Video game awards shows are few and usually unnoticed
When a video game captures an award, does anybody really notice?
The answer was made painfully obvious last month at the game industry’s equivalent of the Oscars. “A lot of big names,” the show host Jay Mohr said as he scanned the room, “are not here tonight.”
The line, thrown out at the opening of the Interactive Achievement Awards, got a chuckle from a crowd of several hundred of the industry’s top game developers, who were used to toiling in relative obscurity.
Game sales, at more than $45 billion a year globally, have far eclipsed movie box office receipts, according to PricewaterhouseCoopers. But when it comes to awards, there’s just no contest. The industry counts at least four key annual award shows -- two of them televised. Most people, however, have never heard of them. And though retailers make polite note of these awards, many don’t build marketing campaigns around them the way they do for the Grammys or the Oscars.
“It would be pretty hard to say that these awards have a dramatic impact on sales,” said Geoff Keighley, who has produced game award shows since 1994. “Consumers generally don’t understand any of these awards.”
Part of the reason why games don’t get much respect is their dearth of star power. BioShock, for example, was one of the most critically acclaimed games of 2007, winning the Spike TV Best Game of the Year, among others. But when writer and lead designer Ken Levine tried to take the backstage elevator to the Spike TV awards, a guard stopped him, saying, “Sorry, talent only.”
“I don’t have celebrities,” said Joseph Olin, president of the Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences, which each year in Las Vegas presents the Interactive Achievement Awards, also known as the Design Innovate Create Entertain, or DICE, Awards. “What I have are honest craftspeople.”
Another reason game awards rarely move the needle with the public is their timing. Because games typically reap 80% of their lifetime sales within the first four weeks of their debut, awards can provide a significant boost only if they’re granted ahead of time. But with the exception of the E3 Game Critics Awards, most awards are given well after games hit store shelves.
“The E3 awards can be useful in generating excitement with core buyers,” said Russell Arons, senior vice president of worldwide marketing for Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment, whose wordplay game Scribblenauts took two trophies from last year’s E3 prizes. “The later awards are a wonderful accomplishment for us, but they don’t necessarily boost sales.”
Industry honchos, aware of this problem, are working to change the country mouse status of game awards. Olin, for example, has been working with GameStop Corp.’s stores for the last two years to call out the award winners, either with a sticker on the game boxes or on the retailer’s website.
Still not sure how the game awards stack up? Here is a score sheet of the industry’s four biggest trophies.
DICE Awards
Given for 27 game categories such as sports, action and strategy, the DICE Awards are voted on by about 400 game developers. It is also considered to be one of the industry’s most prestigious prizes.
“It’s a pure reflection of how your peers feel about you,” said Amy Hennig, creative director of Naughty Dog Studios, whose game, Uncharted 2, swept the awards in February. “When your colleagues say, ‘Good job,’ nothing beats that.”
The catch: Only members of the Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences can submit their games.
Game Developers Choice Awards
These highly coveted awards, also judged by professional game creators, are granted each spring during the Game Developers Conference. Whereas DICE veers toward a game’s overall aesthetics, these awards focus more on technical merits.
E3 Game Critics Awards
In the video game world, there’s an inverse correlation between the substantiveness of the awards and their effect on sales. The E3 Game Critics Awards are voted on by about 30 journalists who sample short snippets of titles still in the works at the Electronic Entertainment Expo each summer, where companies show previews of upcoming titles. Though the prizes are given based on superficial assessments, they still carry big weight, because publishers can use the awards to market their games to retailers.
Spike TV Video Game Awards
MTV’s Spike awards, also voted on by a group of journalists as well as consumers, provide a potential sales boost since they are televised in December, when most shoppers are looking to buy games. To give the show sizzle, Spike TV sprinkles Hollywood celebrities, such as Jake Gyllenhaal and Jack Black, alongside game programmers.
