The Game Awards is an annual event where the exceptional hard work and dedication of hundreds of developers are ostensibly recognized on the grandest stage that the video game industry has. But it also serves as the place where the future of the industry is teased, with trailers showcasing what's in store for the next few months and years. To make it all happen, there are advertisements played between trailers and awards, while mainstream celebrities appear to try and bring in eyes from beyond our corner of the entertainment landscape.

The Game Awards is an exciting event that has also been criticized for the balance it strikes between all those objectives and pieces of the show. 2023's event, in particular, has drawn criticism for the lack of time that developers were given to talk when accepting awards on stage, as well as the fact that many developers, games, and teams' achievements were rapidly cycled through as interstitial moments. Meanwhile, celebrity guests had extended periods of time to meander their way through incidental and unimportant chatter at their leisure.

The Game Awards is an event that takes place at a scale that no other yearly gaming awards show can match. In many ways, it's also the first of its kind--an Oscars-inspired ceremony in the gaming space. Mistakes are going to happen. The best we can hope for is that those who organize it see the responses and address them accordingly, as it has done in the past.