The Game Awards 2023 |

[DeoGame (Farewell)]

@bof

Last year, TGA 2022 had something like 103 millions viewers, which is certainly 10 times more than what Xbox can hope to achieve with its own events.

With Over 92 Million Views, Fans Made This the Most-Watched Xbox Show Ever -...

I mean… they really aren’t that far off for showcase. And frankly anything that’d play well at TGAs would play well at Showcase.

Now, there are strategic considerations at play here.

With the TGAs, you have folks that are out of market. With Showcase, you have more market qualified eyes. I’d argue MS is very cogniscent of this. If you look at their big TGA reveals in the past few years, they have been a sequel to a former PS Exclusive that falls within the genre PS fans like, a revival of a legacy Nintendo-64 Era Series and a new console. These are the sorts of ads that benefit from a wider demographic.

Showcase, for example, is also free. While I’d argue Keighley has been decently good about the slots TGAs provide for Xbox titles (possibly in part because of what MS pays), MS has expressed frustration at the webcast in the past. Things like the muting of the audience or reveals not being set up the way they like. With Showcase, Xbox has control over every facet of the production. If they want megacheers they can livefeed in audio from a Brazilian soccer match if they really want. They can control everything from changing their stage to “hacking the show” to starting cold on a blank screen and having Richard Ayeode talk about sandwiches before trumpets proclaim Fable is coming.

Another important consideration. Showcase is “free”, TGAs isn’t. MS can, if they really wanted and had the means, projectile vomit info at a clip nobody’s seen. Do a Starfield direct sized reveal for every game. With the TGAs, you need to buy slots. The bigger and more prestigious the slots, the more money it costs.

So, with this being the case, why fucking bother attending when you can make an arguably wiser decision financially on your own. Well, because there are optics for not showing as well. This is a celebration night for the industry, and as much as the San Francisco Cabal likes to piss in our cornflakes, the Xbox Community is every bit a part of the industry. Like us or not. And so having big reveals helps reinforce current Xbox owners, turn heads and interest new eyes.

All of this is a very long-winded way of saying, Xbox can achieve similar TGA results in a more cost effective manner, so they need to be (and often are) more strategic in how they allocate assets for these third party shows. But make no mistake, they are by no means beholden to it, and if they truly wanted, they can and have survived and thrived without them.

Now I truly do hope they show up meaningfully this year. Selfishly, I want them to show up big, but with the arguable disrespect in the noms this year, I think they can do a lot with a little bit and save a few extra goodies to bump their E3 even higher.

[bof]

@pip-boy3000 @DeoGame

we’re delighted to say that, within seven days of the broadcast, we saw over 92 million views across our first ever double feature, trailers, and segments from the shows – a 38% rise in viewership over last year’s show

They obviously added up all the views of all the trailers and all the segments of the show over the seven days following it to arrive at this figure (already impressive, we agree).

The TGA 2022 accounted for 103 million live views, which is quite different.

[pip-boy3000]

@bof

@pip-boy3000 @DeoGame

we’re delighted to say that, within seven days of the broadcast, we saw over 92 million views across our first ever double feature, trailers, and segments from the shows – a 38% rise in viewership over last year’s show

They obviously added up all the views of all the trailers and all the segments of the show over the seven days following it to arrive at this figure (already impressive, we agree).

The TGA 2022 accounted for 103 million live views, which is quite different.

What does 103 million live streams mean though? If you count Twitch and Youtube there were 3 million concurrent viewers. I don’t know how many viewers total that is but it’s not 103 million. That would make it bigger than the Super Bowl. Celebrities and Advertisers would be falling over themselves to appear here

I’m sure TGA’s has more total viewers than an Xbox showcase but I doubt it reaches significantly more people, whether that’s live or watching trailers later. Still, I think Xbox should have some presence there

[Freed]

@pip-boy3000

What does 103 million live streams mean though? If you count Twitch and Youtube there were 3 million concurrent viewers. I don’t know how many viewers total that is but it’s not 103 million. That would make it bigger than the Super Bowl. Celebrities and Advertisers would be falling over themselves to appear here

I’m sure TGA’s has more total viewers than an Xbox showcase but I doubt it reaches significantly more people, whether that’s live or watching trailers later. Still, I think Xbox should have some presence there

Yeah I don’t know how they’d reach 103m LIVE, those are like football/soccer main event numbers, Oscars by comparison get like 20m, so I don’t know how they count it exactly.

[bof]

I am quoting from their press release:

Thanks to its free, no friction approach to global distribution, The Game Awards delivered over 103 million livestreams across more than 30 digital networks, including YouTube (in 4K), Twitch (with Viewer Rewards), Twitter, Facebook, TikTok Live, Instagram and Steam, as well as on more than a dozen digital platforms in China and Disney+Hotstar and other networks in India. The Game Awards: The IMAX Experience also aired live in over 40 IMAX theaters across the US, Canada, U.K. and Asia. In addition, more than 10,000 individual content creators and online influencers co-streamed the show to their audiences.

[pg2g]

“However, it’s important to note the metric The Game Awards is using to report viewership. Livestreams is equivalent to plays, not average viewers/AMA. This choice was likely used to better aggregate the data, but it should not be used to draw direct comparisons to TV programs which report average viewers.”

