Genshin Impact Shelling Out Rewards For TGA Votes, Sonic Frontiers Fans Claim

Sonic Frontiers is one of the games nominated for the Players’ Voice Award at the upcoming The Game Awards (TGA) this year. With 41 per cent of the votes so far, it can be assumed that the newest Sonic game will win the award this year.

The Players’ Voice Award is an award where the winner is 100 per cent determined by fans. It has three rounds, and fans are able to vote across those three rounds. The game with the highest number of votes after three rounds will be crowned the winner of the Players’ Voice Awards.

Genshin Impact, another nominee for the same award, is currently in second place, and could cause an upset at the eleventh hour. During the second round, Genshin Impact managed to overtake Sonic Frontiers, even if only for a little while. This caused some Sonic Frontiers fans to allege that Genshin Impact used either bots or offered free Primogems, the game’s in-game currency, to garner those votes.

holy shit Mihoyo must've promised primogems at some point we just lost that lead to genshin in 7 hours pic.twitter.com/jSzIknSlOC — Mlick (@Mlickles) December 2, 2022

Primogem is a premium currency in Genshin Impact, and players can either pay for them directly or by completing missions. This currency can be used to roll for valuable characters and items in the game.

This issue was brought to The Game Awards host Geoff Keighley’s attention during a recent Ask Me Anything (AMA) session on Reddit.

During the AMA, one user asked Keighley what he and his team are going to do about the alleged bribery and bots that are potentially influencing the results of the Players’ Voice Award.

“I don’t know (if) it’s bots. I think it’s the fanbases activating to support the game or a game promoting its nominations to its fans.”

He added that this is the reason why the results of the categories of the TGA are not 100 per cent decided by fan votes.

“It tends to be which companies promote their nominations and which fan bases activate the drive the voting,” he said.

Keighley, however, assured fans that he and his team would look into the matter immediately.

Last year, Genshin Impact won “Best Mobile Game” award at The Game Awards 2021. To show their appreciation, miHoYo gave out 1,600 Primogems from December 11 to December 14. These 1,600 Primogems allowed players to roll ten times, which is the maximum amount of rolls players can do at a time.

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

It comes as no surprise, then, if some Genshin Impact players are voting for the game in hopes of receiving similar rewards this year.As at the time of writing, Sonic Frontiers and Genshin Impact are still the top two contenders for Players’ Choice Award. Other nominees in the category are Elden Ring, God of War: Ragnarok, and Stray.

For those who have not voted, you may cast your ballots here.