LogInThe organizers asked the head of Larian to "wrap it up" right at the moment when he honored the memory of Jim Southworth, who passed away this November.
With Christopher Judge's 8-minute speech at last year's The Game Awards being one of the most remembered parts of the event, it appears that organizers had decided to change their approach for TGA 2023 and impose stricter time limits on developers' speeches, most likely in an effort to dedicate more time of the awards show to game trailers and commercials for a certain battle royale game.
Unfortunately, Swen Vincke, the head of Larian Studios and a key figure in the development of Baldur's Gate 3, the winner at this year's The Game Awards, was not an exception. Following the event's conclusion, a video recorded by a member of the audience was shared by Twitter user @javierabegazo revealing that Vincke was asked to cut his speech short by the organizers:
To make matters worse, the "please, wrap it up" warning appeared on the screen just as the developer sought to pay tribute to the late Jim Southworth, Larian's Cinematic Animation Lead, who passed away in November, a timing widely perceived as disrespectful and in poor taste.
Commenting on Javiera's Twitter post, some users sided with The Game Awards organizers, asserting that the warning was automated and developers were not obligated to comply with the instructions. While this argument is undoubtedly valid, it fails to address the two primary questions: why was it only a minute long, and why wasn't it disabled for the winner in the category most people actually care about?
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