The youths were apparently too rowdy, at least for The Game Awards creator Geoff Keighley. The annual event introduced an honorary program several years ago called the Future Class which sought to highlight up-and-coming talent in the video game industry. It wasn’t brought back in 2024 following complaints by some of its members, however, and reportedly won’t be returning this year either. In fact, all mention of the initiative has been wiped from the TGAs website.
“So it took another future class member speaking out to confirm it’s dead,” 2023 Future Class member Emma Kidwell (Hindsight, Marvel’s Midnight Suns) posted on Bluesky this week. “Looks like all mention of the future class program (which started in 2020) has been wiped from TGA webpage 🤪 the only archive that proves it existed is through the wayback machine.”
Game Developer reports that the death of the program was only confirmed in the Future Class Discord after someone asked. “Last year we completed our promised cycle of programming for the 2023 FC with our TGA mixer, and did not induct a new Future Class,” Future Class organizer Emily Weir reportedly said. “At this time, we are not planning a new Future Class for this year and do not have any active programming plans for Future Class.”
The Game Awards revealed its first Future Class back in 2020 with a list of 50 young members “who represent the bright, bold and inclusive future of video games.” Introduced at a time when the white-male-dominated industry was grappling with legacies of discrimination and sexism, the Future Class aimed to elevate diverse talent from different backgrounds who would not have traditionally been spotlighted by gaming’s glitzy marketing machine.
It was an ABSOLUTE honor to be selected as a member of #TheGameAwards Future Class for 2021.
Even MORE of an honor was being showcased in such an amazing way, during such an AWESOME show.
ALL the thanks to @TheGameAwards & @Gillette for the honor and highlight! pic.twitter.com/Gfg0XYFPPU
— LIQUID | Deejay Knight (@DeejayKnight) December 10, 2021
But the rubber hit the road with that uplifting messaging in 2023 when that year’s members signed a letter urging The Game Awards to acknowledge the worsening humanitarian crisis facing Palestinians amid Israel’s war on Gaza. The call came after narrative designer Meghna Jayanth was removed from presenting an award at the Golden Joysticks that same year over her plans to use the platform to call for a ceasefire.
The letter was ignored and tensions between Future Class members and Keighley’s awards show increased. Wired reported that the host only agreed to meet with members in the days after the 2023 ceremony and refused to engage with their concerns directly. “We wanted him to tell us what he thought we were all there for, what we were all chosen by our peers to do other than kind of sit there,” one anonymous member told the magazine at the time. Another said the meeting contributed to a feeling of “tokenization.”
Members also reportedly shared growing frustrations about the lack of mentorship or other opportunities attached to the program. According to Game Developer, the TGAs worked on a new networking program to connect existing members with others in the industry and offered 2023 inductees free tickets and hotel rooms for the 2024 show. But instead of announcing a new Future Class that year, Keighley announced a separate Game Changer award to highlight the work of Tencent business director Amir Satvat, who had been painstakingly covering that year’s unprecedented streak of industry layoffs.
It’s unclear if Keighley plans to continue with that award or pivot to a different format for the 2025 show. “Accolades are important to marginalized folks,” Kidwell wrote on Bluesky this week. “Not being able to access even an archived post hosted by TGA website kinda sucks ass. Not to mention how bad of a look it is to just destroy 5 years of “hey look at us we’re uplifting 50 incredible devs’ to ‘don’t look don’t look.’”
