I Don't Know What The End Goal Is For Geoff Keighley

Preamble

With not-E3 2022 over, it's clear there were winners and losers. Console manufacturers, gaming press publications, and independent developers all put out their best to a smattering of reactions. If you pressed me, I would say Sony's scant forty-minute State of Play was a highlight, and Microsoft's split presentations and trailer packages were a close second. If I enjoyed fighting games or expected remakes of venerable classics more, maybe I would swap Capcom into Microsoft's slot. Near the bottom of the list of conferences in terms of my enjoyment was the Keighley-led Summer Game Fest. This almost universally derided event became a venerable walking meme that even Microsoft made cracks about on their official Twitter account. Much like the Game Awards, the Summer Game Fest was a bloated and poorly paced experience with massive lulls and went on for two hours and thirty minutes. Included during the event were the expected celebrity cameos, comedic skits, non-video game-based advertisements, and grandiose promises that practically define any occasion led by Keighley. The internet had a field day lampooning the SGF, and many deemed it disappointing.

Before I continue my pontifications on why I did not enjoy Keighley's showcase, I want to clarify a few things. I can tell that Keighley puts a lot of time and effort into organizing his yearly events. He has a knack for production values, and when tasked to assemble a handful of notable names or gaming outfits, he gets the job done. I am also aware that his shows are not shot-gunned one-person productions but involve teams of writers, producers, and directors. Talented people work on The Game Awards and the Keighley-led Summer Game Fest. I pray and hope that the version of Keighley we saw on Twitter, who pled with his audience to have realistic expectations about what would be at the event, was him coming to terms with many of the SGF's shortcomings this year. Plus, important people in the upper echelons of the industry like him. The people in suits trust Keighley, and every industry needs a bland but overly optimistic speakerphone. He's the Ryan Seacrest of video games, and that's okay.

Similarly, I want to preface that I don't understand why people get upset over these conferences. Keighley's format, structure, style, and tone are known quantities, and anyone that expected him to deviate from this tired and true formula set themselves up for disappointment. What is incredibly baffling is when people express dissatisfaction with one conference not having a game that either doesn't exist or ends up being featured as a marquee title in a different presentation. The latter of these has never made sense to me. You got your game announcement or corporate-approved teaser trailer. What the fuck difference does it make if you had to wait an extra day or two? Likewise, I don't know what to say about the internet's ability to get upset over pipe-dream games not happening or known projects being absent because they need more time. 2022 marks the third year the industry has grappled with the COVID pandemic's effects. Everyone associated with this industry has said making shit has been challenging. How often does it need to be noted that AAA productions need more time, given the circumstances? However, please don't take any of these points to mean that I am defending Keighley's 2022 Summer Game Fest; I thought this year's event was terrible.

Please, No More Conferences Over Two Hours Unless You Can Make It Count

I don't want to spend this entire blog examining Keighley's body language and inner machinations like many online bloggers or YouTubers who are desperate to collect article clicks. However, I have to raise my eyebrow ever so slightly at what he was able to assemble during this year's Summer Game Fest. If you go back to when the cancellation of E3 2022 was first announced, you might recall the man was practically gloating on Twitter. This merry posturing was due to his previous disputes with the Entertainment Software Association (i.e., ESA). The ESA hosts E3 and, in 2021, decided to block Keighley from sharing the same floor as their marquee events. Almost immediately after E3 2022 was shit-canned, Keighley set to Twitter to remind everyone that his non-ESA-sanctioned event would go ahead, unimpeded by the demise of E3. Then, he continued to bill the event as a possible replacement for E3 in the future. Yet, on the eve of the event, Keighley took to social media to temper expectations while confirming the event would continue with a two-and-a-half-hour running time. So, when the Rock started shilling shit, or the expected mobile game block lasted far longer than it should, I was not surprised to see an onslaught of negativity directed his way.

