Keighley's kingdom
The novel business model behind The Game Awards and its future
I bet you’re busy trying to get those last few things done before starting a well-deserved break. It looks like 2025 will be a rollercoaster, so get your rest while you can. Until then, thanks to all of you 13,000 for the support this year.
HAPPY HOLIDAYS! 🎄❤️
On to this week’s update.
BIG READ: Keighley's kingdom
[This analysis has been updated. Changes are indicated in bold.]
The video games industry's most intriguing aspect isn't its scale, but rather its capacity to reimagine traditional business models.
A decade since its conception, watching the 2024 edition of The Game Awards is both a celebration and cringe-fest. For most of its history, the video game industry lacked a grand spectacle comparable to Hollywood's Oscars or the music industry's Grammys—a self-congratulatory, red-carpet affair that defines cultural legitimacy. The absence of such aggrandizing events has left a celebrity deficit. Or, as one Rockstar Games producer told my class a few years ago: “There is no red carpet event for the person who makes the helicopter fly realistically, despite it being an incredible accomplishment.”
That void made the early days of The Game Awards awkwardly charming and uniquely authentic. Video game development is, after all, a world-building exercise. Unlike the cardboard affronts found in film, interactive entertainment demands a far more comprehensive effort to establish its universe and narrative economy. It’s understandable, then, that the people behind these worlds—writers, developers, and artists—would look out of place in the spotlight. A red carpet photo op from last year’s winner of Game of the Year, Larian Studios with Baldur’s Gate III, shows a mishmash of dress codes, with the game’s writers awkwardly front and center. It’s a spectacle, but a different kind of spectacle.
The rise of The Game Awards mirrors gaming’s cultural ascendance. Long relegated to the sidelines, today media conglomerates, tech firms, and advertisers have started paying more attention to interactive entertainment for its ability to draw a crowd. Over the past five years in particular, the category has managed to establish a foothold in the broader entertainment universe, with a myriad of non-endemic and adjacent firms like Disney investing heavily in immersive and online experiences. The destigmatization of video games as a popular activity during the pandemic broadened their appeal.
[Chart updated from original.]
The proof lies in an unexpected cultural marker: Hollywood A-listers and major musicians are increasingly clamoring for a spot on this stage. If you want to gauge an event’s relevance, just ask yourself, “Does it have Snoop Dogg in it?”
