{"id":841049,"date":"2026-09-08T22:14:13","date_gmt":"2026-09-08T22:14:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/841049\/"},"modified":"2026-09-08T22:14:13","modified_gmt":"2026-09-08T22:14:13","slug":"exclusive-two-of-gamings-biggest-names-are-making-a-big-investment-in-gamings-future","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/841049\/","title":{"rendered":"Exclusive: Two of gaming\u2019s biggest names are making a big investment in gaming\u2019s future"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Geoff Keighley (left) and Mark Cerny. Photos via The Game Awards and Sony Interactive Entertainment<\/p>\n

The first thing to know about the Nova Games Foundation is that it isn\u2019t about The Game Awards. And it\u2019s not about PlayStation.<\/p>\n

The ambitious new grant program is the brainchild of Geoff Keighley and Mark Cerny. Keighley is the host of The Game Awards<\/a>, Summer Game Fest and Opening Night Live. Cerny is a game designer of some 45 years and the lead architect<\/a> for the PlayStation 4 and 5.<\/p>\n

But this new thing, which they\u2019re revealing through Game File, isn\u2019t about their day jobs.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s an unaffiliated, standalone philanthropic project. It\u2019s a bet on the artistic future of video games and a way, they tell me, to give back.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m nearing the end of my career,\u201d Cerny recently told me over email. \u201cI\u2019m not done yet, but paying it forward\u2014in the best way possible\u2014is very much on my mind these days,\u201d<\/p>\n

The Nova Games Foundation is a university-affiliated fellowship program, intended to offer six-figure grants to 20 young game designers each year, potentially for decades to come. <\/p>\n

It will offer no-strings-attached funding along with mentorship from games industry leaders, a combination intended to aid the development of groundbreaking new games, Cerny and Keighley told me.<\/p>\n

Nova will begin accepting applications in December, from class of 2026 and 2027 students from 13 affiliated gaming programs at universities in eight countries. The schools working with Nova include the New York University and the University of Southern California in the U.S., along with Abertay University in Scotland, Cnam-Enjmin in France, TH K\u00f6ln in Germany, and the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology in Australia, Cerny and Keighley said.<\/p>\n

The plan: $100,000 per recipient, with about a quarter of Nova fellows eligible for up to $500,000 more for projects that are shaping up particularly well. Payments will be delivered based on development milestones, and recipients will own their games. Nova will help promote the work, and developers will be free to pursue the publishers and platforms of their choice. Nova can help introduce fellows to publishers, but won\u2019t take a cut.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>The foundation\u2019s official logo. <\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve always wanted to give back, but given my role in the industry, I\u2019ve never felt it appropriate to commercially invest in games,\u201d Keighley told Game File.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve never owned stock in a game company or taken a financial stake in a game. Nova is philanthropy: we aren\u2019t taking equity or looking to recoup the grants. The return we\u2019re hoping for is creative\u2014helping new voices make games and find their footing.<\/p>\n

\u201cMark and I have each made multi-million-dollar donations to establish the foundation, and we intend to keep contributing. We hope others will join us.\u201d<\/p>\n

Cerny and Keighley have already hired an executive director, John Maconga, and a head of grants, recent Game Developers Conference director Ashley Corrigan, to help launch the effort.<\/p>\n

They\u2019re working to recruit game industry leaders to join the effort. Keighley says \u201cdozens of leading game directors have already expressed interest in contributing their time.\u201d To name one, they\u2019ve already gotten Josef Fares, lead designer from It Takes Two and Spit Fiction studio Hazelight<\/a> on board with a donation and pledge to help out.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m proud to support Nova because it gives the next generation of creators the freedom to explore their creativity and hopefully bring their unique visions to life,\u201d Fares told Game File.<\/p>\n

Keighley and Cerny have known each other a long time. It\u2019s been so long, Cerny isn\u2019t even sure exactly when they met. \u201cWe travel in much the same circles and I\u2019m sure first intersected in the 90s or early 2000s,\u201c Cerny said.<\/p>\n

Keighley thinks it might have been during his stint writing a column about the mid-\u201990s console 3DO for a gaming magazine while Cerny was working on games with Crystal Dynamics or on Way of the Warrior with Naughty Dog.<\/p>\n

They became genuine friends about a 10 years ago, Keighley said, as they bonded over a shared love of games and a hope to improve the industry.<\/p>\n

\u201cAbout a decade ago, we started having dinner a few times a year in LA,\u201d Keighley said. \u201cJust to catch up on life and the industry. Those conversations continued over Zoom during COVID. Nova grew out of that friendship and a question we kept coming back to: \u2018What could we do to help the next generation of game directors get started?\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Mark Cerny (left) and Geoff Keighley (right) with game designer Amy Hennig (center) in 2018. <\/p>\n

