Tag: Mike Mercante

Two days ago, in the days leading up to The Game Awards 2022, I wrote about how the wildly inconsistent fashion at the event was indicative of the industry’s identity crisis. Things quickly got out of hand.

The discourse machine revved up and began spinning at an impossibly fast rate: Nintendo president Doug Bowser tweeted at me, Xbox president Phil Spencer replied to the thread and confirmed he is now aware of what Mike Mercante wears to go get bagels, everyone was weighing in on the “T-shirt with a blazer” fit, and the word “drip” was learned and subsequently overused by half the industry.

Other publications wrote about the discourse, developers weighed in, and the lead-up to The Game Awards became less about speculation over which game would win GOTY (spoilers: it was Elden Ring) and more about whether or not Josef Fares would wear a skin-tight t-shirt again (spoilers: he didn’t).

Ultimately, it seems like my call-out worked. Numerous people who attended the event told me via DM that I shamed attendees into dressing better. The presenters and on-stage talent at this year’s Game Awards were almost uniformly sharper-dressed than in previous years, and even Phil Spencer seemed to be wearing a slightly more formal outfit.

The Game Awards is a chance to have fun with fashion and to lean into the themes that are so often in the games the night is celebrating, so it was great to see some people really doing that last night. That’s why I decided to highlight the best-dressed attendees and honorees at gaming’s biggest night. You all did amazing, sweeties.