The Muppets will be returning as presenters in this year’s iteration ofThe Game Awards. The famed puppet characters had previously presented inThe Game Awardsfrom 2018 to 2020 but skipped last year’s show with no apparent reason given.The Game Awards have been produced and hosted by Geoff Keighley since 2014. Keighley established the awards show to celebrate and honor the achievements of the games industry while also hosting world premieres of upcoming titles in a manner similar to theyearly Summer Game Fest, which is also hosted by Keighley. A wide array of public figures from across the industry have served as presenters during the awards show over the years, sometimes accompanied by celebrities not directly related to gaming such as sports TV personality Stephen A. Smith and WNBA player Aerial Powers in 2020 and 2021, respectively.RELATED:Hideo Kojima’s New Game Could Be Revealed Next WeekPrevious shows also featured different members of the Muppets as presenters, with Pepe the King Prawn in 2018, Dr. Bunsen Honeydew and Beaker in 2019, and the Swedish Chef in 2020, the last of which was revealed to be aplayable DLC character inOvercooked! All You Can Eat. For this year’s show, the Muppets' grand return to The Game Awards will come from famed Muppets drummer Animal, recently announced as a presenter at next week’s award show.
Speculation has started as to how Animal will be utilized as a presenter given how past Muppets appearances have gone. Previous Muppets characters were comedic in their roles as presenters such astheUntitled Goose GameparodyUntitled Beaker Game, being shown by Dr. Bunsen Honeydew and Beaker before presenting the award for Games for Impact. In 2018, Pepe the King Prawn was accompanied by famed streamer Ninja in their shared presentation of Best Independent Game. Being that Animal is a drummer, some have speculated he will be a presenter for the award for Best Score and Music.
More recent presentations of The Game Awards have strongly appealed to the gaming audience by having a greater emphasis on announcements and reveals, a notable example being thesurprise announcement ofMortal Kombat 11at the 2018 Game Awards. The appearances of traditional celebrities and public figures at previous Game Awards shows also gave non-gaming audiences a potential reason to tune in. This is made even more likely with the integration of a property as famous as the Muppets, as some may tune into The Game Awards just to see what whacky thing Animal may do. Thankfully, fans will not have to wait much longer to find out.
The Game Awardswill be streamed live on December 8.
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