Most of the winners of the Jeff Keighley Game Awards are determined through a combination of public voting and jury selection — PC Gamer is one of those jurors — but one award, called the Player’s Voice, depends entirely on the public. Right now, the leader of that public vote is overwhelmingly Sonic Frontiers.
After coming out on top in the first two rounds, Sonic Frontiers has a whopping 48% of the vote in the third and final round of Voting in the Actors’ Voice Award (opens in a new tab). In second place, Genshin Impact has 29%, and in third, Alden Ring has only 13%. God of War: Ragnarok is in fourth place with 8%, and Stray has the last place at 2%.
“Can I have a Sonic Sweep?!?!?!” wrote Sega’s senior PR manager Evan Bader on Twitter (opens in a new tab) Earlier in the day.
Sonic Frontiers is not among the nominees chosen by the jury for the overall TGA Game of the Year award, although Alden Ring, God of War: Ragnarok and Stray are. The others in the GOTY category are Horizon Forbidden West, A Plague Tale: Requiem and Xenoblade Chronicles 3. It’s pretty obvious that Alden Ring will win this category. In the past I thought that Ragnarok might have a chance to upset it, but if the public and the jury vote the way they did in the cast vote, it won’t come close.
The voice actor award, however, will likely go to Sonic Frontiers, which was not nominated for any other game awards. From one perspective, this disparity illustrates why major awards shouldn’t be decided entirely by fan vote. Game prizes says (opens in a new tab) It mixes jury voting and public voting to prevent winners from being “socially engineered”, and the Sonic Fan Lobby, which also awarded Sonic Frontiers (opens in a new tab) A higher Metacritic user score than Alden Ring, seems pretty good at coordinating his enthusiasm.
An alternative interpretation, however, is that Sonic Frontiers’ de-nomination means it’s simply underrated by mainstream critics. Our anti-voice bias exposed! (Plus it came out a little late in the year.)
Can I have a sonic sweep?!?!?! Round 3 of player voting for #TheGameAwards is over and Sonic Frontiers is taking a commanding lead. Vote at: https://t.co/cOdgfvXJM0#SonicSweep #SonicFrontiers pic.twitter.com/PcwrHUHOlSDecember 5, 2022
However, the gap between fans and professional critics is not as abysmal as I thought. PC Gamer’s Sonic Frontiers review wasn’t stellar, but there are plenty of positive reviews from critics. According to Gene Park b The Washington Post (opens in a new tab)Frontier’s controls, soundtrack, “evoking” storytelling, and Sonic Adventures-style structure are a boon for longtime Sonic fans.
“Sonic Frontiers won’t win any awards, and it doesn’t need them,” Park wrote in November. “For Hedgehog fans, experiencing the game feels like winning a lifetime achievement award.”
That last bit may be true, but unless Genshin Impact fans rally quickly (and the gap between the games does close a bit today), it looks like Frontiers will win at least one non-imaginary award after all.
Non-Sonic fans seem to be getting into Sonic Sweep, too. As I saw one voter say on Twitter, Alden Ring and his ilk will get all the attention at the main awards, so why not vote for another game in the one category where the favorites can be beaten?
vote for Voice of the Actors Award (opens in a new tab), as well as the other game prizes, are open for two more days. The winners will be announced at the 2022 Game Awards this Thursday at 7:30 PM ET.