Geoff Keighley Denies Conflict Of Interest Concerning His Death Stranding Cameo

Geoff Keighley and Hideo Kojima are buddies. Kojima has a habit of putting his celebrity friends into video games. Taking both into consideration, it's no surprise that Keighley has a cameo in Kojima's controversial Death Stranding masterpiece (or disasterpiece). There are people, however, that feel that this cameo is inappropriate given Keighley's position. He's the producer and host of The Game Awards, and Death Stranding just so happens to be nominated for Game of the Year. Is there a conflict of interest here?

In a recent AMA on Reddit, Keighley addressed the concerns around this alleged conflict of interest. He assured the thread that he has no part in the voting process when it comes to choosing the coveted title of Game of the Year, saying, "I don't vote on the nominees or winners – that's done by a jury of 80 global media outlets that we list on the website. That process isn't the result of me having a cameo in a game, but also because I work with developers on world premieres, announcements, sponsorships, and other aspects of the show. I want the jury to be 'blind' to all those other aspects."

He also contextualized his Death Stranding cameo. As it turns out, he was never meant to be in the game. His "easter egg" appearance was added in just this last summer by his good friend Hideo. (Wow, first name basis.) "Originally Hideo scanned me 2 years ago, in the Fall of 2017, ago for an idea he had of me 'introducing' a Death Stranding trailer at Game Awards from within the game world." Keighley wrote, "That never came together, but the scan was still out there. So this summer he told me he was going to use it as a special easter egg in the game. I didn't perform any kind of role or have any lines in the game (at least any that I recorded, Matt Mercer did that!)."

Considering all this, Keighley's appearance in Death Stranding is far less suspect than say, an infamously picky magazine editor who just so happened to give Kojima's game a perfect score. We'll have to wait for Keighley's Game Awards on Dec. 12 to see if Death Stranding will win Game of the Year.