For several years now, producer Geoff Keighley has held a sort of monopoly on major events dedicated to gaming announcements. The Game Awards, Summer Game Fest, and Gamescom’s Opening Night Live (ONL) are all organized by the Canadian host.

In a recent interview with GamesIndustry.biz, Keighley discussed how titles are selected to appear on the ONL stage on August 25. Unlike the exorbitant fees that can be charged for The Game Awards (up to $1 million for a three-minute clip), the European event aims to be more accessible.

As a result, some studios don’t pay a single cent because they’re chosen for "their editorial value." This allows smaller teams to showcase their games without breaking the bank. We can expect to see several projects of this type on the program for the 2026 edition.

"One of the things that’s important I think to all of us is that there are games that get selected for editorial value in the show. There’s also a lot of independent games that we take. You’ll see many small teams, games made by three, four people, that get selected to be inside of ONL, because we believe in those titles, and we believe in those teams and want to support them."

Keighley explains that he personally selects certain trailers for independent productions or highly anticipated AAA games, such as Final Fantasy VII Revelation, at Summer Game Fest.

"These shows are marketing events, just like Gamescom is a marketing event, so you can consider everything in many ways is marketing video games, but there are definitely games that we select for editorial consideration in all the shows.

Everyone wants to tune in to be surprised with something brand new and exciting. Companies and partners often earn the ability to have editorial places with the level of news that people are bringing to the show."