Keighley credits Cerny with the idea to figure out a way to put their money and time back into the industry.<\/p>\n

At one of those dinners, Keighley proposed the idea of a fellowship program. He\u2019d recalled applying for a Rhodes Scholarship when he was younger. \u201cSpoiler: I didn\u2019t get it,\u201d he said. He\u2019d admired the MacArthur Foundation\u2019s so-called \u201cgenius grants.\u201d He liked these kinds of programs that recognized people\u2019s talents and gave them the financial boost and the freedom to realize their potential. With Cerny, he had pondered what a game industry version of that could be.<\/p>\n

Keighley liked the idea of centering the fellowship on students, drawing inspiration from the accomplishments of Jenova Chen<\/a>, the USC game design graduate who went on to lead the creation of gently moving, ambitious games such as Flower and Journey.<\/p>\n

Keighley also thought it could be useful to help promising graduates bridge the transition from student to professional.<\/p>\n

\u201cJoining an established studio isn\u2019t always possible\u2014especially in today\u2019s market\u2014and even then, it isn\u2019t the right path for everyone,\u201d Keighley said. A fellowship, he realized, could give \u201cgraduates the time, resources and guidance to pursue a game of their own and not worry about the commercial viability.\u201d<\/p>\n

As the idea took shape, Cerny also saw an opportunity to enable more games of a certain type: \u201cThe target with the grants is games as an artistic medium,\u201d Cerny told me. \u201cWe like to say games with \u2018artistic, literary and societal value.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

He added: \u201cI\u2019m a pretty big gamer myself, though I tend to gravitate towards the smaller and more unique or artistic titles, games like Neva, Abzu, Gorogoa, Stray or Outer Wilds. I was just playing and Roger<\/a> on a flight to Japan, and was getting misty eyed to a degree that I was concerned that a flight attendant would ask me if I was OK.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo one fun benefit here is the games that will come out of the Nova Games Foundation \u2013 I can\u2019t wait to play them myself.\u201d<\/p>\n

Cerny believes it will also be useful for Nova fellows to hone their craft and team leadership skills. \u201cWe are looking for the next generation of visionaries,\u201d he said. \u201cThe trick is that they will also need to have the executive function necessary to drive a small project to completion.\u201d<\/p>\n

Keighley and Cerny may have started Nova and may be the ones primarily backing it right now, but they\u2019re dreaming of something that goes beyond them. <\/p>\n

\u201cMark and I may have helped get it started, but one of our measures of success is that Nova grows into something the entire games industry feels a sense of ownership in,\u201d Keighley said.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur ambition is to build a lasting endowment supported by people and companies across the industry, and an equally broad community of creators willing to give their time and experience to the next generation.\u201d The industry has a lot of knowledge that it can pass to the next generation, Keighley said: \u201cNova can hopefully become a way to connect that generosity with talented young creators at the moment when it can make the biggest difference.\u201d<\/p>\n

Cerny, who told me he believes Nova can mature \u201cover the next 10 or 20 years,\u201d sees an opportunity to give generations of game makers momentum. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe industry has changed immeasurably since I started in games in 1982,\u201d he said. \u201cThese graduates have talent, training and tools that outclass what we had back in the day by an astonishing amount. But they face a tough road ahead getting traction in the industry, and many could benefit from our support. We want to be there to give it to them.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s a personal side to this, too,\u201d Keighley said. \u201cI don\u2019t have children, and I\u2019ve spent a lot of time thinking about what I can do for future generations. Games have been my entire career. I\u2019ve been incredibly fortunate, and helping someone else build a life in this industry feels like a meaningful way to give back.\u201d<\/p>\n

Cerny\u2019s oeuvre dates back to Marble Madness and Sonic the Hedgehog 2. He has stood on stage multiple times to reveal the future of PlayStation hardware. He\u2019s been an executive producer for a string of modern PlayStation classics such as The Last Guardian and Marvel\u2019s Spider-Man. Nevertheless, of Nova, he said, \u201cIt\u2019s certainly not like anything I\u2019ve done before.\u201d<\/p>\n

Nova Foundation applications will be due in December and the first wave of fellows will be announced in March 2027. A full list of participating universities and steps students and recent graduates can take to apply to become a Nova Fellow is forthcoming.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Geoff Keighley (left) and Mark Cerny. Photos via The Game Awards and Sony Interactive Entertainment The first thing…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":841050,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[74],"class_list":["post-841049","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-technology","tag-technology"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/841049","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=841049"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/841049\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/841050"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=841049"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=841049"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=841049"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}