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The Games Awards is the largest video games awards ceremony of the year in large part because it’s full of new game announcements, but the industry takes the awards seriously as well. This year, with Hideo Kojima’s Death Stranding nominated for a number of awards including Game of the Year, viewers are openly wondering whether or not that’s related to The Game Awards producer Geoff Keighley’s very public relationship with Kojima. Keighley says he doesn’t nominate or vote on awards, but there are plenty of questions here.Death Stranding released earlier this month to a split critical reception. In my review for Kotaku, I called it a “fantastic mess.” Meanwhile, IGN gave the game a 6.8 out of 10. It’s a divisive game with plenty of detractors among the broader gaming audience. But it’s also a high budget game made by one of the world’s most well-known directors, which would typically prime it for awards season. Sure enough, it has been nominated for seven awards this year including Game of the Year and Best Game Direction. These nominations, received so soon after release, have drawn some attention as show producer Geoff Keighley has been a friend of Kojima’s for years, talking about him on Twitter and bringing him on stage at various events, including previous iterations of The Game Awards. Keighley even appears as a non-player character in Death Stranding.This appearance of impropriety has led to questions from critics and fans. In a large thread on the popular message board ResetEra asking whether it was appropriate for Death Stranding to rack up so many awards, conversations got heated. Keighley also spent some time on Twitter explaining to questioners that he did not himself vote on the awards.The public friendship between Keighley and Kojima kicked off in 2015. Early that year, reports circulated that Kojima would be parting ways with Konami, although the specific nature of his status with the company remained opaque. By the end of the year, it was clear that the relationship between Kojima and Konami had been shattered. When Kojima’s newest game, Metal Gear Solid V: the Phantom Pain, won the best action/adventure game award at the Game Awards on December 3rd, Kiefer Sutherland, the voice of protagonist Big Boss, accepted the award on Kojima’s behalf. Keighley took to the stage and in an impassioned speech that went viral immediately afterward, said Konami had not allowed Kojima to attend the awards.It was a public black eye for Konami, who were seen as largely responsible for Metal Gear Solid V’s many flaws and the cancellation of Kojima’s other announced game, Silent Hills. On December 15th, Kojima announced that he was turning his development company Kojima Productions into an independent enterprise and that its first game would be published by Sony. That game was Death Stranding.Death Stranding’s nominations at the 2019 Game Awards are hard to separate from that series of events, as well as Keighley’s ongoing relationship with Kojima. Kojima himself sits as a member of the show’s advisory
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