【鳴潮】プレイヤーズ・ボイス大賞受賞は不正を働いているのか？　-Is Wuthering Waves Cheating Its Way to the Players’ Voice Award?-

【鳴潮】プレイヤーズ・ボイス大賞受賞は不正を働いているのか？　-Is Wuthering Waves Cheating Its Way to the Players’ Voice Award?-

Wuwa The Game Awards 2025 Players’ Voice Category Grand Prize Winner Congratulations (Applause) Oha Ienashi! This video is about the annual award ceremony held in America celebrating achievements in the gaming industry, The Game Awards (TGA) 2025, in the Players Voice category where Wuwa was selected for the grand prize. As one fan, I thought “congratulations,” but maybe it’s the fate of Chinese games, I also heard voices saying “they must have cheated anyway,” so is it reasonable to think they cheated? This is a casual discussion video rambling about my thoughts. Please listen while sitting in your kotatsu. Here’s the main content right away. Although I said I’d ramble, I want to separate facts from opinions, so first, the facts phase. “Wuwa” is an action RPG released in May 2024 by China’s KURO GAMES. You can play it on smartphones, so it’s a gacha game
(though I only play the PC version). According to an American research company’s game and social media market analysis site Sensor Tower, Wuwa’s download rankings in Japan for the past month look like this
(Note: this is download rankings, not sales) Wuwa released a new version on November 20th, and on that day it ranked 6th. Release days usually hit single digits, then gradually decline after that, then rise again on release day… that’s the pattern it follows. By the way, looking at the king of gacha games, HoYo games, this is Genshin, consistently around 15th place. This is Honkai: Star Rail, declining gradually from the teens, but note that Honkai: Star Rail’s most recent release was November 5th, just outside this range. Here’s Zenless Zone Zero. As you’d imagine, this is the recent release date at 11th place, then hovering around 50th place after that. Since this is new download numbers, relatively new games like Wuwa and Zenless have an advantage, note that. In that sense, Genshin and Star Rail, especially Genshin, even though it’s been a long time since release, still ranking high in download rankings (in the teens, and not even on release day) is honestly impressive. Evaluating based only on this ranking, you could say Wuwa is showing performance comparable to HoYo
(though in sales, it’s still chasing). So what exactly is the “TGA” “Players Voice” that Wuwa won? It’s often called “Game of the Year (GOTY),” but this doesn’t mean “the one interesting game decided globally per year.” In reality, various media outlets decide their own GOTY. One of the so-called “Big Four GOTYs” is TGA, now in its 12th year. The viewership is increasing year by year, making it a festival with growing attention. TGA has various categories, and the most prestigious is “Game of the Year.” This year, “Clair Obscur: Expedition 33” was selected
(I haven’t played it, but is it good? Tell me). Besides GOTY, there’s “Best Art Direction” category, “Best Role-Playing Game” category, 29 categories in total. This year Expedition (and the actress who played it) swept 9 of these categories, but that’s beside the point. One of these categories is the “Players’ Voice” category. While other categories are led by judges, only the “Players’ Voice” category aims to select “the game most supported by players this year” and is uniquely decided 100% by fan voting. Every year, selection proceeds in three stages. In 2025, the 1st round selected these 30 titles. FFXIV is there too. The five titles that made it to the final round in the past five years look like this. “Genshin” is always there, and in 2022, it even won the grand prize. For gacha games like Genshin, when they win such awards, they occasionally distribute items for gacha pulls, so using grand prize rewards as a carrot to encourage voting behavior, gacha games tend to have an advantage in this category. However, last year, even though Genshin, Zenless, and Wuwa all made it to the finals, the grand prize was taken by a mysterious console game. That grand prize game was also from China, so considering China’s large population gives an advantage, being a “Chinese” “gacha game” must be the perfect attributes for competing in this category. As for Wuwa, last year it made it to the finals but narrowly lost. This year it was nominated again, defeated the dominant game “Genshin,” and won the grand prize, which was yesterday (at the time of this video). By the way, to be fair, I should mention this too: as I mentioned earlier, when Genshin won the grand prize in 2022, it distributed 800 gacha items. Wuwa, this year, “just for being nominated,” distributed 1000 gacha items, and on the day it won, distributed an additional 1600 items. The total distribution (2600 items) is over three times Genshin’s. The gacha items for the games I just mentioned, to put it very roughly, are about 1 item = 1 yen (※calculated at 2x crystal rate), so they’re giving 2600 yen to all players. By the way, I’m the type who usually finds web voting too much of a hassle
