Huge coronation for Astro Bot. This 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 their “generosity”. “They're not in the math, they're just thinking about the kids, because we have the immense privilege of potentially being the first game in their hands,” he said.
Four awards for “Astro Bot”
The platform game, which features the space adventures of a small robot, also won the titles of “best family game”, “best production” and “best action/adventure game” – major victories for the studio for 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 Erdtreetwo nominees for the supreme title.
The latest from the director of the “Persona” saga, 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 Balatroanother favorite – a poker game powered by popular streamers – bagged “best indie game” and “best mobile game”.
A sector marked by a wave of layoffs
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 Intergalaticby the Naughty Dog studio, director of The Last of Us.
Josef Fares, the founder of Hazelight Studios, presented with great enthusiasm and swearing Split Fictiona game between science fiction and fantasy. Its previous title, It takes twohad sold more than 20 million copies and won the highest award in 2021.
Geoff Keighley, 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 award, called “Game Changer” to Amir Satvat for his support of 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. »
