At last year’s BGS, the arrival of gaming industry titan Hideo Kojima brought the event to a literal, astonishing standstill. At times, the crowds pressing toward the Meet&Greet stage made it impossible to move through the nearby aisles and corridors. People shouted and strained for even a glimpse of their idol.This year, in 2026, the contrast for international guests was stark. They were hardly unknowns: the lineup included Kenji Kanno, creator of the hit Crazy Taxi; Al Hope, director of the acclaimed Alien: Isolation; and Charles Martinet, the iconic voice actor behind Mario, the world’s most famous Italian plumber. Even so, public interest was minimal at best. What explains such a dramatic difference?The idolization of streamersIn another recent UmGamer article about BGS, we described two scenes our team witnessed. In one, a huge crowd raced through the venue with phones held high, shouting for a YouTuber and streamer who had just arrived. In the other, after we waited half an hour for the line to open, there were just seven people alongside us waiting to meet Al Hope.The contrast points to a growing disconnect. Huge numbers of people are devoted to the streamers and YouTubers who play these games and make content about them, yet often show little interest in the people who made the games in the first place. While seven people waited for Al Hope and BGS staff announced that there was still plenty of time and space for photos with Kenji Kanno, dozens queued at the neighboring stage to meet a streamer whose Meet&Greet was scheduled for the same time.The reason is simple enough. Developers and game creators work behind the scenes, while content creators are visible practically 24/7. People can follow their favorite streamers and YouTubers throughout the day, especially now that social media makes it so easy. It's far easier to grow attached to someone you see all the time than to someone who appears only occasionally and may lack the “influencer charisma” of a streamer or YouTuber. From there, a parasocial relationship is only a small step away.Take Cellbit as just one example: he has played Alien: Isolation. If he had been at the event, how many people would've wanted to see him compared with Al Hope?Those relationships, parasocial or otherwise, turn content creators into celebrities among their audiences. Through no fault of their own, they can overshadow the people without whom they'd have no games to play or stream. If Alanzoka or Cellbit had been at this BGS, they'd barely have been able to walk through the crowds that would surely have surrounded them. Even “smaller” YouTubers whose niches had nothing to do with gaming brought parts of the event to a halt. Fans formed an impromptu line in the middle of the food court to take photos with them, a line at least ten times longer than those for Al Hope or Kenji Kanno.Meanwhile, Charles Martinet walked through the event unaccompanied by security, with hardly anyone stopping him to say hello or ask for a photo. On previous visits to BGS, he had been the star of the Nintendo booth, drawing crowds that brought half the event to a standstill.This growing divide has everything to do with celebrity status. Much has been said about Kojima’s visit in 2025, and he's undeniably one of the biggest game developers working today. But it's impossible to say that everyone there was an avid fan of his games. Many were more interested in Kojima as a person and public figure, particularly since his departure from Konami. Some simply wanted a photo or autograph from one of today’s most famous developers. I spoke to people there who told me exactly that.Many don't even know it wasn't Kojima’s first visit to BGS. I was there when he first came in 2017, and the experience was so different you could almost think it was a different person. Demand was already high, of course, but the area around the Meet&Greet held a few dozen exceptionally respectful fans. He took his time with everyone in line, said a few words to those of us who hadn't managed to get a ticket, judged the cosplay competition and spent plenty of time interacting with the cosplayers.The audience was completely different then. Before the pandemic, BGS was much more focused on gamers, fans of the international guests and the games on show. The gulf between those two BGS experiences has only widened. It feels as though developers, voice actors and other industry figures now have just two options: break out beyond their usual audience and become famous, or be forgotten by younger attendees.A community that stands outOf course, as with anything, there are exceptions. Age again offers a point of comparison: while younger attendees seek out YouTubers, some communities, particularly those around older games with devoted followings, have different priorities. And no group I've seen at BGS in recent years has been as loyal to, or as interested in, the people who make its games as the Square Enix fandom.Naoki HamaguchiThanks in large part to the Square Enix LATAM team, the guests who've generated the most excitement in recent years have been those associated with Final Fantasy. In 2023, we had Naoki Yoshida, the famous Yoshi-P, and Koji Fox. Last year, Naoki Hamaguchi and Yoko Shimomura drew hundreds of fans who were genuinely moved to meet people who had played such important roles in games close to their hearts. They gave their work the recognition it deserves.Broad generalizations are never a good idea, of course, but the age divide is becoming more pronounced, and it directly affects how guests are received. Even Kojima comes with that caveat: many of the people who grew up playing his games are no longer young.Musician Shota Nakama, creator of the Video Game Orchestra and the Sonic Orchestra, has become a familiar face at BGS. He gained immense popularity here in Brazil because of how his name sounds. On one of his first visits, I waited more than an hour to meet him and take a photo. His surprise when I told him I was there because I loved his work on games such as Final Fantasy XII and Final Fantasy XV, rather than simply because of the joke about his name, was almost funny. He's a perfect example of someone whose performances and Meet&Greets at BGS draw huge crowds, even though many of the young people seeking a photo with the famous Shota are there for the joke, not because they're fans of his work. In other words, he has achieved celebrity status here, but for reasons unrelated to his work on games.Shota NakamaConclusionBGS has always been my favorite gaming event for a simple reason: I've had so many magical moments there. I've met people responsible for games that shaped who I am, spoken with idols I never dreamed I'd meet and heard words of encouragement from them all.At the 2014 event, I had a long conversation with Ed Boon in the middle of the venue, a moment I still treasure. Yoko Shimomura told me that the affection of fans like me gives her work meaning. I spoke with Hamaguchi about how FF7 changed my life. Even at this 2026 event, I met and spent time talking with Kenji Ozawa, co-director of Visions of Mana and an animator on one of the games I love most, Rule of Rose. Despite the many criticisms this year’s event has received, that one encounter was enough for me to leave feeling fulfilled.More and more people on social media are complaining that BGS had too few streamers and “famous” creators, arguing that the event is mainly about seeing friends and meeting your favorite YouTuber for a photo. I couldn't disagree more. To me, the heart of BGS is the chance to try demos of games you love or cannot wait to play, and to meet people from the industry you'd probably never encounter elsewhere.For someone who loves video games as much as I do, there's nothing quite like exchanging a few words with a person who helped make a work of art you cherish. I sincerely hope BGS can reinvent itself without losing what makes it a phenomenal place for gamers: the chance for extraordinary encounters and conversations. I hope it gives a little less space to YouTubers and streamers, and more to a passionate audience with fewer and fewer events where moments like these can happen.
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