The Game Awards 2023 is making some big changes—including beefing up security

Ahead of The Game Awards 2023 next week, organizer and host Geoff Keighley has promised that security will be much tighter to prevent any stage invasions.

Keighley addressed this on Nov. 26 during a Q&A livestream on Twitch (transcribed by VGC), although he refrained from going into explicit details. Obviously, this is so anyone thinking of jumping the stage during the event won’t know what the new security measures are.

“We definitely have plans and we’re trying to do all we can to keep me safe, but also everyone watching the show, the audience, people participating in the show and everything. It’s certainly something we’re thinking about. We appreciate the concern,” explained Keighley.

This is clearly in response to safety concerns after last year’s show. After Elden Ring won Game of the Year, director Hidetaka Miyazaki and his team took to the stage to deliver speeches, only to be disrupted by a 15-year-old child who just spoke some nonsense about Bill Clinton.

A similar incident occurred during Gamescom Opening Night Live this past August, which Keighley also hosted. Within seconds of the show starting, a man jumped the stage and attempted to take the microphone just to ask about Grand Theft Auto 6.

Given how easily both culprits were able to access the stage, these incidents sparked concerns about the security measures of these events and requests for things to be improved. While both incidents proved harmless and were more annoying than anything, the safety of attendants on and off stage was ultimately at risk. Imagine how disastrous things would’ve been had someone with more harmful intentions managed to slip past security.

It’s good to hear Keighley acknowledge this and promise tighter security for the next event. However, we won’t know for certain how effective these new measures will be until The Game Awards itself, which takes place on Dec. 7.

Elsewhere in the Q&A, Keighley said that this year’s show should be similar to last year’s in length and amount of content, telling fans to expect something “a little bit shorter.” He also explained how you won’t be seeing any of the classic world premiere cards pop up this time, with the branding effectively being ditched.

“You’ll see this year, we often put up those cards, ‘world premiere, world premiere’… we’re kind of moving away from that, just because everything’s kind of, ‘is it a first look? Is it an announcement?’ etc. So we just treat it all as great game content,” said Keighley.