What baffles me is how Keighley continually presents himself as an industry pioneer, and yet, the format and structure of his conferences follow THE EXACT TEMPLATE of the 360/PS3/Wii era of E3 conferences. No one is beating to the tune of this drum anymore, non-ironically, except Keighley. Sony this year was perfectly content with a forty-minute showcase, and Microsoft had the common decency of splitting their package into two 90-minute chunks rather than subject viewers to a three-hour slog. Virtually every console manufacturer and then some have innovated on how to present games and gaming culture on a big stage more than Keighley has. The weird out-of-place celebrity cameos? Watch an E3 presentation from EA in the 2010s, and you'll find something similar to the Rock's shameless shilling. Comedy bits that feel awkward and embarrassing? Need I remind you of the clown show that was "peak Ubisoft" during E3? Keighley's events feel like relics of a bygone era, and with all of us growing older, I think we are increasingly becoming aware of that. I don't know about you, but I do not enjoy being seated for more than two hours for these things, especially when there are bolted-in advertisements that barely have anything to do with video games.

Some might point out that the IGN Expo, PC Gaming Show, and Guerrilla Collective 3 clocked in over the two-hour mark. However, are you about to use those three presentations as evidence that Keighley's conferences can justify a two-and-a-half-hour block? Furthermore, the PC Gaming Show is propped up by whatever gaming PC company is willing to pay top dollar to keep the lights on, and the Guerrilla Collective gets most of its bang for its buck on its Steam page. And those events are as long as they are for reasons that do not apply to Keighley. For example, the PC Gaming Show is an excruciatingly long endeavor, so it can ramble about system specs for Big Navi GPUs or raffle off iBuyPower gaming rigs. The only reason the Summer Game Fest is two-and-a-half hours long is that Keighley insists on it being that long. If he knew the event's dossier was bound to disappoint, no one was preventing him from pruning the occasion of its chaff to create a tighter and better-paced experience. You cannot tell me he hasn't seen what Nintendo has been doing with their Direct presentations for the past FIVE YEARS and isn't aware of how to do a conference under two hours that gets people champing at the bit.

Is This Conference Meant To Be An End-All-Be-All Event?

The ESA has announced that they intend to restart E3 in 2023. Say what you will about the ESA, but I can safely say I have no idea what form or shape the 2023 version of E3 will take. I have no confidence that the organization will address all of the event's shortcomings and problems, but at least there's a "wildcard factor" to next year's E3. Nonetheless, I can confidently say I know what structure and format Keighley's event will have this time next year. In the year of our Lord, 2023, Keighley's lack of a filter and general inability to tell people "no" when they ask for air time will result in a bloated event that does not justify the entirety of its running time. I know this because that's how every single one of these has taken shape. That's why I think this year's Summer Game Fest was a lost opportunity for Keighley. If he hopes to create a showcase that rivals E3, then GOD, JESUS, this was NOT THE EVENT that proved that!

Let's role-play for a bit and say you are the CEO of Ubisoft, EA, or Square-Enix. After watching this year's Sumer Game Fest, are you thinking:

a) "Gosh! That Geoff Keighley knows how to run a conference, and I think we should rely on him to showcase our games in the future!"

b) "Huh, I think we can do better than that. Let's call the ESA RIGHT NOW!"

c) "God, these E3 conferences are a complete waste of money."

If you are this CEO, what are you doing in June with developer-led E3 conferences likely to come back next year and probably at a discount? If you answered "a," I want you to pinpoint anything that Keighley did that any other developer or console manufacturer cannot do. This task is impossible because there's nothing unknown or patentable about Keighley's format BECAUSE HE BORROWED IT FROM THOSE SAME COMPANIES! Again, his lack of innovation is not breaking news to developers and publishers. Much of this is by design, so he can quickly make way for larger publishers should they ever have a game they cannot fit elsewhere. However, if all Keighley is going to offer is a platform that is not unique or special, then why work within his constraints? Why not host your own event?

Likewise, what major publisher or developer is Keighley poaching from the field? Microsoft and Sony have "World Premiers" at The Game Awards because there are no other competing conferences or gaming-related events. However, they both have special occasions and platforms during June, whether they are directly tied to an ESA-sanctioned event or not. Nintendo continues to beat to the tune of its own drum, so it's unlikely he will EVER get major first-party games. However, what remaining significant developers does that leave? Bethesda and many other mid-tier studios aren't autonomous anymore. Ubisoft and EA want big flashy independent platforms and are bound to play ball with the ESA come 2023. I think that sentiment will be echoed by other publishers next year. Square-Enix and other major Japanese developers could give two shits about E3 and are happy to stick with game-specific events and the Tokyo Game Show. Therefore, what does that leave? Indie developers? Let's talk about why that's not exactly a match made in heaven.

