Geoff Kegley briefly, and barely, after failing to do so for months, recently addressed the historic number of layoffs that have hit the video game industry already this year. But before I could even give the guy some credit for doing the bare minimum, he turned around and started advertising his next big video game event, which clearly showed that he finally got the hang of tweeting about layoffs. Why did you decide?
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I don’t need to explain who Geoff Kegley is in 2024. If you are reading Kotaku Or any other gaming news website, you know. For better or worse, he has become the unofficial spokesperson for the video game industry. Keighley’s annual events often feature major announcements of new games from developers small and large. Whenever he is given the chance he loves to talk about how great gaming is, which is more than any person is capable of.
Yet, Keighley appears unwilling or unable to address any serious problems in the video game industry. Recently, Keighley angered many when he promoted an AI-powered scent machine on Twitter amid devastating developer layoffs.
I have no problem with people posting ridiculous nonsense and advertising weird things all they want. It was the fact that he decided to tweet about AI scent machines at the worst possible time. He said nothing about people’s lives being ruined by greedy officials just to inflate numbers and make a few rich people even richer. He was rightfully called out for this terrible mistake and subsequently tweeted big, general news about mostly video games.
Keighley finally talk about layoffs
But then, something happened! On March 12, at approximately 10 p.m. EST, Keighley actually tweeted about the layoffs Happening in the video game industry. Actually, he posted two tweets about this!
I was happy to see him say this Anything There are more than 8,000 layoffs affecting the sports industry this year alone. However, approximately 13 hours later, on March 13, Keighley tweets about Summer Games Fest 2024, announcing dates and times for upcoming showcases. This happened at the same time as press releases were sent out and outlets included KotakuStarted covering the news.
“Ah,” I thought to myself, “So that’s why you tweeted about layoffs last night.”
When I first saw his layoff tweets, I thought they were pretty weak. No company, executive or reasons for why the layoffs were taking place were not directly discussed. He just mentioned “heartbreaking times” for developers and hinted at promoting a website that has some resources for finding jobs in the games industry. It felt very calculated.
Tweets felt like his way barely Recognizing that layoffs are a bad thing, he relies on larger exclusive trailers while avoiding the risk of souring his relationships with publishers. And the tweet made it clear that making games is great, in fact, here’s a link back to the industry. what’s wrong with it? Why are so many people being laid off again and again? do not worry about that! Back to my work making shiny toys to sell!
At that time, I didn’t say anything because I wanted to give him the benefit of the doubt. Perhaps he will say something else. Maybe he’ll do more. These tweets weren’t great, but considering how bad the layoffs in 2024 were, even at a slow pace, the head of gaming was something worth celebrating. This could be just the beginning and could help move the conversation forward and make it a bigger, more public issue.
No! It’s not like that. Instead, it was apparently just him addressing the elephant in the room, so he didn’t look too terrible when he announced his big new gaming event in less than a day.
And so here we are. Keighley was able to do the bare minimum and use it as a smokescreen while he talked all about more trailers for more games made by people who were overworked, underpaid, and facing endless layoffs. Was preparing to excite. Last night, after those truncated tweets, I wondered if he would address the issue directly during his next show. Now, I know: Don’t bet on it.
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