You won’t believe this crazy, expletive-heavy moment from The Game Awards

By Gabe Gurwin Published December 8, 2017

Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons and A Way Out director Josef Fares is quite passionate about his job. When he showed gameplay for Hazelight’s A Way Out during Electronic Arts’ EA Play presentation in June, it was clear that he believed strongly in his vision for the cooperative adventure, and when he spoke with The Game Awards 2017 producer Geoff Keighley during Thursday’s ceremony, he let his voice be heard in an entertaining, candid, and expletive-laden speech.

After already swearing several times during his praise of the game industry and its developers, Fares, who is also a film director, asked Keighley for his permission to swear before turning to face the camera directly.

Recommended Videos

“Fuck the Oscars, you know? Fuck the Oscars! Fuck you!” Fares yelled as he crept closer to the camera and displayed his middle finger.

Keighley was visibly uncomfortable with the moment, asking Fares to talk about A Way Out and the unique ways it allows two players to cooperatively experience a story online, but the Fares train had already left the station. Talking about cooperatively playing with only one copy of the game, Fares assured fans that Electronic Arts’ recent controversial decisions regarding loot boxes wouldn’t make their way into his project.

“This is my idea. It doesn’t have anything [to do] with the EA shit going on — with the loot boxes and stuff,” Fares said. “Look, I’m going to say to you one thing: EA has been very good to me. And to be honest with you, it’s been nice to hate EA but I don’t care about that shit. What I’m saying is this — all publishers fuck up sometimes.”

They certainly do, but the publisher’s “EA Originals” program has already produced the charming platformer Unraveled, and A Way Out looks poised to be another success. In an industry typically sanitized with PR-speak and prearranged talking points, Fares’ honesty and commitment to making a game players could enjoy without predatory microtransactions is admirable, even if his language was less than family-friendly.

A Way Out will be available on Xbox One, PlayStation 4, and PC on March 28, 2018. It can only be played cooperatively, either in person or online, and uses a unique split-screen camera perspective to focus on two protagonists simultaneously.

Contributor

Gabe Gurwin has been playing games since 1997, beginning with the N64 and the Super Nintendo. He began his journalism career…

Topics

Gaming

If the Game Awards have you bummed, check out the Indie Game Award nominations

Key art for Animal Well

The Indie Game Awards Nominee Announcement

The Indie Awards, a new ceremony created to recognize independent games, has announced its first slate of nominees. Balatro, Animal Well, 1000xResist and more will compete for Game of the Year, while several smaller games are represented in categories such as Solo Development and Bite-Sized Game.

Gaming

A busy 2023 wasn’t enough to pull me away from my go-to mobile game

Ms. Marvel listening to lo-fi in Marvel Snap.

I play lots of games across every platform for work, but my most-played game in 2023 was one I primarily engaged with for personal enjoyment. While I sunk dozens and dozens of hours into games like Baldur’s Gate 3, The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom, Fire Emblem Engage, Fortnite, Starfield, and more, my most played game was something that didn’t even come out in 2023.

That honor goes to Marvel Snap, a collectible card game from Second Dinner for PC and mobile

Gaming

Grand Theft Auto VI didn’t need The Game Awards

Woman in the GTA 6 trailer at a rooftop pool party. She's in a white bikini.

This past week was one of the most crowded for video game news because of two events: The Game Awards 2023 and the Grand Theft Auto VI trailer. Initially, I was surprised the two weren’t one and the same. GTA 6’s reveal is the most significant game announcement of the year, after all, and Geoff Keighley always seems to be searching for big Elden Ring- or GTA 6-level moments for his show, even if he doesn’t always get those. After taking a step back and looking at how each performed independently of the other, I think both were better off staying separate.
Taking center stage
When it first teased the Grand Theft Auto VI trailer in November, it said the trailer would be released “in early December.” Like many others, I assumed that this meant it would show up at The Game Awards because that tends to be the case when game developers tease an announcement for that window. For example, Focus Entertainment also said a release date for Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine 2 would be confirmed “in early December,” and that ended up happening during The Game Awards.

Ultimately, Rockstar had the GTA 6 trailer slated to release on the morning of December 5, but ended up releasing it on the night of December 4 due to a leak. The game would not go on to make any marketing-related appearance at The Game Awards 2023 on December 7. Although GTA 6 skirted The Game Awards, was leaked, and got posted earlier than intended, it was still a groundbreaking reveal.