Conventions & Events

A Tale of Two Game Awards: The Value of Wins and Announcements

The Game Awards and The Indie Game Awards show logos

RPGs are winning big at game award shows in 2024. Let’s first take a second to bask in this.

The first major showing was the Golden Joystick Awards, hosted by the ever-charismatic Ben Starr (you know him as Clive Rosfield from Final Fantasy XVI). These fan-voted winners included multiple nods for Final Fantasy VII Rebirth, including storytelling, soundtrack, and the performances of Briana White as Aerith Gainsborough and Cody Christian as Cloud Strife. Other games in RPGFan’s sphere of coverage also saw wins: Black Myth: Wukong, Elden Ring: Shadow of the ErdtreeAnother Crab’s Treasure, and Honkai: Star Rail.

The Game Awards were perhaps even more surprising, as in addition to further wins by Final Fantasy VII Rebirth and Black Myth: WukongMetaphor: ReFantazio swept up three categories. Though supremely well-deserved, This was a shocking string of victories for a turn-based JRPG. The cherry on top was Larian Studios winning the Best Community Support award for last year’s overall winner Baldur’s Gate 3. Oh, and Ben Starr… err, Clive Rosfield was announced as Tekken 8’s new fighter, though this is less a win for RPGs than it is for having Ben Starr in all games ever.

Then came The Indie Game Awards’ inaugural show, a full-throated celebration of 2024’s most influential indie games. For us RPG fans, this included wins by 1000xRESISTCryptmaster, Another Crab’s Treasure, and Thank Goodness You’re Here!. Plus, plenty of other RPGs saw nominations (shout out to Arco, which I thoroughly enjoyed when I played it for review). These are the games that are truly pushing the genre forward in ways that larger-scale titles simply can’t afford to experiment with, and this pioneering mindset was only buttressed by their recognition at The Indie Game Awards. The only true flaw with this show was a lack of Ben Starr, though perhaps Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 could be his chance if it’s eligible next year.

The big difference between The Game Awards and The Indie Game Awards is not so much in the subset of the industry they cover but rather their explicit choices to fully embrace or entirely reject game announcements. The most common criticism of The Game Awards has always been its greater emphasis on expensive glorified ad buys and celebrity appearances (though I did love seeing Indy this year, I’ll admit). Meanwhile, The Indie Game Awards’ tightly paced 77-minute show gave both speakers and award winners creative freedom in how they presented and accepted rewards, resulting in a vibe far more charming and interpersonal.

In my eyes, both of these are valid models that properly serve very different audiences. On a fundamental level, neither must change.

The Game Awards

Let’s start with The Game Awards, aka Geoff Keighley’s Winter E3 conference. I don’t doubt Geoff & co. care about the awards themselves, even if they consistently put them on the backburner during their own party. To put this in perspective, YouTube channel Good Vibes Gaming put together an awards-only supercut of the 2024 show that comes in at 40 minutes (below). The full show was 3 hours and 40 minutes, so the math isn’t hard. This is to say nothing of how most of these awards are rattled off by a host in quick succession before moving on to the next string of world premieres.

To this end, the studios behind what are largely AAA games (let alone the individuals working on those games) don’t get their proper time in the sun, often without a chance for a studio or publisher figurehead to say a few words. I’m not going to defend this. Even if it meant having a longer pre-show or a post-show to air more trailers, every award should get its moment on stage. Yes, even the esports awards that everyone’s always quick to proclaim their lack of interest in. If Geoff and his committee see fit to give awards in these categories, then they should give them equal respect to the main stage categories.

This method also begs a direct comparison to how The Indie Game Awards showcased its nominees. The roughly seven-second clip reel for each nominee had enough room to breathe so that prospective players had a chance to be enticed by them. This meant winning wasn’t the only avenue toward making an impact on viewers. At The Game Awards, we only see fleeting glimpses of every nominated game. One could argue that most games that get nominations at The Game Awards are the industry’s heaviest hitters that most viewers will have at least a passing familiarity with, but I think many people would be surprised just how untrue this is. Here’s two reasons as to how.

