The Game Awards Is Moving Away from “World Premiere” Cards

If you’ve watched The Game Awards in recent years, you’ve undoubtedly heard the booming “World Premiere” callout before new trailers, first looks, and other announcements shared during these events between awards being given out. That phrase combined with a title card of sorts that says the same thing are meant to signify when something’s a big deal worth paying attention to, but over the past few years, they’ve become a staple part of The Game Awards associated with pretty much all of the announcements, and the World Premiere callouts have even made their way into Summer Game Fest, too, since both are organized by Geoff Keighley.

This year, however, we won’t be hearing as many of those (if any) during The Game Awards 2023. Keighley said as much this week in a preview for the big December event where he answered questions from those planning on watching the event. One fan asked how many World Premieres we’d see at the show, a question which eventually led to an explanation as to why The Game Awards is moving way from World Premieres in the first place. 

The Game Awards Ditches “World Premiere” Callouts

To be clear, The Game Awards will still have its big announcements even if you don’t hear “World Premiere” before them — it’s just that callout specifically that’s being done away with or at least scaled back on. Some of the things shown off during The Game Awards truly are brand new reveals for games people haven’t yet seen while other premieres are more like new or repurposed trailers for games people already knew about, so the degree of just how much a World Premiere something is varies greatly despite them all carrying the same callout.

“We often put up those cards: ‘World Premiere, World Premiere.’ And we’re kind of moving away from that just ’cause I think everything’s kind of just ‘Is it a first look? Is it an announcement?’ etc. etc.,” he said. “So, we just treat it all as great game content.”

As for the original question the viewer asked regarding how many World Premieres there would be at this years event and whether or not that number would be comparable to last year’s show, Keighley refrained from putting an exact number on the tally of reveals but said that the amount should be comparable to what we’ve seen previously. 

Other Game Awards Changes

In other answers shared with viewers, Keighley talked about some additional changes either in the works or considered for The Game Awards. Some people asked whether or not it made sense to have more categories for certain topics like “Best Supporting Actor” or “Best Remake.” Both have been considered, Keighley said, but there are no plans to have them included in this year’s show.

For those who have watched some of Keighley’s recent events, you’ll recall more than one incident where attendees showed up on stage unexpectedly. Security’s being tightened to prevent things like that from happening again this year, though specifics weren’t talked about for obvious reasons.