The Game Awards Shorter Than Last Year; Free Steam Decks Harder to Get
This year's The Game Awards gala is expected to be shorter than in previous years. One of the reasons is expected to be the giveaway of free Steam Decks.
This Friday, The Game Awards gala will take place, where, as every year, we will get to know the winners of the major awards (including for "Best Game of the Year") and see announcements of upcoming games. This year we are also in for quite a surprise - the audience will have a chance to win a free Steam Deck every minute.
Fewer minutes means fewer Steam Decks
Last week Valve announced an interesting promotional action, in cooperation with the TGA organizers, - the company will give a randowm viewer a 512 GB Steam Deck every minute. In the face of this information, the timing of the gala seems to be extremely important, as each minute will mean more devices given out to the audience. Geoff Keighley, the originator and host of the TGA, as he does every year, organized on Reddit an AMA session, during which he answered questions from the audience.
One of the questions was specifically about how long TGA 2022 will last. Geoff Keighley revealed that this year's show is scheduled for about 2.5 hours, which will be shorter than last year's gala (by about 30 minutes). This means that about 150 Steam Decks will go to the audience.
Geoff Keighley also addressed the issue on Twitter, posting a summary of the AMA session. The host confirmed that the gala will be shorter, largely due to the fact that fewer AAA game announcements are scheduled than in previous years. It's worth noting, however, that The Game Awards gala consists largely of numerous speeches and presentations, so the event's duration may end up being slightly longer.
Chances are slim
Last year, the event lasted as long as 3 hours and 42 minutes (including pre-show). The live broadcast was watched by a total of more than 85 million people across all platforms. Shortening the duration of the gala and giving away Steam Decks are expected to attract even more viewers, helping to set a new record. At the same time, it should be made clear that winning the device will not be easy, as indicated by the rules that apply to this giveaway, and the fact that the number of active Steam users, potential competitors in the drawing, is growing every year (in 2021 there were 132 million per month). You can find the full rules for the Steam Deck drawing at TGA 2022 here.
The Game Awards 2022 gala will take place on December 9 at 1:30 a.m. CET / 4:30 pm PT