Is This A Platform For Developers That Can't Get Time Elsewhere?

Let's say you are an indie developer and would be down with your game being present at the Summer Game Fest. Who could blame you? Even in its worst form, the event draws millions of views worldwide. Unfortunately, while indie devs have the most to gain from being present, they are not Keighley's priority. If they were, why did the man give the Rock and exploitative mobile games just as much, if not more, air time than most small-scale video game productions? Keighley's eye is on creating an event that rivals the major developers and saps competition from the ESA. Also, Keighley's event is purposefully inoffensive, so should a developer play ball, he's ready to welcome them with open arms. Look back at his statement regarding workplace harassment during the 2021 Game Awards. Yes, he made a statement, but he did not prohibit developers with known toxic workplaces from showing their wares. His events cater to bigger publishing houses, which is painfully evident at this point.

To return to the issue of Keighley repeating a dated format for this year's Summer Game Fest, while some indie developers are bound to jump at Keighley's stage, most expect better. Developer tolerance for the "Indie Game Highlight Reel" that Microsoft took shit for year after year is at a record low. Furthermore, what most indie devs want out of a conference is not anything Keighley is likely to provide. Sure, some indie games catch a whirlwind of attention after airing ostentatious teaser trailers. Nonetheless, most end up with followers and fans after developer-led game demos where the developer is allowed to detail their thought processes and sources of inspiration. These demos do not mesh well with Keighley's up-tempo tone of wanting to set the world on fire with game announcements audiences did not know about before his event started. Furthermore, an increasing number of small game projects that eventually catch major attention upon release do not showcase in the tried-and-true trailer format that E3 and the Summer Games Fest demands.

Finally, the competition for indie developers with demo-worthy projects during June is fierce. Not only will Keighley have to fend off the major console manufacturers, but there are plenty of other conferences and livestreams that showcase smaller games better. The Day of the Devs event that immediately followed Keighley proved as much. But even after that, this year alone, you had TWO Guerrilla Collective events, a Wholesome Games Direct, and all of the game publication-led events (i.e., IGN, GameSpot, and GamesRadar) that were willing to budget time for slower and more substantial demos. I don't know about you, but I almost always get more out of the IGN and GameSpot showroom demo streams where developers and programmers can talk about their game at their pace than most tentpole E3 presentations. Correspondingly, I'm not sure all of you are aware of this, but a huge portion of the indie gaming scene endlessly dunked on this year's Summer Game Fest as they felt it harkened to a time when E3 barely gave a shit about indie games. Unless Keighley spends a significant amount of time reaching out to these developers and earnestly tries to build bridges by changing his format, these indie devs will continue to look at his events with cynical eyes.

Is This Meant To Be A Generalized Celebration Of Games And Gaming Culture?

I now need to ask a core question in the final section of this blog: who is the intended audience for the Summer Game Fest? If I were to ask Keighley that exact question, I know his answer would be "everyone." However, ask the denizens of any gaming website, forum, or Discord who they think the audience is for the event, and I think you'd see a kaleidoscope of answers. Its third-way big-tent nature is meant to be welcoming to anyone with even a passing interest in video games. In execution, its wide net only pulls a few stray fish rather than any particular school. The event, and every exposition hosted by Keighley in general, has a major identity crisis. The presence of slot-machine mobile games and celebrities suggests it wants to aim for a younger audience. However, the laborious pace and colossal time investment create a barrier to entry that only permits older demographics.

I'll let you in on a bit of my personal life here. I am a full-time middle school teacher, and in a purely anecdotal exercise, I asked multiple classes of mine if they watched the Summer Game Fest. Six did, and the ones that did universally described it as "boring." Even the kids I know who play video games religiously are not tapped into an ecosystem that directs them towards Keighley. This next fact isn't exactly shocking, but most kids are content to watch streamers or commentators discuss highlights of events in bite-sized chunks rather than opt into the beastly marathon sessions Keighley creates. It also does not help that Keighley doesn't make video content with the regularity that can organically build a new community. Additionally, the timing and structure of the SGF discourages younger demographics from watching it. It airs on a weekday and is late enough that some need to worry about not being able to watch it completely. Besides, what would you take if you were a kid presented with a two-hour-long video archive with an unfamiliar name versus a ten-minute highlight reel with your favorite YouTuber?