(I do vote in elections though!), but when they give 1000 items just for nomination, the carrot ahead must be delicious— I mean, oops, I want “Wuwa” to do well with pure thoughts, so I voted this time. Result: grand prize winner. However, regarding this result, most of X (Twitter) has a “congrats to Wuwa” tone, and even Genshin players are saying congrats to Wuwa— many people are, of course, but there’s still fraud— specifically, introducing fake voters
“`
—
# Sequence 1_2 – English Translation
“` to inflate vote counts, comments like that— it’s a qualitative expression, but there were quite a few
(you can search for those terms). That was the “facts” section. Now, here are my “impressions.” First, I want to make something clear: the feeling that “they might be cheating”— I understand it. Well, it’s the country’s reputation. Not specifically about Kuro Games, but it’s a country where even core statistics like GDP are said to be questionable. I’m quite out of touch with the world, but even so, not Kuro or HoYo specifically, but as the overall culture of their entertainment industry, I occasionally hear rumors from insiders like “they’re really doing that?” Plus, in the “facts” phase earlier, I listed download ranking information, which are “facts”
(= “things that actually happened or exist”), but whether they’re “truth” is another matter
(= “being true without lies or falsehood”). Regarding the accuracy and credibility of those statistics, there are probably many who know more than I do. So, I honestly understand the feeling of wanting to doubt. Having said that, I think “they didn’t do it.” Not because “Wuwa is so fun!” That’s not what I’m saying. Lie— I’ll say that too, later, but separate from that, there’s a reason I think “they didn’t do it.” As I mentioned earlier, they already distributed sooooooo many crystals! Three times what Genshin did. 2600 yen worth per person— that’s quite a bleeding loss. This is very rough accounting, but Wuwa’s Steam version active users averaged about 10,000 in November, so just looking at that, 2600 yen × 10,000 people equals a total loss of 26 million yen. Of course, not everyone who didn’t get 2600 crystals this time would buy that many crystals in the future, right? That’s different— there are many free-to-play and light spenders, so the 26 million yen figure is a worst-case scenario number. But these 10,000 active players are only Steam version PC players. I’m a PC player but not on Steam, and there are PS5 and smartphone players too. It’s leaving soon, but Epic was supported, so non-Steam players are overwhelmingly more numerous (speculation though). In that sense, Steam version PC players are just the tip of the iceberg, I think. That alone is a worst-case 26 million yen, so distributing 2600 crystals per person from a macro perspective is a pretty bold distribution amount, I think. So, putting aside my feelings as one fan that “Wuwa’s content is fun!” and thinking about it, they’re spending that much money dangling carrots, so winning the grand prize over Genshin makes sense, and is it something that couldn’t happen without fraud? I’d say no. In other words, instead of spending the funds Wuwa has on labor and system costs for cheating, they spent it on distributing crystals to existing users— meaning they gave up future revenue to encourage existing users’ voting behavior. I think this simply worked out. They’re visibly spending considerable money, so would they also spend invisibly? That’s the thing. Of course, I don’t know the truth. And one more thing I want to discuss: So, hypothetically, spending money to have people or systems with no attachment to the game vote mechanically—they didn’t do that. What they did was spend money to massively distribute crystals to existing users to encourage voting. That said, dangling carrots to existing users to encourage voting behavior— is that fraud? Well, I don’t think anyone would call it “fraud,” but for an award selecting “the game most supported by players this year,” considering the purpose, is that an “appropriate” activity? Some might think that. Judging “appropriateness” is more subjective than judging “fraud,” so I won’t deny people who think “that’s not appropriate.” But at least for me, I think it’s totally appropriate. Because I “support” Wuwa. The game is fun. The game experience it usually provides is fun. Wuwa is great (= support). Even with this quality, sales can’t match HoYo’s— that must be tough. I want it to become more famous and popular
