjoy her stream whenever I’ve ended up there). It’s absolutely worth giving the leading lights in the community their flowers. You know who else is a vital part of the game industry? Game developers.

And in a three-and-a-half-hour ceremony, there wasn’t as much as a peep about the labor crisis facing the industry. This year has been brutal for game developers. Barely a day goes by that we don’t hear about layoffs at a studio or publisher.

Estimates peg the number of developers who have been laid off at more than 9,000. That’s a lot of talented people who are either looking for work or deciding to leave the games industry altogether, potentially causing a massive brain drain (and no, AI won’t make up for all of that lost expertise). In a nutshell, The Game Awards ceremony was fine.

We all know what it is at this point. It’s less about awards than it is a major marketing event for upcoming games and updates to existing titles. We saw a bunch of compelling trailers for games I immediately added to my wishlist.

But it seems wrong to hype up the event as gaming’s biggest night without so much as touching on the real issues facing the industry. Predictably, those behind the ceremony played it safe. They signed by thousands of folks in and around the industry that asked organizers to acknowledge the crisis in Gaza and call for a ceasefire.

That’s one thing, but to fail to even mention the ongoing labor crisis in the game industry is a dereliction of duty. The Game Awards is ostensibly about celebrating games and the people who make them, but it doesn’t really do that. Yes, the world premieres and splashy announcements are what most viewers are there for.

But every year it feels disrespectful to creators to zip through most of the awards without giving them a moment to say thanks to their colleagues, peers, inspirations and loved ones. Even major names such as Neil Druckmann only had 30 seconds to give an acceptance speech because the broadcast had to hustle along to the next trailer and make sure there was enough time for Hideo Kojima to say a few cryptic things about his next game. Handing out trophies is almost inconsequential to The Game Awards.

I’m not here to attack VTubers or content creators. My point is that The Game Awards has long misplaced its priorities. For instance, organizers should be placing more of a spotlight on those who do the vital work of making games more accessible instead of dumping the Innovation in Accessibility award in the pre-show.

At least the Games for Impact winner was able to give a speech during the main show (more accurately, Sony icon Shuhei Yoshida spoke a few words on behalf of developer ). In its current format, The Game Awards is never truly going to be the Oscars of the game industry. Sure, the Academy Awards plays off winners during speeches too.

Oscars organizers even disrespected some creatives by trying to a few years ago. But Oscar honorees always get time to make a speech. Many take advantage of that by calling attention to important social and political issues, whether or not their films deal with that subject matter.

If The Game Awards organizers want the event to have a tenth of the credibility it purports to have, they ought to find a backbone. Free up some time to talk about the real issues facing the industry and the world around it, and properly celebrate the work of artists who make the games so many of us fall in love with. That’s more than worth dropping a few marketing beats from next year’s show.

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