So, what does that leave? Well, it leaves you and me. An increasingly aging demographic that might remember the "glory days" of Keighley grilling Reginald Fils-Aimé on GameTrailers about fan-perceived grievances or may recall his time on G4. Yet, we are the ones that have continually called on Keighley to rehaul the structure of his conferences and The Game Awards, so they avoid repeating the same pitfalls of previous years. All the same, nothing has changed. Instead, Keighley continues to dig in his heels as he prepares for a possible showdown with the ESA next year. However, if that is the case, I have to question if his Summer Game Fest is a platform for one rather than a platform for all. Increasingly, the person who benefits from throwing their hat into Keighley's arena is himself. Just some food for thought in the single percent chance he ever reads this blog, which I would discourage him from doing.

I always saw his productions as simply doing the E3 thing at a time when E3 wasn't doing it, being a person on a stage, getting other people on the stage, bringing celebrities for no reason, doing reveals, interviews, and whether the results were cringey or cool it didn't really matter.

I used to watch every E3 conference and presentation, i cherish my memories of Mr Caffeine and the Hoop Gawd, but increasingly i wanted to skip the fluff and just see what i was interested in, which was increasingly little, the fluff in Keighley's shows is as bad as it always was and sometimes worse, i'm thinking of the time they randomly stopped to give video game awards to unreleased games in between segments, for me it's just a waste of time and by the sounds of it i didn't miss anything at all by not watching this year.

The interesting content around these events has become the reactions afterwards, threads like this and the videos people put up on Youtube about the good, the bad, opinions on the industry, community reactions etc... Maybe Crowbcat will post something... I still want video game events to exist, i just don't really want to watch them :P.

Keighley's goal is to make money and be relevant in the gaming sphere. That is distinct from his intended audience but it's clearly what he wants to do. I'm not even criticizing him necessarily, but I think it's important to realize that at the end of the day this isn't some grand artistic passion project it's a business.

So who is the business targeting? The games companies. Companies know that if they get a game into a Keighley event it will be seen by lots of people and, more importantly, discussed by many more online. In your closing anecdote you say that a lot of your 6th graders didn't like the show but saw snippets of it that they liked or watched their favorite streamers discussing it or whatever. That's fine by Keighley because it's fine by the companies that sponsor the show and pay to be in it. If your goal is to hype or announce a gam you don't care if someone sees your trailer on a Keighley show or hears it discussed 2 days later on a Twitch stream. Your potential buyers still find out about the game and get hyped for it. Mission accomplished.

Because of that there will always be companies that want to do business here. Companies without enough to announce for their own streams and even companies that do have their own streams but want a broader audience.

If you're Sony and you want to appeal to Xbox and PC fans to try and get them to buy your console or even just some of your games on PC, you can't necessarily do that with your own stream. Those people won't watch it and may tune out any streams discussing it because they don't care. Keighley's event is a way to get them to pay attention to you. And because game companies put their premiers and information on the stream people will pay attention to Keighley's stream too. It's a symbiotic relationship.

So I don't really think E3 in any form poses a big problem for Keighley. He will keep doing what he's doing, companies will keep sponsoring it, and the audience will keep watching because they go where the info they want is, and even if they don't watch the whole stream it won't matter as long as it gets reported on.

The goal is to make money by promoting games and things are going well for him. I don't see why he'd change.

I've said it before: someone made fun of Geoff Keighley for liking video games when he was a kid. Combined with the fact that Keighley is absolutely fucking obsessed with celebrities knowing who he is and wanting to be their friend, we get a man who is desperate for video games to be taken seriously. He thinks that means celebrity cameos and musical segments and constant appeals about how big the industry is. Keighley is like those pre-movie ads for Coca-Cola. I've already passed the concession stand to get to my seat, and the only drink options available here are Coke products. He's advertising to an audience that's already bought in. He's preaching to the choir here. He treats his middle-aged audience like children who don't understand that they're being pandered to.

