Keighley defends celebrity appearances at the VGAs

It’s only natural that gamers don’t exactly love seeing celebrities at the VGAs. The general sentiment amongst fans is that they prefer the focus to be on the actual games rather than silly, scripted skits. At the 2009 VGAs, a number of celebrities once again made appearances, including Mike Tyson and much to the dislike of gamers, the cast of Jersey Shore. However, Geoff Keighley defended having celebrities at the show on the latest Major Nelson podcast, noting:

“And yes there were celebrities, but one thing I’m really proud of related to this year’s show is that all the celebrities there pretty much had a connection to the gaming industry. I mean there was an exception or two like the Jersey Shore cast which was there because they were the topic of the moment…I can’t tell you how many people at the after party, gaming industry executives would come up to me and their wives would be like, ‘Oh my God, I can’t believe you had the Jersey Shore cast there, that’s fantastic.’ So it was something that as you said for guys like you and I it’s a little bit of a non sequitur, but it makes sense for the bigger, larger entertainment picture that we’re trying to build with this show.

But you know gamers I think in the past have always complained that it’s like ‘Oh, well why do have these celebrities that don’t have any link to gaming?’ You look at this year’s show, almost everyone there had some kind of link to the gaming industry, whether it was Mike Tyson who was in Fight Night, or Tony Hawk, or Olivia Wilde who is in the new Tron game, or Jake Gyllenhaal who is doing the Prince of Persia film. Everyone was there for a reason and I was really dead-set on making sure that the talent had a link to gaming and we got rid of a lot of the fluff. It was talent that had a link to gaming, it was great world premieres, and then the awards that mattered. And I think that’s a formula that works better for this industry. I’m sure there are people that are going to complain and say ‘Oh, you didn’t need Snoop Dogg in there performing’ or ‘You didn’t need the cast of the Jersey Shore.’ You gotta give us a few things in a few areas where we can make it entertaining to a more mainstream audience… “