The Game Awards introduced a new Player’s Voice Award, where the winner in this category is decided solely by gamers, rather than letting their vote count for only 10% like in other categories. This year, the votes are pretty heated, with the two most highly voted games – Sonic Frontiers and Genshin Impact – being neck and neck in the race to the top. But along the way, it seems that fans of both have gotten themselves engaged in some pretty heated drama.
A Twitter account that goes by @TailsChannel has been keeping track with the Player’s Choice Award votes for The Game Awards 2022. The person behind the account claims that both Sonic Frontiers and Genshin Impact are at a dead heat with 39% votes going to both. Also claimed is that the former is expected to break the tie, but considering the account handle, it’s hard to dismiss the possibility of bias in that claim.
Tuesday 1:18 pm ET: #SonicFrontiers and Genshin Impact at a dead heat – former is expected to break the tie.
Stray, for the first time in the round, will make a significant gain while Elden Ring falters. #SonicNews pic.twitter.com/YFFIKYczYM
— Tails' Channel (@TailsChannel) December 6, 2022
On come corners of the internet though, things are taken to quite the extreme, and arguably too far as well. Over on the Sonic Subreddit, mods have had to ban posts regarding the Player’s Choice Award because they have been “so repetitive and, in some cases, toxic”. On the opposite side, there are claims that miHoYo is bribing players to vote for its game by giving them premium currency. Which is the wrong flow of events, even if such claims are based on Genshin Impact winning the Best Mobile Game award at last year’s The Game Awards.
Dear Travelers,
Thanks to your support, Genshin Impact has won the "Best Mobile Game" award at The Game Awards 2021.
We will be giving out 1,600 Primogems from December 11 to December 14! Thank you for coming alongside us through this journey.#GenshinImpact
— Genshin Impact (@GenshinImpact) December 10, 2021
If all this sounds familiar, this is because a similar thing happened during The Game Awards of 2020, when the Player’s Choice Awards was introduced for the fist time. The top two contenders were Ghost of Tsushima and The Last of Us Part II, with the former proving to have won the hearts of more fans ultimately. With only one more day to go, perhaps all this heated discussion will finally go away when either Sonic Frontiers of Genshin Impact wins.
(Source: @TailsChannel, Reddit, miHoYo)