First, the show attracted 154 million viewers this year, a number that’s annually increased exponentially. Even the best sales performers nominated are only bought by a small fraction of this audience. Second, do you think those 154 million viewers all know Final Fantasy or Metaphor (or even Game of the Year winner Astro Bot) like they do Call of Duty? These titles are obscure relative to who’s watching and only truly grab attention with unexpected wins and sweeps. The Game of the Year nominees do get that wonderful orchestral glow-up before the ultimate award is given, but if you aren’t one of those six chosen games, you’re barely getting the screentime that the honor of nomination should afford you (and some get none at all if they’re not in a main stage category). Again, this needs to change.

But if Geoff and co. can address these issues, I’m very much okay with The Game Awards being a reveal fest. Actually, scratch that; after the qualitative success of the 2024 show insomuch as its reveals, I think that’s exactly what it should be. The promise of major reveals draws in crowds, those crowds get exposed to the awards and a bit of insightful industry commentary in the process (even if it could be done better), and everyone walks away a winner. The common argument that Geoff should split the show into two nights (one for reveals, one for awards) simply doesn’t make sense because everyone would watch the reveal show, but only an immensely small subset of those viewers would return for the awards. I feel you’d actually be doing the games nominated for awards a disservice if you minimized their reach to mainstream audiences.

The Indie Game Awards

The Indie Game Awards are another ballgame. It’s a far more earnest endeavor hosted by Six One Indie, an organization that boosts indie games through bi-annual showcases. Creative Director & Co-Founder Mike Towndrow and Program Coordinator Kyle Stephenson started the inaugural award show with a delineation between these pillars to ensure award winners were properly celebrated. This also has the byproduct of viewers remembering the games they can play right now, not those coming out in 2026.

I’d say the pre-edited ceremony was an out-the-gates success in all of these regards, and the creative ways winners accepted their awards kept things massively entertaining. For example, Cryptmaster’s award was accepted by the titular character, while Thank Goodness You’re Here!’s win was punctuated by its developers appropriately playing out a short comedic bit. Other recipients like Animal Well‘s Billy Basso opted for more traditional segments with heartfelt thanks for their collaborators, something that hits harder when the remarks aren’t given on an expensive stage where a ticking clock results in rushed speeches. Even the anonymous Balatro mastermind LocalThunk was able to accept his award via voice recordings whereas at The Game Awards he was forced to send others to the event on his behalf.

All of this results in a space that is both inclusive and recognizes inclusivity. The indie game development community is diverse in all senses of the term, and I know that the people behind this show value that. It’s also something its audience of indie game lovers cares about, which is why a special award honoring the late Coffee Talk developer Mohammad Fahmi—not for his games but for who he was—was such a beautiful, fitting tribute. Even Tim Schafer—the highest profile appearance at the show—was only there because of the honors given to his annual Day of the Devs showcase (which, ironically, aligns with Geoff Keighley’s Summer Games Fest).

I’ll wrap all this up by noting how the unique viewing experience I had with each highlighted why what they individually do is important. Watching The Game Awards in a chat with other RPGFan staff as we freaked out over some of the more insane game reveals and the recognition of Metaphor: ReFantazio was a blast. We showed our individuality through what we responded to and how we responded to it, and we wouldn’t have all been together like that if not for the show’s joint purpose of awards and reveals.

Meanwhile, attending The Indie Game Awards’ official viewing party at BrookLAN in Brooklyn, New York helped drive home the emotional attachment people had to these games. It was a special moment when the room erupted in hoots, hollers, and cheers after Mexico, 1921: A Deep Slumber director Paola Vera—who was in attendance at BrookLAN—won the award for “Women-Led Game.” It reinforced for me that this show is about the interpersonal community, whereas The Game Awards is about the majority of game players and even those adjacent to game-playing. It’s great that both exist.

Tim Rattray

Tim Rattray

Tim has written about games, anime, and beyond since 2009. His love of JRPGs traces back to late-90s get-togethers with cul-de-sac kids to battle and trade Pokémon via link cables. In the early 2000s, this passion was solidified when Chrono Trigger changed his conception of what a game could be. A core focus of Tim’s work is mental health advocacy with a focus on how interactivity can be used to depict and teach about mental illness. He’s excited to share that insight with RPGFan’s readers, alongside a log full of side quests to explore the mutual passion we all share.