Last month The Game Awards officially unveiled its nominations in all categories, with one exception. The “Players’ Voice” award is not only voted on by fans, the nominations are determined by them as well, which provides some interesting insight into what players are really excited by in a given year (or which fanbase is most motivated to stuff the ballot box).
Well, the final five nominees for the Players’ Voice award have now been announced, and they’re Marvel’s Spider-Man 2, The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom, Baldur’s Gate 3, Cyberpunk 2077: Phantom Liberty, and Genshin Impact. You can vote on the Players’ Voice award here.
As is often the case, the Players’ Voice nominees are as interesting for what’s not recognized, as what is. Some big commercial successes were not nominated, including the top seller of the year, Hogwarts Legacy, as well as other big names like Diablo IV, Starfield, and Resident Evil 4. Some games heavily recognized in other Game Awards categories, like Alan Wake 2, also don’t make the list. It will be interesting to see who walks away with the Players’ Voice prize – last year, there were back-and-forth accusations of bots and bribery between fans of Genshin Impact and Sonic Frontiers. That said, I don’t see Genshin taking it this year, as I think it’s going to be almost impossible to stop Baldur’s Gate 3.
For those who haven’t been keeping up, you can check out the full list of The Game Awards nominations, right here. The six games up for Game of the Year are Alan Wake 2, Baldur’s Gate 3, Spider-Man 2, Resident Evil 4, Super Mario Bros. Wonder, and The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom.
The Game Awards 2023 will stream on a variety of platforms this Thursday (December 7) at 4:30pm PT and should last for around 2 1/2 hours. The show will be doing away with the cliched “World Premiere” branding for its trailers and reveals, but Geoff Keighley is still promising to unveil plenty of new stuff.
