The Game Awards Puts Future Class Program On Hold

By Catherine Masters | November 7, 2025 | 11:25am

Video Games News The Game Awards

The Game Awards Puts Future Class Program On Hold

The Game Awards, the annual showcase hosted by Geoff Keighley, has once again announced that it will not be going ahead with its Future Class rising stars program. This follows the initiative not returning in 2024 after the 2023 Class co-signed a letter speaking out against the ongoing Palestinian genocide.

The Future Class program began in 2020, highlighting 50 individuals from a wide variety of backgrounds in the game industry who have gone on to make waves, like Blessing Adeoye Jr (KindaFunny) and Hannah Nicklin (Saltsea Chronicles). In 2023, the past and present members of the Future Class came together to write an open letter that garnered over 3,000 signatures in protest of TGA’s silence regarding Palestine. Speaking as “ambassadors of a better future,” they urged TGA to read out a statement in their name calling for a ceasefire, support for Palestine, and industry investment in South-West Asia and North Africa. They were met with silence.

Last year, the Future Class program did not return and in a report from Bryant Francis at GameDeveloper, we now know it may never come back. In the first official message in over a year on their networking Discord server, organizer Emily Weir said, “At this time, we are not planning a new Future Class for this year and do not have any active programming plans for Future Class.” She emphasized that the server would remain active for networking but not be monitored by TGA organizers. In addition to this, the page for Future Class has been removed from The Game Awards’ website, erasing the official record of their nominees.

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Responding to this in a thread on BlueSky, 2022 Future Class member Chantal Ryan (darkwebSTREAMER) shared her experiences with the program, breaking the silence many hold for fear of being on the outs with the industry. She alleged that TGA “pocketed” the money from its Old Spice sponsorship instead of passing it down to the members, instead merely providing a 10% discount on tickets to the Los Angeles-based show. She also spoke to the overall tokenizing nature of the program.

“Our names, work, reputations, likenesses were used by a multi-million dollar company to raise their own profile without dedicating meaningful real-world resources to our own causes.”

Despite its attempts at prestige and displays of inclusion, it is widely acknowledged in the industry that The Game Awards is a marketing charade that amounts to two hours of game advertisements. “Awards” are rattled off one after another, and speeches are cut to 30 seconds to save space for more ad time.

Nonetheless, it’s clear that the organizers wish to be perceived as a platform for good, as shown with the Future Class initiative and last year’s Game Changer awards given to Amir Satvat (Tencent Games) for his work helping people find industry jobs amidst the endless layoffs. The Awards try to heighten its profile by associating with actors and promising talent, but ultimately only seek to serve its own interests, something that is clearer than ever before with the erasure of past Future Class members from its website.

If you are interested in award shows that celebrate the people working in this exploitative industry, consider tuning into the D.I.C.E. Awards, the GDC Game Developers’ Choice Awards, or one-off shows like TGAGWCAGA (The Game Awards for Games Who Can’t Afford the Game Awards). Ironically enough, this year’s The Game Awards is set to be held on UNICEF Day For Change.