Want to show a trailer at The Game Awards? Prepare to spend over a million dollars. Geoff Keighley's pricing is mind-blowing

Attending The Game Awards 2025 is such an expensive honor that it exceeds the means of many of the nominated creators.

Geoff Keighley's award show might not be the late E3 expo, but it's still a big deal for players every year, just like his Summer Game Fest. Both events are opportunities to celebrate small and large titles released in the concluding year, as well as to showcase what the next 12 months will bring for game fans.

The spot on the show is pricey. They might not always feature Oscar-level stars, but they still have a stunning setup, live orchestra, and tons of guests, plus hundreds of viewers tuning in to watch the TGA or SGF stream.

More and more expensive trailers at TGA

Of course, the most important part of these events is video games. However, as noted by Kotaku, both tickets and venue costs during the show are becoming an increasing expense for creators and publishers.

After the Summer Game Fest 2024, some info popped up about how much it costs to showcase your stuff at the event. In a nutshell, the organizers raked in over $10 million from developers and publishers, since they had to shell out $250,000 just for the chance to show a one-minute trailer.

And yet, SGF is a less prestigious event than the "gaming Oscars," not to mention the general rise in prices (not just in our industry). According to two sources, this year, if you want to show a 60-second trailer at The Game Awards, it'll set you back $450,000, and if you're thinking about a 3-minute spot, you're looking at over a million bucks. We don't have official confirmation of these figures, but in this context, such pricing seems very likely.

Tickets for a couple

There's also the issue of tickets. By default, the TGA 2025 organizers only give out two free tickets to each studio that's up for an award, but some anonymous sources told Kotaku that there are some exceptions to this rule. So if bigger teams (which is almost all of them) want to attend in greater numbers, they have to purchase additional seats.

This is what the creators of Expedition 33 did by purchasing many tickets at the full price of $300 to allow more of the team to attend. Meanwhile, an anonymous director of one of the games competing in the accessibility category in 2024 spent $700 just to attend the event in person. Apparently, even employees of nominated titles cannot count on discounts.

For many smaller teams, simply purchasing tickets is a huge expense, and many of them are not close to Los Angeles and/or cannot afford to delegate too many creators without disrupting ongoing work (see the "complaints" from the creators of Helldivers 2 when "too many" nominations forced frequent developer trips).

Cheers of the players and disappointment of the creators

There's also the issue of timing. The nominations for TGA 2025 were officially announced on November 17, but tickets went on sale to the public on October 30, and they were all snapped up by November 7. This included both the cheapest seats (costing around $59) and the most expensive ones, which could cost over a thousand dollars on the secondary market.

Thus, even nominated devs didn't get a chance to reserve additional tickets at the standard price. Some creators are upset with the organizers, accusing them of prioritizing regular viewers over them because "fans will cheer and go wild for trailers," unlike the developers.

Geoff Keighley recently spoke about the difficult art of maintaining balance: on one hand, The Game Awards (TGA) is meant to honor and reward game creators, while on the other hand, it's a celebration for everyone who loves video games (via GamesIndustry.biz). No one denies the important role this gala plays in the industry, although there are those who encourage paying more attention to competitive awards like the BAFTA and the Game Developer’s Choice.

We will watch The Game Awards 2025 stream tonight. For now, we have to make do with teasers and many rumors and leaks.

Clair Obscur: Expedition 33

April 24, 2025

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• Overview
• Guide
• Review

• games trivia
• games showcase, conference
• awards (games)
• Geoff Keighley
• The Game Awards