[nursegamer20]

Who cares honestly, the casual gamers don’t care about the game awards, they would rather play COD or Minecraft or mobile games. We often overestimate how big the hardcore community is when in reality, the casual gamers who just play like two games in their lives outnumber us greatly.

[bof]

Thank you for the clarification.

Be that as it may, the Game Awards are a very popular event that reaches a more general audience than the Xbox shows (where the audience is already largely committed to the cause). I think Microsoft should be there every year with at least one big announcement or trailer.

[Joe_Sinister1 (Joe_Sinister)]

@nursegamer20

Who cares honestly, the casual gamers don’t care about the game awards, they would rather play COD or Minecraft or mobile games. We often overestimate how big the hardcore community is when in reality, the casual gamers who just play like two games in their lives outnumber us greatly.

Even the more hardcore of the gaming community watches the Dorito Pope show for the trailers and not the awards.

[Freed]

@bof

Thank you for the clarification.

Be that as it may, the Game Awards are a very popular event that reaches a more general audience than the Xbox shows (where the audience is already largely committed to the cause). I think Microsoft should be there every year with at least one big announcement or trailer.

Of course it’s much bigger than anything Xbox could do or any other platform specific show, I question people who question that, and yeah Xbox should be there as it’s a big marketing opportunity industrywide. But doesn’t mean we can’t question those numbers/claims, it’s really made out to be like some global main event that everyone would be talking about, and it’s just not that really, and it doesn’t even have to be.

For one the timing of the show is actually just extremely suboptimal, it’s set much more to accommodate north American audience times than anything else.

[Shadowgasm]

The game award audience is an audience made up of fans of every Platform, not just Xbox. Regardless of how I feel about the show, MS is smart to show/reveal things there. If they can convince some people who do not follow Xbox in any way, shape or form to start thinking they might need to buy an Xbox or subscribe to Gamepass on PC, then mission accomplished.

And that’s precisely why Phil and Xbox will continue to play nice with Geoff and his bullshit show. It’s free advertising.

[Failwood]

@Freed

Of course it’s much bigger than anything Xbox could do or any other platform specific show, I question people who question that, and yeah Xbox should be there as it’s a big marketing opportunity industrywide. But doesn’t mean we can’t question those numbers/claims, it’s really made out to be like some global main event that everyone would be talking about, and it’s just not that really, and it doesn’t even have to be.

For one the timing of the show is actually just extremely suboptimal, it’s set much more to accommodate north American audience times than anything else.

Yup, nobody really cares much about the Keighleys in Europe due to it always being shown at midnight on a weekday.

[Staffy]

He’s been kinda quiet when it comes to hyping the show up. But then again, we’re still in November. I wonder if there are some really cool game reveals. It’s the only reason I bother with this shit anyway.

If the GTA 6 trailer is not before the TGAs, then it will be during the show and I’m sure Geoff will make sure to find a way to tease that and get many people to watch it live.

I still won’t though.

[Good_Old_Collingwood]

@Staffy

If the GTA 6 trailer is not before the TGAs, then it will be during the show and I’m sure Geoff will make sure to find a way to tease that and get many people to watch it live.

There’s a very good argument that it won’t be at the show at all. If it is, then the trailer itself will overshadow anything else in the show. The talking point will be GTA 6, not TGA. Also, you have to pay to put things in the TGA, why would Rockstar want to do that, when they can release the trailer online, get the same reaction, for free?

[Staffy]

@Good_Old_Collingwood

There’s a very good argument that it won’t be at the show at all. If it is, then the trailer itself will overshadow anything else in the show. The talking point will be GTA 6, not TGA. Also, you have to pay to put things in the TGA, why would Rockstar want to do that, when they can release the trailer online, get the same reaction, for free?

Yep, those are some good points. The trailer probably will drop in the first week of December.

[Good_Old_Collingwood]

@Staffy

Yep, those are some good points. The trailer probably will drop in the first week of December.

ANd you still don’t have to watch the TGA’s

[nrXic]

@Staffy

I still won’t though.

Are you against the idea of watching a reaction stream?

[Zip]

@nrXic

Are you against the idea of watching a reaction stream?

I do think that somehow they’re able to count the viewers of those towards the totals that get reported, so if someone doesn’t want to contribute to his numbers I’d probably just wait and watch individual trailers for things later.

[Staffy]

@nrXic

Are you against the idea of watching a reaction stream?

It’s about the time it airs for me. In the past I’ve stayed up for those shows, also the Sony E3 shows and after the show I was over my sleep, I couldn’t sleep anymore. That’s not worth it. TGA ends around 6 in the morning for me, that ain’t it!

Next day I can watch it and fast forward if speeches take too long like last year, lol and other cringe stuff.

[Hue]

@Staffy

It’s about the time it airs for me. In the past I’ve stayed up for those shows, also the Sony E3 shows and after the show I was over my sleep, I couldn’t sleep anymore. That’s not worth it. TGA ends around 6 in the morning for me, that ain’t it!

Next day I can watch it and fast forward if speeches take too long like last year, lol and other cringe stuff.

For me it’s all the filler, 90% of the show is usually completely irrelevant. I think I’ll wait for the highlights/trailers afterwards.