CONQUER THE WORLD!

Geoff Keighley, like I said before, is the Ryan Seacrest of the video game world. If you understand Seacrest, then you'll understand Keighley.

I think Knightley has an impossible task, sure less overt adverting of themselves could bring a greater audiences and thus more exposure. But tell that to Coca-Cola, VISA, Samsung, Airbnb, and McDonalds during the Olympics where they commenters cannot go ten word without mention some company.

The truth is when e3 was happening the 'voice' of the event were the media outlets -IGN, GameSpot, G4, and Giant Bomb. With Summer Game Fest, the voice of the show is Knightly, he is the show, and he IS beholden to the sponsors. Geoff is both hoast and mouth pieces of his own show unfiltered

Do not watch Summer Game Fats raw; it 100x less fun that the stage show by the console makers or publisher who are mostly beholden to just themselves.

Face it folks, watching Summer Game Fest unfiltered, is like Frodo Baggins standing in front of Barad-dûr (the Dark Tower) watching Sauron and Mouth of Sauron high-five each other over and over again.

Enjoy your gaming

I think the end goal is just to be another spot where video games can be slotted in. Even when there was a E3, even before the pandemic, the sort of "mainstay" press conferences were taking a reduced role in showcasing games. PlayStation paired down to just showing 4 games. Xbox was becoming more focused on showing games and studios acquired through acquisition or stuff coming to Game Pass on day one. I think that left a whole for some bigger 3rd party studios, who don't do E3 stage shows, but still need to show off their games somewhere. Seems like a hole Keighly could fill, even when E3 comes back.

Excellent writeup. This event was a weird anachronism amongst the backdrop of videogames today.

I think you underestimate the deliberate (and effective?) targeting of a certain demographic though.

What baffles me is how Keighley continually presents himself as an industry pioneer, and yet, the format and structure of his conferences follow THE EXACT TEMPLATE of the 360/PS3/Wii era of E3 conferences. No one is beating to the tune of this drum anymore, non-ironically, except Keighley.

This is deliberate. The event is targeted at people who can't accept that "HASHTAG BUILDING THE LIST" (2013, 9 years ago) is older now than "Giant Enemy Crab" (2006, 7 years before that, 16 years ago) was at the time. A cohort of weirdos who want to be told they are already in touch with games more than they want to be kept in touch.

As you mention in the last paragraph, it's mostly an aging cohort of video game fans who want to feel like they are on top of the biggest videogame industry news and announcements. They don't want to deal with obscure indie games, niche genres and arty stuff. But equally they want the biggest videogame announcements from 10-15 years ago, None of that Fortnite (A five year old game) crap!

Of course, it's not so much these viewers that the show is targeting. It's media outlets who also target this demographic. (Dare I say it, this is a large percentage of the Giantbomb audience and possibly a major target demographic.)

Couple this with companies that are big enough to benefit from a show like this but too small/ill-equipped to run it themselves. And a suite of a certain type of publisher whose entire market is selling access to gamepass/consoles to small devs. And thats more than enough to round out the show.

Keighley's seemingly genuine enthusiasm for brands and marketing is just a bonus that helps to sell a certain type of authenticity.

A pioneer, an innovator, i never saw that personally. Sure, he went head to head with the ESA, but it was not like he had a completely different vision on how new games should be revealed. We've seen so many Geoff Keighley shows throughout the years, even his own productions, that it's clear that there's no monkey up the sleeve. His shows are as cookie-cutter as you could think up.

You get ads, you get trailers, you get some celebs & studio-heads talk for 10 min. All on a flashy big stage. The viewnumbers point towards this old-skool way of doing things is still bringing in the numbers, even if a lot of the vocal ones don't seem to like the presentation. Next year, he'll still have some games to reveal and people will tune in once again. Geoff doesn't have to do strange Devolver acting extravaganza's as long as he gets a handful of game-reveals that people want to see. And if the viewers are with Keighley, game reveals will want to be there too.

