The Game Awards will never represent our industry in the way it needs, so what next?

Since their establishment in 2014, The Game Awards have never been wholly welcomed by the wider world of video games, but this year the response has felt if not different, then at least more prominent. There is an undeniable sense, waking up after last night's ceremony-cum-advertisement reel, that developers in particular are deeply frustrated.

Naturally, there are caveats. In 2023 the industry still regularly debates itself about all manner of things, from whether community managers and in-house PRs count as game devs to, as Dave the Diver reminded us, what exactly counts as an indie game. I'd expect no more unanimity on the topic of The Game Awards as I would any of those. But there is definitely a prominent, loud, and absolutely unignorable chorus of discontent, and it is definitely louder and even less ignorable this year than before.

Arguably the most prominent call has come from The Game Awards' own Future Class, a kind of inclusion-minded 30 Under 30 award nominated each year by industry peers, with the group described as the "inspiring individuals who represent the bright, bold, and inclusive future of video games". A couple of weeks before this year's event, more than half of the entire Future Class group - 79 of the 150 members, before the 2023 class were added - joined almost 3000 additional developers in signing an open letter to the awards organisers.

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