And Then There were Five
Like them or not, awards are a big thing. Getting enough awards – or even nominations – is enough to boost sales for your book or game. The industry likes to clap itself on the back and give awards to who they think deserves it the most, and unfortunately, that’s bound to upset some people, with calls about favoritism or accusations of snubbing running rampant.
At this year’s TGA awards, Sony have a good reason to be confident. This has been an excellent year for the publisher, where most of the most popular releases have been PlayStation exclusives, and they’ve earned a whopping 22 nominations across the categories – just shy of Nintendo’s record of 23 in 2017, but one of the most contested awards of the night is the Player’s Voice award since, unlike most categories, this one gives players themselves the deciding vote.
While voting is still ongoing, with three of the final five nominees being PlayStation exclusives, two, in particular, stand out as likely winners: Ghost of Tsushima and The Last of Us: Part 2.
Both have received critical acclaim, although as far as previous awards go, The Last of Us has proven more popular, sweeping the Golden Joystick awards earlier this year. However, it’s important to remember that The Last of Us Part 2 may be critically adored, but reaction among players has been much more divisive, and the game was the victim of a targetted review-bombing campaign by people put off by the early leaks, storyline, or accusations of pandering to SJW’s. The campaign was so successful that Metacritic changed its rules to ignore any reviews that come out before anyone could reasonably play enough of a game to make an informed opinion. Ghost of Tsushima – currently leading by 10 points – proved much less divisive; any of the “SJW” themes that put people off about The Last of Us: Part 2, such as LGBT characters, have been pushed to the sidelines, and since the game was wholly original as opposed to a sequel, they don’t have to worry about fans who were unhappy with the fates of certain characters.
Both games explore similar themes, like revenge and guerrilla warfare, and both feature unflinching violence, but ultimately I think this will go to Ghost of Tsushima – the people who hated The Last of Us: Part 2 enough, whatever their reasons, are unlikely to roll over and let it take home an award they get to vote for, so it looks like as far as this specific award goes, they’ll be settling for second place.
Who do you think will take home the prize? Let us know in the comments, on Twitter, or on Facebook.