Writing this post made me think of the most unusual show i've seen Geoff do, and that was probably that one event where he had Joel McHale as co-host and i think Odd Future was in some carpark and there were sofa's? You could just see Geoff be incredibly embarrassed and angry during that show, while the audience was mixed between 'what a shitshow' and 'omg i can't turn away from this, this is a very entertaining carcrash'. But if you were creating that thing, you'd probably feel like you should never do anything like that ever again and go back to the tried formula of showing some trailers that people might care about, getting funding for it through ads and weird razorblade-robots and keep the innovation aspect restricted to creating a island-background with a floating orb.

I mean his number one goal is money. He owns the production company putting on the Summer Games Fest and the GOTY Awards every year. He built up some credibility in the late 90s and early 00s and has steadily used it to sell himself to corporations that want his connection with 'gamers'.

And really if you're a smaller dev/publisher, or a larger one not looking to spend the money on a lengthy stream, then why not toss him a trailer and several thousands of dollars?

But as you point out it's inconsistent when it comes to Keighley. The pacing of the announcements blows and the corporate influence is grossly overt. When E3 finally went away I never thought I'd want it to return but Keighley being the arbiter of gaming announcements isn't an upgrade imo.

Keighley's made it plenty clear that his end goal is to "legitimize" gaming, in the vain, desperate, and deeply outdated way a teen might be pissed because his parents told him he can't play Halo all day. His line has been "legitimizing video games" since he was 14 with Cybermania, and I think his understanding of how to do that really was shaped by E3 and his time on the VGAs, which TGAs are mostly a toned-down extension of. That's why he's obsessed with celebrity cameos, "the big three", dubious auteur figures, appearing in movie theaters, and overtaking the Oscars, because they're big showy ambitions that maybe turn non-dedicated heads to go "oh this show is the one everyone's at" or "hear the Rock was on some video game thing?".

But more than that, Keighley obviously wants to elevate himself with it. He hosts the shows, does the behind the scenes work, and is the main force marketing it, so when the show succeeds he succeeds with it. Why wouldn't he be as shameless and desperate as possible when doing so gets him paid and puts his name in front of more people? And playing Good Buddies with the Rock, Kojima, Reggie, and all the other big video game names just furthers that. You don't get a hat of literally your own face in Among Us without wanting to make "Geoff Keighley" into a brand, and I think there's a world not-too-divorced from our own where kids run around in Fortnite as Geoff Keighley, and 20-somethings have Geoff Keighley Funko Pops tucked away on some shelf.

Agreed. Not to oversimplify, but I really think it's not much more complicated than that. Keighley made a bet that E3 was on its last legs and there would be a market to fill. Turns out he was right.

Everything else is so much marketing speak. I don't think what we've ended up with in Summer Games Fest is very different from E3 except in how Keighley has (quite shrewdly) chosen to portray the event.

ETA: "Shrewdly" in terms of how he markets himself to publishers, developers, and other marketers. As the whole existence of this thread proves, the difference doesn't matter much to consumers like us.

It does kind of shine a light on what an ESA fronted event brings to the table. Keigh3 and the PC Gamer show was littered with promotions. I think an in-person event would've had some of that consigned to booth space and swag. Still there but, if you're not there in person, it doesn't make its way into the presentations.

I largely agree with @franzlska. Keighley makes TV shows. It's what he's trained to do and what he's "good" at. That's why his shows are filled with ad spots and celebrity appearances, because that's what TV shows does. His goal has always been to establish the big televised show that legitimizes videogames to the public.

This isn’t to diminish how useful his shows are, because they clearly are, but from the jump it’s been about increasing his and his friends profiles so they make a lot of money. There’s a reason the celebrity fucking this year got on everyone’s nerves and the reason it’s not going to get better; the shows aren’t for you or me. It’s to increase a bunch of rich peoples profiles and to advertise to a mass audience.

Simple.

Very brave of you to preface 3,000 words on why you’re dissatisfied with the conference, with a paragraph stating that youre baffled by people being dissatisfied with these conferences for arbitrary reasons ZombiePie

He sees any opportunity, he's going for it. All power to him, I wound up liking the Game Awards broadcasts after working out many of the kinks.

We're all conditioned to see game stuff in June, so someone's gotta do it. Plenty of money to be made otherwise why would anyone put on events?

I hope that The Game Awards has its spot as awards and performances and big announcements, and summer stuff is more about games coming out in the holiday. Next step is to bring the public in, something E3 never really did.