Film and game director Josef Fares, who is currently working on A Way Out, took the stage at The Game Awards earlier today, and promptly stole the show with some colorful language and an anti-loot box rant. Producer and host Geoff Keighley did his best to settle Fares down, but it quickly became apparent that there was no stopping him.
"I'm so passionate to be here, so excited to be meeting these industry people," began Fares calmly, before suddenly adding, "The Oscars should fuck themselves up. This is the shit. I'm telling you. This is the real shit." He paused to ask Keighley if he could swear, then shouted, "Fuck the Oscars! Fuck the Oscars! Fuck you!"
It gets better. As Keighley attempted to introduce a trailer for The Way Out, Fares noted that it's impossible to dislike his game, and then said "it doesn't have anything [to do] with the EA shit going on, with the lootbox and stuff." EA Originals is publishing A Way Out, by the way.
"EA has been very good to me, and to be honest with you—because it's nice to hate EA, blah, blah, I don't care about that shit—what I'm saying is this, all publishers fuck up sometimes. That's how it is. They fuck up. But that's what it is. In this case, it's like they've been treating me very well, I have 100 percent of the income to my team for the game I'm doing, you know?"
"And it's coming soon, right?" asked Keighley, trying to move things along. Keighley failed to move things along. "Am I talking too long?" queried Fares, and after Keighley replied that they've got a long show, he said, "Let me continue a little bit. It's my time to shine" before whipping the crowd into an applause.
At this point, it seemed like Keighley was going to get Fares to introduce the trailer. But he did not. "I'm a passionate man," Fares declared to the camera after Keighley told him they can't talk more after the trailer. "Nobody will ever, even if I do triple-A—this is an independent game—but even if I do that it will always be the game I want it to be."
Finally, Keighley was able to cut Fares off and throw to the trailer. We hope his teeth haven't been ground completely smooth by the amazing, glorious, awkwardness of it all.
