Inside the 2024 Game Awards: What Geoff Keighley and Co. Have Planned for Big 10th Anniversary Show

Rumors are swirling ahead of the 2024 Game Awards Thursday — but they’re not about who will take home the show’s prizes. Instead, most of the buzz ahead of the 10th anniversary of the Geoff Keighley-hosted event, which kicks off at 7:30 p.m. ET at the Peacock Theater in Los Angeles, is surrounding what big announcements and trailers video game developers and publishers will choose to release out of the show.

Will Take-Two Interactive use this as its moment to finally reveal the release date for “Grant Theft Auto 6”? Will Skydance Interactive and Disney unveil details surrounding their closely guarded “Star Wars” game? Will Xbox surprise gamers and quickly reveal the first downloadable content (DLC) for MachineGames’ new hit “Indiana Jones and the Great Circle”?

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“I always say, people get excited to see one thing because they know it exists — but what about all those things that you don’t know exist? That’s what’s kind of fun,” Keighley tells Variety. “We always see the fake lists online of, ‘All these things are getting announced.’ And it’s just because those are things people know exist. And I’m like, but, what if there’s a whole set of other things out there?”

Keighley and Game Awards executive producer Kimmie Kim, director Richard Preuss and production designer LeRoy Bennett are remaining tight-lipped on that front, but have plenty to say about the work that’s gone into prepping the 10th annual Game Awards.

“What’s interesting about our show is that all the clips are online,” Keighley said, noting the show has always been free to watch (and rewatch) via YouTube and the Game Awards’ social media channels. “You can see it. It used to be on anniversary shows, you have to roll all these clips and all the things that happen because you can’t find them anywhere else. For us, our shows have been very accessible to everyone for a decade. So we’re going to tip our hat to some great people and moments that have been part of our show’s history — but we’re also going to focus a lot on the future. And with our show, it’s half an award show and half a look-forward to what’s coming next. This audience really does want to see the future, so we’ll be focused not just on what’s happening in 2025 in gaming, but I think you’ll see some things that are even further out at the show.”

It took time, but over the past decade, the Game Awards has gained the trust of the gaming industry to break these big moments and publishers plan a year out to have their titles and announcements revealed during the show.

“I come from awards shows like the Oscars or the VMAs where, the day when we’ve finished and the show goes out, we plan for the next year,” Kim says. “And there’s a similar vibe here, where we’re working closely with the vast majority of game companies always thinking ahead, how they wanted to collaborate years ahead, which we didn’t see the first couple years.”

During that 10-year time period, the production quality of the show has also evolved to keep up with the industry it’s showcasing. For the 2024 show, the production team is working with more LED screens than ever before for those anniversary surprises.

“Over the years that I’ve been designing the show, every year, I’m trying to push technology boundaries and try different things,” Bennett says. “There’s a certain format that we have to stick to because of just the nature of the awards, the games, and how you show the video games on the screens and stuff. But I constantly try to change the look of the show and the production within the format. This year involves a lot more LED screens and modules than we’ve ever had before. It’s a very architectural LED-based set.”

While game developers, execs and fans will be celebrating Thursday, it must be noted that the SAG-AFTRA strike against major gaming publishers rages on and there doesn’t seem to be an end in sight at the moment for contract negotiations, which largely surround the issue of generative AI in video games. Keighley and the Game Awards team are monitoring the situation and have kept this in mind when booking talent for the show.

“We’re learning about it as it evolves and we’ve seen some of the comments around what’s a struck game, what is not a struck game, and can people appear or not?” Keighley says. “So we want to be respectful of the performers and their choices and how they want to participate in the evolving situation. We’re looking at it day by day and trying to be very respectful and we hope for a positive resolution.”

Over the past 10 years, Kim says the level of prestige has risen for the show, while it’s also managed to maintain its indie status — not airing on a specific network or streamer behind a paywall, but on YouTube — and create a kind of general tribute to the year in video games.

“There’s definitely people invested in it,” Kim said. “There’s a friendship and partnership where this is a team, doing this together, which I really find it interesting and unique to any other award shows, in a way. So it became one of these true community coming together moments when planning things ahead. That’s very helpful for producing the show, and also such a morale booster and rewarding thing that we able to create.”

Preuss agrees with the all-for-one-and-one-for-all sentiment that he’s seen from the gaming industry when it comes to the Game Awards — not something typical of a competition-based event where people are duking it out for the top prizes.

“The nice thing about this show from year to year is that there are these surprises, there are these special announcements. And it’s so much more than about the awards,” Preuss says. “It is a total celebration of the industry in a way that I don’t think other awards do. They celebrate, of course, the accomplishments of that year, which the Game Awards does — but there is a just a greater history within the show and it also always looks to the future.”

The industry might be in love with the Game Awards — but they don’t love its lengthy runtime. While not alone in that particular issue, a common complaint for the Oscars, Emmys and other top events, Preuss says they are working on improving it each year.

“Similar to a lot of other award shows, it’s all about pumping the gas and the brakes to keep the show running as tight as possible, so that there’s no awkward pauses,” Preuss says. “And that’s where our crew is so great, in terms of having the next band set up, or getting The Muppets — who’ve joined us many years and are back again — set up. Keeping our show very tight, but also doing our best to let things breathe appropriately.”