The Game Awards Future Class inductees reckon their advocacy might be being “punished” as programme is “left by the wayside”

Last week, Game Developer reported that the organisers of Geoff Keighley-fronted industry awards show/advertising extravaganza The Game Awards had revealed that they’ve got no plans to do anything with their Future Class initiative this year. That’s left the programme, founded in 2020 with the goal of highlighting up and coming talents in and around game development, facing a black hole of a future. Even worse, those featured by the initiative during the years it did run have been left feeling frustrated and unable to access the webpage which confirms they were ever part of the programme.

A number of developers featured by the Future Class initiative and who remain part of its dedicated Discord server have now spoken to The Guardian about how the programme’s fate’s left them feeling. They’ve also documented some back-and-forths between themselves and The Game Awards’ organisers, including face of the games man Geoff Keighley, over improvements the members wished to see made to the programme and a desire for the 2023 edition of the show to acknowledge Israel’s ongoing genocide against Palestinians in Gaza.

The former push was reportedly rooted in negative experiences nominees in the early years of the Future Class had when attending the show. “We were effectively props,” game producer and 2020 class member Dianna Lora said, with examples like a Starbucks meetup which the members felt sidelined them, seats for the main show being camped behind camera risers that obstructed views, and mentorship programmes over the following year being limited to brief Zoom chats with industry figures.

While that advocacy has resulted in generally more positive experiences for more recent nominees according to the report, members’ efforts to convince Keighley and co to read out a statement during 2023’s Game Awards expressing support for Palestine and calling for a ceasefire in Gaza resulted in their open letter being ignored. Keighley, who didn’t respond to The Guardian’s request for comment (I’ve also reached out), is alleged by one of the members to have sat looking “incensed” during a subsequent call in which some members recommended the awards ceremony feature the likes of more female presenters and acknowledge that year’s mass developer layoffs.

Many members have been left frustrated, especially after the Future Class archive of inductees was removed from The Game Awards’ site, while some have also been left questioning whether their efforts to advocate for improvements to the programme and acknowledgement of key issues might have contributed to the initiative being left in limbo. “Ever since [we pushed back] it was like, ‘This is too much trouble, might as well peace out’,” Lora said, while community manager Natalie Checo added: “As a result of advocating for ourselves (the very thing that we were inducted for), we were punished for doing the same thing that they ostensibly celebrated us for.”

A silver lining to the situation is that the members have apparently stuck together as a Discord community and continue to do so. So, as flawed and cynical as The Game Awards’ Future Class has reportedly been, at least it’s seemingly helped bring some like-minded folks with noble goals together.