The Game Awards will be shorter this year

Gaming’s biggest night is traditionally quite lengthy, but 2022 will apparently buck the trend with fewer big announcements and a shorter runtime

The biggest video games award show of the year is going to be a little bit shorter this year when it airs this Friday, with fewer big games on show and a shorter runtime overall.

In a Twitter Space ahead of The Game Awards rehearsals, creator and host Geoff Keighley said that the 2022 Game Awards will be “significantly shorter” than previous years, which have tended to run on the longer side of things. Keighley says that there’ll be “fewer bigger games”, but that it’s still “a really good line-up” (thanks, TheGamer!).

“We think there’s been a little bit of fatigue about how long the show has been,” Keighley said, “There are lots of games and lots of things that want to be a part of it, but we’re cutting back on those things to hopefully have a bit more of a streamlined show”.

Keighley also said that there’ll be a great deal of variety in the announcements shown, having recently said in a Reddit AMA (ask me anything) that there’s 30-40 games showing new content. Some of this will come from bigger studios, and some will be announcements for smaller games from independent studios.

Elden Ring is nominated for a whopping ten categories in this year’s The Game Awards. Picture: Bandai Namco

“We’ve got a lot of small, independent studios and bigger studios showing games,” he said in the Twitter Space, “the industry is so big now I don’t think it’s all dependent on ‘we’ve got to have this one game or it’s not worth doing’”.

Previous The Game Awards shows have run well over three hours, with the 2021 Game Awards running for 3 hours and 42 minutes, and the 2020 show running for 3 hours and 20 minutes. The Game Awards website lists the event as running for three hours, but given what Keighley’s been saying, it seems like that may just be a generous estimate to account for any speeches that run a little long or any technical difficulties that may pop up.

Keep a close eye on the Best Indie category, where Aussie-made Cult of the Lamb stands a good chance of winning. Picture: Devolver Digital

Nominations were revealed for the 2022 Game Awards last month, with dozens of games and industry professionals eligible to win awards from over 30 different categories. One category to watch is the Best Indie award, which Melbourne-made Cult of the Lamb is nominated for and has a good chance of winning.

The Aussie game recently won a coveted Golden Joystick award, widely considered to be one of the most prestigious awards in the industry. Cult of the Lamb took home the Best Indie Game award, duking it out against games like Tunic, Neon White, and Teardown.

Written by Oliver Brandt on behalf of GLHF.