Some youngsters develop up writing letters to Santa. At 12, Geoff Keighley was writing letters to sport builders from his residence in Toronto.
Keighley’s mother and father labored in the movie business and have been each members of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. With the Oscars, Keighley noticed that movie administrators and producers weren’t solely celebrated, but in addition had their tales advised. It was stunning, then, that online game builders — who created intricate interactive worlds — remained largely nameless.
“It’s always driven me,” Keighley stated. “How do we recognize these people?” In 2014, Keighley created the Game Awards, which the New York Times has referred to as the “Oscars of gaming.”
After a rift with the ESA, the business group that organizes and hosts the Electronic Entertainment Expo, or E3 — the closest analog to this week’s occasion — Keighley went solo, producing the Summer Game Fest. Since then, E3 has had a patchy file, canceling some occasions outright and going digital-only for others, and Keighley’s Summer Game Fest has eagerly crammed the void.