Astro Bot Being 2024’s Game Of The Year Has Absolutely Zero Haters

Team Asobi is out there making moves, and I couldn’t be happier witnessing this talented Japanese developer manifest its success. At the end of The Game Awards ceremony today, Swen Vincke — Larian Studios CEO and the man behind the artful work of Baldur’s Gate 3 — came on stage, delivering a powerful speech about modern-day game development, and also announcing this year’s Game of the Year. 

I knew Astro Bot was right up there with the top dogs, but I was pretty convinced that Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth is going to take the grand prize home.

Now I feel like a lost little puppy, but a delighted one all the same. 

Unanimously Loved And Rightfully So

Featuring hundreds of character cameos including the ones from top video game franchises, Astro Bot has left no stone unturned in delivering utmost fan service to players. From invoking nostalgia thanks to a brilliant display of classic characters, including Alucard from Castlevania: Symphony of the Night, to including relatively more modern figures such as Kratos, the game is a proper blast, and there’s no question about it. 

Not only did the devs promise free DLC post-launch for Astro Bot prior to its release, but the holiday season has brought the Winter Wonder update for the action-adventure title, offering a swath of new content for players and spreading the magic stuff all across the campaign. All of this just adds to the love and passion that the developer has poured into Astro Bot. 

You will need to have completed the game for this special update to appear. Since we want it to remain a little surprise, we will not say too much, but you should expect a fun-filled level with shiny presents, a good dose of jingle bells, and brand-new special bots to add to your crew!” affirms Team Asobi. 

A Stark Contrast With The Likes Of Concord

Millions of dollars dumped down the drain, that’s how it went with Concord. This live service shooter remained in development for 8 whole years, while growing from a massive budget of over $400 million. The end game? Concord shut down merely two weeks after launching, suffering a disappointing reception from fans and critics that left the project in the dust, quite literally. 

While one could say that the hero shooter should’ve seen its fate coming in light of recent like-minded projects, there’s no commenting on how bad Concord actually ended up performing. I mean, picture a AAA, high-budget Sony game rolling over 25,000 copies in its opening week, and then getting shut down in the week after. 

It’s wild. 

But what’s even more wild is that a significantly low-budget title spearheaded by a development team that’s small in numbers has gone on to win Game of the Year. A stark contrast to say the least, and what better to describe the scenario other than imparting insights from Swen Vincke’s terrific speech at TGA this year.

The Oracle told me that the game of the year 2025 was going to be made by a studio, a studio who found the formula to make it up here on stage. It’s stupidly simple, but somehow it keeps on getting lost. Studio made their game because they wanted to make a game that they wanted to play themselves. They created it because it hadn’t been created before.

He continued, “They didn’t make it to increase market share. They didn’t make it to serve as a brand. They didn’t have to meet arbitrary sales targets or fear being laid off if they didn’t meet those targets.

And furthermore, the people in charge forbade them from cramming the game with anything whose only purpose was to increase revenue and didn’t serve the game design.” 

Good News For The Future 

Astro Bot’s towering success might have already paved the way to a full-blown sequel. I might be speculating here, but the studio that produced 2024’s Game of the Year has to be crazy not to cash in on the success that this IP is enjoying at the moment. Talk about an immense pre-release hype that will result in millions of sales when Astro Bot’s follow-up comes out. 

Perhaps the PlayStation 6 will cater to something of the sort, but it’s best not to hold your breath just yet for Captain Astro’s return. Yes, that’s what our adorable mascot was called internally at first. 

Well, until there’s more to talk about on an official front, I’m afraid we’ll have to put our waiting pants on for the foreseeable future. Thank you, Team Asobi, for producing this gem.