The 10 Biggest Game Awards Controversies

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00:00 Welcome to Mojo Plays, and today we're taking a look at various moments in Game Awards history

00:05 that caused more than just commotion.

00:18 Before we begin, we publish new videos all week long, so be sure to subscribe to Mojo

00:22 Plays and ring the bell to be notified about our latest videos.

00:27 The Fighting Game Fiasco of 2022

00:37 The lazy miscategorization of games started becoming noticeable in 2022 with the Best

00:42 Fighting Game category.

00:44 Multiverses, The King of Fighters XV, and DNF Duel were all expected picks, but Sifu?

00:51 Many within the FGC were flustered by this miscategorization, including famed fighting

00:56 streamer Maximillian Dude.

01:10 The nomination came off as if the jury thought a fighting game was just a game heavily focused

01:15 on combat, even though that would just be an action game.

01:19 Not sure how anyone would think that when we've had fighting games define what a fighting

01:23 game is, like Street Fighter, Tekken, Skullgirls, Killer Instinct, you get the idea.

01:31 Sifu is a great game, but to call it a fighting game was just negligent on the jury's part.

01:37 At least Multiverses, a platform fighter that properly represented the fighting game label,

01:42 won the award in the end.

01:52 An RPG kerfuffle

02:00 People have been up in arms over the 2023 Game Awards nominees already.

02:04 We'll get to some of the other controversies later, but the quieter outrage is focused

02:08 on the Best RPG category.

02:11 Baldur's Gate 3 and Sea of Stars are great choices here, but Lies of Pi and Final Fantasy

02:17 XVI are leaning way harder into the action category than they are RPG, the latter more

02:23 so than the former.

02:24 This was especially hard to accept knowing that other RPGs like Octopath Traveler 2 and

02:29 Cassette Beasts were left out in the cold in favor of Starfield, which is a good game,

02:35 but best RPG?

02:38 Are we just labeling anything that has stats and doles out XP an RPG these days?

02:49 Hydro Bot, taking it to the next level

03:05 The Game Awards used to be not so marred in controversy after controversy, but the very

03:09 first year where it was truly alarming was in 2016.

03:13 The 2016 Game Awards had a menace looming over its shoulder from the moment the show

03:19 started, the shick Hydro Bot.

03:21 The mascot of the Razer company was constantly butting into the show between every award

03:26 and commercial break.

03:28 What made it worse was just how bad the interstitials were in line delivery and overall demeanor.

03:34 It just came off as pandering to many, and the frequent interruptions caused many to

03:38 stop watching.

03:47 The ABK non-address

03:58 The year 2021 was rather tumultuous.

04:01 Not only were we still in the midst of a global pandemic, but Activision Blizzard King found

04:06 themselves in a nasty spotlight after the corporation was exposed for mistreating its

04:10 employees across a multitude of levels.

04:13 Initially, Keeley said that he was not going to bring up the topic at the Game Awards,

04:18 which resulted in backlash from various media outlets and developers.

04:22 Keeley did end up opening the show, addressing it, but he did so without clarifying as to

04:28 what he was referring to and without naming Activision Blizzard King specifically.

04:33 As expected, this got him even more backlash than before.

04:47 The exclusion of remakes and remasters

04:50 In 2023, we saw a ton of remakes and remasters pour out of the woodwork.

04:56 As for the Game Awards, it was a category that was considered at one point before being

05:00 scrapped.

05:01 The reason?

05:02 Keeley stated it was because "are there really five amazing remakes every year?"

05:08 In a year where we saw Dead Space, Resident Evil 4, Advance Wars, Super Mario RPG, and

05:14 Like A Dragon Isshin, some folks saw this answer as a poor excuse.

05:19 Make it happen next year, Jeff.

05:21 Jeff Keeley, Keeper of Time.

05:36 For a time, the Game Awards was a tad hard to sit through for most audiences, and it

05:41 wasn't just because of advertising.

05:43 While bad pacing can be partially blamed, there were also folks pointing to the amount

05:47 of time focused on one particular side of the show.

05:50 Some would say there was too much focus on trailers, while others argued against the

05:54 meaty selection of awards.

