The Game Awards 2023 was filled with a few well-earned wins, such as Neil Newbon getting best voice acting, and a fair other surprises as well. It turns out that a few game devs and actors held their own protest outside of the Game Awards.
As most people know by now, not only was this a terrible year for workers in the gaming industry, but it was rocked by widespread SAG-AFTRA strikes, protesting both poor working conditions and the oncoming threat of AI job replacement. According to The Gamer, SAG-AFTRA’s next target was The Game Awards, where they protested with fellow actors outside and handed out leaflets about industry abuse. Each guest that entered the awards show was given a pamphlet.
The demands of the protestors are simple: better working conditions and pay for game developers. As we’ve talked about before, video game actors also have the same grievances with both AI and low pay. The protests argued for on-set safety protections, wage increases, and protections against AI use.
As The Verge mentioned, the problem with the Game Awards is that Geoff Keighley didn’t talk about any of the layoffs nor protests that happened this year. This is incredibly unfortunate, given how important and pressing this issue has been. It’s very irresponsible of Keighley to not use his massive platform to signal boost these struggles going on right now.
And let’s not forget that award recipients at the show barely got any time for their speeches. Plenty of people are mad right now that developers and voice actors were told to hurry it up upon winning their category. If even Game Awards winners are this disrespected, imagine how they see the little guys at the bottom.
Award ceremonies love to celebrate games, but not always the labor behind the games. Hopefully, these labor issues get more recognition in the future.
(featured image: The Game Awards)
