The Game Awards this year was a spectacular showcase of how an awards show should be for the video game industry. Great performances, focus on the actual industry, actual speakers from the video game industry and not a celebrity forced to speak from a cringe-worthy script. The best part of the show was the real passion from the speakers; especially from Indie developer, Josef Fares, who flipped off the cameras and shouted “Fuck the Oscars!” Fares is the co-founder of Swedish indie team Hazelight Studios and the writer and director of its first project, A Way Out.
His 3-minute rant went viral. Fares was suppose to announce the release date of March, the game-play and story of his cooperative game: A Way Out which gave fans interest based off earlier trailers this year.
Despite his rant, Fares added that he would probably say the same thing even if it wasn’t at the Game Awards. When asked why he was correlating it to the Academy Awards, Fares stated it was because so many people had compared The Game Awards to the Oscars. Fares has directed multiple feature length films and said his outburst was an instance of himself failing to explain. He wanted to say that The Game Awards always felt as though they were an inferior version of the Oscars or other art award shows for films and television shows.
Fares stated that “it’s time for people to understand that games are, like, a serious art.” Often, video games are treated and shown as an inferior form of art and Fares and many other video game developers and fans (myself included) that games are a unique medium. Fares previous developed game, 2013’s Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons, which was praised for its heartfelt story and unique gameplay. Brothers had two different brothers that were controlled with individual analog sticks. Hazelight Studios is attempting to create an even better version of this with A Way Out. The game revolves around two different personality characters: Leo and Vincent. It can only be played cooperatively and there’s split screen only so that players can see how the other is moving or interacting with the environment and characters. You can even play it with a friend who doesn’t even own the game. (As long as one person owns a copy and they have the same game system).
A Way Out is scheduled to be released March 23, 2018, on PlayStation 4, Windows PC and Xbox One.
Sources:
The Gaming News Corner 
Hi there! I’d like to provide my counter point(s).
I think the split on this moment from the Game Awards is interesting and I personally fall on the side where I thought it was the worst part of the show, unprofessional, and immature. He may have said “it’s time for people to understand that games are, like, a serious art” but I had my tv on mute after the first row of expletives. I was watching with my family. More importantly though I think he set games as art legitimacy back a few years. Passion is wonderful but nobody previously unconvinced is going to be convinced that games are art by a rant like this.
Games are often treated as inferior because of the stereotype that this dude contributed to in a big way, that gamers are all a bunch of immature, noisy, man-children. I don’t believe that, of course, but looking at this segment it’s easy to see why a lot of people do. This isn’t how real industry professionals behave. I was as visibly uncomfortable during this rant as the host himself seemed to be.
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Hi! I definitely think his response was very unprofessional and he apologized for how he worded it. Does his statement put games as art legitimacy back? Probably, because of the viral nature of the video. But I think his passion comes from the heart. Hopefully people don’t follow his example in how to speak about video games as art. There is a much better way that everyone can agree with.
Thank you for your comment!
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Thank you for the respectful reply and my apologies if my comment came off as too aggressive. I didn’t realize he later apologized?
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You’re welcome. It didn’t come off as aggressive and I agree with some of your points. He did apologize and stated that he was very emotional at the time and he has difficulties explaining himself. This doesn’t excuse what he said but at least he apologized.
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