05:57 Keeley and his team have managed to cut down the shows to reasonable runtimes in recent

06:01 years.

06:02 Unfortunately, it has come at the cost of several categories getting shoved to 30-second

06:06 spots with no time for the developers to give acceptance speeches.

06:11 The only categories who get that are actors and directors nominated for bigger categories

06:16 like Game of the Year, Best Direction, and Best Performance.

06:22 2020 Game of the Year

06:37 The 2020 Game Awards upset a lot of folks.

06:41 Like a lot of folks.

06:43 Filmmaker Christopher Nolan walked on stage and announced the winner of the 2020 Game

06:47 of the Year award was The Last of Us Part II.

06:51 This had many people enraged for other reasons, mainly because of how many arguably "better"

06:57 games came out in 2020.

06:59 Ghost of Tsushima, Doom Eternal, Final Fantasy VII Remake, Hades, and Animal Crossing New

07:05 Horizons all dominated much of the conversation in 2020 while we weren't anxiously awaiting

07:10 updates for COVID-19.

07:13 And yet, the Game of the Year is voted on by the public, and it's also worth mentioning

07:18 the jury had a 90% weight in the matter.

07:20 So who is to blame here if anybody at all?

07:32 The Absence of Security

07:34 While the 2022 Game Awards came and went with very little conflict over who won which shiny

07:39 trophy, alarms went off when Hidetaka Miyazaki and his cohorts went up to accept their award.

07:46 One person unrelated to them had managed to sneak on stage and take hold of the microphone.

08:02 No one had stopped him, no one had tried to stop him, and folks quickly realized how horribly

08:07 the situation could have gone.

08:09 A similar incident occurred at Summer Games Fest 2023, another showcase Kili hosts every

08:14 year.

08:15 Thankfully, Kili has gone on record to say that starting with Game Awards 2023, security

08:20 will be tightened to ensure there are no more stage invaders regardless of their intentions.

08:26 The Meaning of Indie

08:36 This might be the biggest uproar the Game Awards has seen since the Hydrobot Festival

08:41 of 2016.

08:43 When Dave the Diver was nominated for Best Independent Game, folks were quick to point

08:48 out how it was not an indie game.

08:50 Dave the Diver was developed by Mint Rocket, which is a studio formed by Korean billion

08:55 dollar tech giant Nacon.

08:58 Many felt that this was a failure on the voting jury's part in properly classifying certain

09:02 terms and criteria.

09:04 Kili only fueled the fire when he made his stance on the matter, stating "Independent

09:09 can mean different things to different people, and it's sort of a broad term."

09:14 Is it though?

09:15 Is it really?

09:25 The Voting Jury In recent years, the legitimacy of the Game

09:29 Awards voting jury has been called into question, and it's becoming more frequent.

09:34 Every year, the nominations are chosen by a select number of gaming outlets from across

09:37 the world, the biggest ones being those in the US.

09:41 Problem is that the credibility and scale of each is… debatable, we'll say.

09:47 Many outlets on the voting jury are podcasts and YouTube channels, and many of them frequently

09:52 guest on each other's own shows.

09:54 If the Game Awards is truly about celebrating games, shouldn't there be more than 25 outlets

10:00 on the jury to represent the US?

10:02 Why isn't Windows Central on the jury?

10:05 Or Last Stand Media?

10:06 Or Push Square?

10:07 Time Extension?

10:08 Retro Gamer Magazine?

10:10 Nintendo Life?

10:11 Powerpix?

10:12 Or even the Washington Post?

10:13 Why are we not asking content creators that specialize in fighting games, sports games,

10:19 and online gaming what the nominees should be for their respective categories?

10:23 We have a diverse selection of jury members for eSports and accessibility to represent

10:27 different voices, and they don't even get screen time.

10:31 Look, all we're saying is, make the voting pool a little bit wider to include other outlets.

10:38 Please.

10:39 Doesn't have to be us, but it definitely feels like there's an echo chamber going

10:44 on.

10:45 What Game Awards controversy got your goat?

10:47 Did it make our list?

10:49 Let us know down in the comments in a civil manner, please.

10:53 And be sure to subscribe to Mojo Plays for more great videos every day.

10:57 Thanks for watching.

10:58 [outro music]

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