The bombshell announcement made by The Game Awards drew a lot of attention in the gaming community and then the question arose of what else could be said after that announcement? To be frank, the buzz was not positive though. The company announced that everyone who watches the live show on Bilibili in China will get to win a PS5 Pro, and to make it even better, one will be given away every ten minutes. Every ten minutes! That is an astronomical number of consoles actually. The only problem is that the viewers in China only will be the ones to take part. Thus, the gamers from the rest of the world are kind of feeling excluded.
The Game Awards had to clarify everything through their official tweet and also guided the followers to more information. But immediately right from the start, the immediate response in the replies was nothing but a huge wave of confusion along with absolute rage. One of the earliest replies was very indicative of the mood, with a user asking, ‘Only in China?’ The very same question was repeated by millions of followers. Gamers from Brazil, Europe, and other locations were flooding the comments section asking whether their regions were eligible for participation. Spoiler alert: likely the answer is a tough no.
The decision of The Game Awards and its host, Geoff Keighley, to cater to China, which has the world’s largest gaming market, was interpreted by many gaming industry insiders as a very clear marketing move. Bilibili is an extremely widely used streaming site there, similar in some respects to a combination of Twitch and YouTube. Collaborating with them makes perfect business sense, but the bad part is that the partnership comes at the cost of the global community audience, which has been the reason for the event’s success. One gamer very openly expressed it, calling it a ‘scum move.’ Another, e.g. ‘me activating my vpn,’ with a GIF, illustrated through humor how easy it is for people to have already found the workaround.
The criticism has not so much dulled as it has sharpened further. One user was very clear and direct, holding that ‘PS5 Pro every 10 min is not generosity, it is retention engineering. They turned an award show into a live service loot box.’ Ouch! That is a very brutal yet accurate observation. It alters the whole narrative around the giveaway from something meant for fans to a careful plan to keep viewership high in a certain geography. It no longer sounds like a party but rather like a business deal.
And then the jokes came as no surprise, the internet being the internet and all. Someone tagged God of War actor Christopher Judge, who is famous for his long yet heartwarming acceptance speech last year, and wrote, ‘Rumor has it Christopher Judge has already started penning a 10+ minute speech again.’ This is a funny reference to last year’s moment but also highlights the fact that showing is shifting from the awards to the show and the side deals.
The regional frustration is plain to see. An EU player remarked, ‘Are there any sweepstakes for EU viewers? We get screwed both by time and no giveaways.’ That is a double whammy—the show is on at the wrong times for Europeans most of the time, and now they have lost a huge incentive that was not even available to them. One more asked Geoff directly, ‘What about your western audience, Geoff? Give us a steam deck!’ The attitude is very clear: this deal feels like a slight.
Some posts had a darker, more cynical tone. One user accused, ‘Is Jeff selling his ass to the Chinese? Nothing new,’ while another comment went on to simply label the choice as ‘kinda racist.’ Whether one agrees with such strong words or not, it still reflects the perceived partiality. The discussion even turned conspiratorial with one reply hinting that Chinese gaming giant Tencent, which has a stake in almost everything, may have people influencing the judges’ decisions. It is a very messy and complicated reaction that goes way beyond just wanting a free console.
But wait, what was I saying? Oh, right, the scale of the giveaway. A PS5 Pro every ten minutes is simply mind-blowing. If the show goes on for three hours, for example, that makes it a total of eighteen consoles. Now that is really a crazy number. One user commented, ‘Now we know for sure why the console sales just keep rising lol,’ implying the giveaway could actually be a stealth tactic to pump up Sony’s sales figures in a crucial market. It all depends on how one views it and numbers, and this deal is generating a lot of both—just not the all-positive kind The Game Awards might have wished for.
Even with all the negativity, there were still a few positive notes that got lost in the shuffle. One user was very grateful to Bilibili’s game publishing division, saying ‘F.I.S.T was great…and TYVM for ZOOp’. This positive community feedback highlights the complex relationship gamers have with these platforms. Meanwhile, the intense competition for awards like Best Action Game shows how passionate the Xbox and PlayStation communities can be.