(= desire to promote). Oh, Players’ Voice— it made it to the finals! And they’re giving crystals? So for me to enjoy Wuwa even more, you’re spending money? Thank you! Huh? 1000 items just for nomination? That’s like promising to distribute insane crystals if they win the grand prize! If you’re spending that much, and you usually entertain me (← super important), alright, Kuro Games, let’s make you successful! Ienashi, usually unrelated to web voting, *click* voted! This time, with this emotional progression, I arrived at voting. If you watch my usual videos, you’ll understand, but originally I felt “every 6 weeks, without forced spending, they give us this—thank you!” “I want to support them!” I had those feelings, and with the Players’ Voice nomination being an “opportunity to support” and massive crystal distribution as a “hook,” I simply gave form to that “pre-existing support.” So from my perspective, zero sense of being bought. From Wuwa’s perspective, they didn’t use temporary rewards to twist players’ stances to obtain “support,”
—
# Sequence 1_3 – English Translation
“` but rather made visible the player “support” arising from usual game experiences with a final push. That’s how it feels. So at least for me, regarding becoming “the game most ‘supported’ by players,” and Wuwa’s efforts toward winning this award, I felt no elements harming fairness whatsoever. Well, outsiders and fans like me might perceive it a bit differently, but still, if the game itself isn’t fun, I wouldn’t support it. Crystals alone won’t move me. So pointing only at “crystal distribution” as a method and linking it to “grand prize winning” feels a bit unfair to Wuwa
(I felt the same about Genshin three years ago). They openly distributed crystals and already gave up considerable future profits, so on top of that, secretly paying to manipulate votes— we don’t need to take such a cynical view. That’s what I think (not forcing it on you though). And one more thing: Wuwa winning the grand prize— besides “usually fun game” and “crystal distribution,” there’s one more big factor I think contributed: that is “unity between management and user community.” FFXIV has that too. Had it? Has it. Recently, I felt that strongly with Honkai: Star Rail, not Wuwa. Star Rail, like Wuwa, is in a transition period to the next stage. Originally, a Japan-themed planet was the next stage, but given recent political circumstances, it was apparently hastily canceled. The other day, not in a preview stream or anything, just in an X (Twitter) post, the next planet was announced. This concept art was, well, terrible. Compared to Star Rail’s usual quality, it’s a terrible level, obviously rushed. But not a single person blamed the situation. Not only no blame, but more than that, comments like “Hang in there, devs!” and “Get proper sleep”— there were really many positive comments. Not a “service provider” and “customer” relationship. Wuwa has a similar atmosphere, and why that’s achieved is something I haven’t fully thought through yet, so another video. But what’s certain is that usual atmosphere increases the probability of voting when “we’ve been nominated” and such moments come. Especially since Wuwa’s recognition is lower compared to HoYo games, community members have a sense of “I’ll make it famous” like volunteer spirit— each person has it, I “feel.” I might ramble forever, so to summarize: What I wanted to say in this video is certainly “desperate crystal distribution” was a factor that secured the last mile, but crystal distribution is just a gimmick. Behind it is the usual game’s fun itself and careful communication with users (hypothesis), creating “unity,” which produces “desire to support.” That’s why they won the grand prize, I think. Also, they distributed crystals visibly and spent money, so saying they also secretly spent money doing wrong— we don’t need to go that far. Well, the country’s reputation— I get the feelings, but still. That’s what I wanted to say, rambling on. To nitpick just one thing: that careful communication (hypothesis) creating community warmth is one of Wuwa’s strengths that can even beat Genshin at times like this. So actions that dampen that, like the communication error when leaving Epic— please be careful in the future
(not the departure itself, but the handling after). On my videos, every time I see comments like “I won’t play Wuwa because of the Epic incident,” I think “Well, being angry about that is understandable,” “Ah, Kuro is really wasting opportunities.” That’s it. That’s all. So, congrats to Wuwa! Next year, Best Mobile Game award— Revenge! Everyone, this is an award with substance, so play Wuwa! Beginners, use my videos (see description)! Everyone, honestly, did you vote this time? The overall TGA award trends and comments about Wuwa’s win— please share them! Ver 3.0 starting December 25th— I’ll thoroughly enjoy it, so please subscribe to the channel! Small tips that don’t make it to videos are on X (Twitter). Please follow! GG, Ienashi!

鳴潮(WutheringWaves,Wuwa)がThe Game Awards 2025のPlayers’ Voice大賞受賞！　おめでとう！　ガチャ石星声うめぇ！
なんですがこの界隈、どうしても不正とか買収とかそういう噂がつきもの。
不正はありうるのか？　Ver3.0そっちのけで考えたことを共有します。
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00:00 はじめに
00:35 事実
04:31 雑感

#鳴潮 #wuwa #wutheringwaves #thegameawards #tga