Geoff Keighley was stage-bombed by pranksters minutes into Gamescom’s Opening Night Live conference. While Keighley was able to bounce back and put the show back on schedule, he was visibly annoyed with their antics and voiced his frustration. The audience was also left irate after Gamescon was stage bombed by the two men. The prank mirrors a similar incident at last year’s Game Awards and raises questions about the levels of security at these events.
Geoff Keighley Stage Bombed at Gamescom
Keighley bounced onto the stage at the beginning of the show to open a conference with a rendition of Starfield‘s main theme from the game’s composer Inon Zur, accompanied by a new live-action trailer. As Keighley raved about his anticipation for Starfield and prepared to introduce the game’s director, Todd Howard, Gamescon was stage bombed by the two pranksters.
The two men shouted incoherently and demanded to see footage from Grand Theft Auto 6. Keighley behaved passively towards the two while they were on stage before they were ushered off by security to a chorus of boos from the audience. Once they were removed, Keighley took the time to share his disappointment with the Gamescon pranksters saying:
“That’s so disappointing. This is such a special night for so many developers and it’s really disappointing to see someone act that way. It’s so sad to see someone behave that way”.
The host was undeterred by though and was able to promptly move the show along as planned. This is the first time that Gamescom has been stage bombed. However, last year’s Game Awards -another Keighley-hosted event – was subject to a similar incident by a prankster as developer FromSoftware accepted their Game of the Year award for Elden Ring. While there was a much quicker response this time, security arguably needs to be re-evaluated for these large-scale gaming events in order to prevent such incidents from occurring in the future.
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The man who invaded the stage at last year’s Game Awards was charged for his antics and the same punishment will likely be applied to the two men who stage bombed Gamescom tonight. It’s likely that we’ll hear more details from Geoff Keighley himself in the coming days.
