Apparently many fans of sonic frontiers and of the TGA “The Game Awards” they think the popular gacha game “Genshin Impact” would be buying votes in the awards category Player’s Voice, since, they say, it has been very suspicious and has generated some disgust.
Things went so viral that even the host of the TGAs, Geoff Keighleyaddressed the allegations of bribery and bots in today’s Reddit AMA.
Genshin Impact has a premium currency called primogems, which is used to launch gacha characters for a limited time. Primogems are distributed sparingly compared to other gacha games, so the community likes to joke that Genshin players will do anything for them.
Today’s one kind of a day pic.twitter.com/YzpPeRNpcy
—KAI. 🍓 (H) (@kaiiteaa) December 2, 2022
So you probably already understand where the problem with Sonic Frontiers and Genshin Impact is, instead of organic popularity and interest, it has been speculated that Genshin players are being motivated to vote for primogems.
Last year, even Genshin Impact won the award for “best mobile game” at TGA, right after the show, HoYoverse handed out 10 gacha rolls to all of his players, a redditor took to Keighley’s Reddit AMA to ask what he was going to do about the “bribery” and the “botting” in the player’s choice prizes.
To which Keighley replied:
I think it’s the fanbases turning on to support a game, or a game promoting their nomination to their fanbase, this is part of the reason we don’t have 100 percent fan votes on the main categories. even so, he promised that TGA would be more aware of these cases and would be “investigating this now”.
Some Sonic Frontiers fans were even upset that he might beat God of War Ragnarok either sonic frontiers, but it is understandable that the hit action-adventure game “God of War Ragnarök” was loved by critics across the board. On the other hand, critics criticized “Sonic Frontiers” for being tedious, so it would be more correct to say that both Sonic and Genshin benefit from having a high-profile IP.
For those who are really upset about the possibility of HoYoverse using their fan base to push Genshin to win the award, you should know that at the end of the day The Game Awards is just a marketing booster within the industry.
This is not a corruption scandal at the level of many other issues that occur worldwide, so in the end the best thing we can do is enjoy video games and not create senseless wars or controversies because of a simple prize.