December 9th is going to be an exciting week for many video game fans as The Game Awards show is set to take place at 4:30 PM PT/7:30 PM EST. Announced last month were the 2021 nominations for The Game Awards 2021 with thirty categories to choose from including Game of the Year, Best Narrative, and Best Art Direction.
As usual, despite many fans agreeing with most of the nominees, there were a few noticeably absent nominations. Such an example is Forza Horizon 5 and Returnal missing from the Game of the Year category. Of course, these lists nominations are not the be-all-end-all for awards. The Game Awards also has another set of voting that takes place starting today.
The first round for the Players’ Voice award has begun with fans being able to vote for their favorite title of the year. Unlike the 30 standard categories in The Game Awards which are largely influenced by a select committee, Player’s Voice is a 100% fan-voted award. There are three rounds in total with the first round ending in a little over a day. Out of thirty games, fans vote for 10 that they want to see progress into the next round. Round 2 then takes place December 5th with fans having to vote for 5 out of the 10 nominated games. The third round takes place December 7th where fans will have to vote for the best game out of the 5 nominated titles. The winner will be announced on December 8th.
The Players Voice award is a great opportunity for fans to show love for titles that might not have been nominated. Interestingly enough, although most games were released in 2021, this isn’t the case for every game such as highly popular multiplayer titles League of Legends and Apex Legends. Additionally, users are able to track what the results currently are.
As of right now, Halo Infinite is leading the charge with Resident Evil Village in second and Forza Horizon 5 in third place. The highly popular Fornite has also broken into the top 10 while Returnal currently sits at 13th place. With another day left of voting, it’s possible this list will change a bit. As of right now, however, it’s an interesting list with some surprises included in the top 10. At the moment there are only two next-gen games listed in the top 10. It probably shouldn’t be too big of a surprise as many fans haven't gotten their hands on a console and console shortages are expected to last for another year.
Regardless of which title ends up taking the crown next week, The Game Awards is sure setting up to be quite a large event. New announcements are still being made such as former Nintendo of America President Reggie Fils-Aime presenting at the event. And of course, there are still the surprise game announcements, but fans will have to wait until next week to see what surprises are in store.
Source: Push Square