During Thursday’s Game Awards, Geoff Keighley took the stage with one of his rare but practiced airs of sobriety. “Now the sad reality is, the past few years the gaming industry has suffered significant and unprecedented industry-wide layoffs,” he said. “Honestly as a show, we kind of struggle with how to address these topics in a constructive way.” Then he introduced a new award: “Game Changer,” which went to Amir Satvat, a biz dev director at Tencent, for his efforts to help laid-off game workers. The audience ate this up, giving Satvat a standing ovation. But online, a few observers couldn’t help but ask “What happened to the Future Class?”
The Future Class is an official Game Awards program that bills itself as honoring 50 "individuals around the world who represent the bright, bold, and inclusive future for video games” per year. Or at least, it was. This year, Keighley and company put the program on pause following a 2023 in which, among other things, Future Class members published an open letter urging Keighley to acknowledge Israel’s genocide of Palestinians in Gaza, which was signed by over 3,000 people. Keighley did not say anything about the letter before or during last year's show.
According to Game Developer, Keighley and Future Class organizer Emily Bouchac met with Future Class members in December 2023, with many expressing that they felt the program had underserved them in terms of travel, resources, funding, and networking opportunities. It seems like the Game Awards took the feedback to heart, building out a new networking program that connects members with industry peers and offering 2023 inductees free tickets and hotel rooms at this year’s show. But amid this apparent retooling, Keighley and Bouchac were conspicuously quiet about the prospect of a 2024 Future Class cohort. Ultimately, there wasn’t one.
"Leading up to the Game Awards we knew that the program had been put on pause following feedback from the last year after we had the big group call to discuss what with Geoff and the organizers what they could do to make it better,” presenter, writer, video producer, and Future Class member Mourad El-Dine Abdou told Aftermath. “I do genuinely believe Emily wants to make The Future Class something everyone can be proud of, and it is a huge task now that there's over 150 members in it around the world, so personally I'm glad that they're not trying to rush anything out just for the sake of ticking boxes and want to take their time making sure that they do this properly."
"I think for the program to work in a way that feels satisfying to the recipients and TGA itself, it would require a lot more resources than they’d be willing to commit," narrative designer and Future Class member Chris Kindred told Aftermath. "I’d say [not inducting new members for now] is better than having a growing stable of workers asking what we’re here for exactly."
It is unclear whether there will be a new Future Class cohort in 2025. “I don't believe [Keighley and Bouchac have announced anything],” said Abdou. “Truth be told, Geoff isn't very vocal or active in the Future Class Discord, but I'm hoping with the awards wrapped up that there might be some new information moving forward.”
"I think for the program to work in a way that feels satisfying to the recipients and TGA itself, it would require a lot more resources than they’d be willing to commit.
In the meantime, some in and around the industry worry that the Game Changer award could function as a sort of replacement – a means by which The Game Awards can continue to bolster its reputation while avoiding long, sometimes unflattering stares into a mirror of its own making.
"Winner [Satvat] seems like a nice dude," said former Kotaku staffer and current freelance writer Willa Rowe, "but it’s hard not to see how Geoff could think it’s easier to control one person’s message than the message of multiple years Future Class members."
Others have raised an eyebrow at this year’s choice of honoree, whose efforts do not strike them as entirely altruistic.
"Amir is positioning himself as some sort of expert, some sort of #1 Google search result for 'games jobs resources' that provides 'exclusive perks' and funnels viewers to other people's blogs – most of whom charge for paid speaking gigs, coaching, and 'career optimization,'" said YouTube video essayist Moriarty.
"TGA also positioned Amir as some guy who just felt really bad for everyone, some fan of games who saw this tragedy and felt a need to do something to address it, and while yeah he's being paraded in front of the people who fired everyone, he's at least doing something,” Moriarty continued, “except Amir is (surprise) part of the same crowd. Amir finds game companies for Tencent to acquire, after coming from Amazon Games. ... He's not some random guy, he's part of a [multibillion dollar] multinational supercorporation."
(Update 12/18/24: In a LinkedIn post addressing controversy around his selection for the Game Changer award, as well as a bunch of unwarranted conspiracy theories and harassment stemming from it, Satvat clarified that he does not work in mergers and acquisitions at Tencent – only investment. Investment can lead to ownership, as it did in the case of Tencent's purchase of Riot Games, but does not always. Tencent has over 600 investments in its portfolio, which include major video game companies like Epic, Ubisoft, Larian, and Remedy.)
In that sense, Satvat is just about the most appropriate first pick for this distinction imaginable. He did a good thing, but in a corporate-friendly, non-boat-rocking way – while working for some of the industry’s largest, most powerful companies. This is (and probably always will be) the conflict at the heart of The Game Awards: Keighley badly wants to be recognized for doing good, but he is keenly aware of which masters he serves. He has to be; otherwise the access and sponsorships dry up. You cannot act as an agent of change when your very existence is a product of the status quo.
"I really hope that the Game Changer isn't a replacement for Future Class, because Future Class has built an amazing community the last few years of under-represented people who can connect, network, and have a direct link to The Game Awards to try and make the industry a better place,” said Abdou. “I'll be extremely disappointed if Future Class is discontinued as I think both these programs are extremely special and can work to really make an impact in the games industry."
This is not to say that the show hasn’t made progress. Larian’s Swen Vincke – admittedly the CEO of what has become a large and influential company – strode into the Game Awards spotlight wearing a ceasefire pin and delivered a speech critical of his peers. Beginning with the conceit that “an oracle” told him which games will take home GOTY in the future, he said:
“Game of the year 2025 is going to be made by a studio who found the formula to make it up here on stage. It's stupidly simple, but somehow it keeps on getting lost. A studio makes a game because they want to make a game they want to play themselves. They created it because it hadn't been created before. They didn't make it to increase market share. They didn't make it to serve the brand. They didn't have to meet arbitrary sales targets, or fear being laid off if they didn't meet those targets. … They understood the value of respect, that if they treated their developers and players well, the same developers and players would forgive them when things didn't go as planned. But above all they cared about their games, because they love games. It's really that simple."
