The game, which features the space adventures of a small robot, also won three other titles for “best family game”, “best production” and “best action/adventure game”.
«Astro Bot»a game in the form of a tribute to the flagship heroes of Sony's consoles, won the title of video game of the year Thursday evening at the Game Awards 2024, a central annual ceremony in the video game industry. On stage at the Peacock Theater in Los Angeles, Frenchman Nicolas Doucet, director of the Japanese studio Team Asobi, thanked his team for its “generosity”. “They are not in the calculation, they are just thinking about the children, because we have the immense privilege of potentially being the first game in their hands”he declared.
The platform game, which features the space adventures of a small robot, also won the titles of “best family game”, “best achievement” et “best action/adventure game” – major victories for the studio of 65 people. Sold more than 1.5 million copies according to Sony (owner of Team Asobi), «Astro Bot» scored the highest score of the year on the review aggregator site Metacritic, with 94 out of 100, tied with “Metaphor : ReFantasia” et «Elden Ring : Shadows of the Erdtree»two nominees for the supreme title.
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Awards and celebrities
Latest from the director of the saga «Persona»Katsura Hashino, “Metaphor : ReFantasia” did not leave empty-handed. This medieval-fantasy adventure from the Japanese studio Atlus, published by Sega, received the awards for best role-playing game and best narration. As for «Balatro»another favorite – a poker game powered by popular streamers – he pocketed “best indie game” et “best mobile game”.
For their eleventh edition, the Game Awards invited several celebrities to participate, including actor Harrison Ford and rapper Snoop Dogg, who performed a song from his new album «Missionary». The ceremony also gave pride of place to announcements of new games, including «Intergalatic»by the Naughty Dog studio, director of «The Last of Us». Josef Fares, the founder of Hazelight Studios, presented with great enthusiasm and swearing «Split Fiction»a game between science fiction and fantasy. Its previous title, «It takes two»had sold more than 20 million copies and won the highest award in 2021.
Geoff Keighley, the host of the Game Awards, also returned to the wave of layoffs which hit the sector this year, a “sad reality”. He presented a new prize, called «Game Changer» (“the one who changes things”) to Amir Satvat for his support to many unemployed developers. “Over the last three years, we have lost more than 34,000 jobs”lamented the influencer on the verge of tears. “This has consequences. You can't make great games without great people.”
