Astro Bot’s Award Triumph: The Hidden Impact You Didn’t Expect

Image courtesy of Team Asobi/Sony Interactive Entertainment.

It was both remarkable and unexpected to see Team Asobi’s Astro Bot win another game of the year award at the 2025 DICE Awards. As Chris Kerr, news editor for Game Developer, put it, “there’s catharsis to be found in the silly and absurd,” and Astro Bot brings that catharsis in abundance. It’s certainly a worthy contender alongside any other game of the year nominee from 2024, without a doubt.

With that said, numerous small, cathartic games have contended for top-end-of-year awards for many years—but few emerge beyond the larger, more dramatic titles. You either witness epic giants like The Last of Us Part 2 dominate ceremonies, or observe developers get overshadowed as the ambitious designs of games like Elden Ring rush through the competition. To see the little blue-and-white bot tap-dancing past renowned games like Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny and Helldivers 2, while also quickly passing 2024 sensation Balatro (giving each of them a little kiss on the cheek as it goes), marks a departure from the trends of the past decade.

Is it a fluke? A victory? A result of split ballots from first-past-the-post voting systems? Perhaps! Or maybe not? At the ceremony, Team Asobi’s studio head Nicolas Doucet told Game Developer that there might be something more profound occurring behind the victories, a “deeper message” indicating that game developers and players are ready to embrace “more compact” games.

“Fun doesn’t have to come in a large size”

When we caught Doucet, he had already made several appearances, accepting the studio’s accolades for technical, animation, and design excellence, as well as ‘family game of the year.’ He expressed a desire for more of the studio to be present in Las Vegas for the event, as these wins represent a significant collective achievement for Team Asobi.

But credit Doucet—he consistently takes time at award shows to acknowledge not just his collaborators, but also his colleagues in game development. At The Game Awards in December 2024, he showed gratitude to a particular developer in Kyoto for serving as a tremendous source of inspiration and for “demonstrating that there’s always innovation and quality” in platformers, acting as a significant motivator for him and Asobi.

“I’ve managed to avoid mentioning them, have you noticed?” he inquired, his gaze sweeping across the audience—likely directed toward where Sony management was seated. His willingness to show that kind of appreciation suggests he’s a leader who understands the gaming industry as a collaborative ecosystem, even as companies typically see each other as rivals.

Image courtesy of Team Asobi/Sony Interactive Entertainment.

That insight was evident at DICE as well. He remarked that while Astro Bot had already collected many Game of the Year honors, the DICE award was one bestowed by his peers in game development—an acknowledgment earned with appreciation for the effort required to create a compact game overflowing with joy. “It’s crucial that we produced a game that is quite compact, that does not aim to be excessively large,” he stated. “I recognize this means it carries a deeper message than we initially thought it did.”

What was that message? “Fun doesn’t have to come in a large size,” he explained. “It’s not about volume. I think we assumed [that] early on, and now after this, even more so.”

“It’s going to be a challenge for us to maintain simplicity and truly prioritize quality over quantity.”

“Quality over quantity” is a significant struggle for the video game industry

Do not interpret Doucet’s remarks as a critique of the larger-budget projects that Astro Bot has surpassed. Once again, a director who takes time to acknowledge his direct competitors is someone ensuring he does not view the industry as a brutal contest, and many of Sony’s major titles are featured in Astro Bot as collectible companions adorned with delightful outfits that players can discover throughout their journey.

However, it certainly serves as a gentle nudge toward the gaming industry’s direction since the heyday of the 3D platformers that inspired Astro Bot. As a resident Star Wars enthusiast at Game Developer, the history of Star Wars games provides an invaluable benchmark in this discussion.Star Wars Jedi Knight II: Jedi Outcast
required just about a year and a half to develop. Star Wars Jedi: Survivor took roughly three years, not considering the groundwork it gained from its predecessor Jedi: Fallen Order. Star Wars Outlaws took about four years. Each game is packed with creative and technical efforts that demanded larger and larger teams—but how much of that effort is appreciated by players?

Outlaws‘ significant budget made it all the more disappointing when it launched to relatively modest sales. When polished games created by dedicated teams do not succeed, it results in substantial funds spent with minimal return.

Astro Bot was not in danger of encountering that situation. Former Gamesindustry.biz editor Christopher Dring mentioned in 2024 that it was developed in approximately three years by a team of around 60 individuals. This yields its 1.5 million copies sold within two months a very effective return on investment for Sony. This is comparable to the success of Dragon Age: The Inquisition, a title produced by a much larger team over a development span of seven to ten years, depending on how you define it.

(A significant note—the expansive budgets and development timelines for high-profile games often entail the responsibilities of the individuals working on them, and these comparisons should not be viewed as an assessment of quality. I feel compelled to emphasize this because even some industry experts are being remarkably dismissive of The Inquisition, a game that was well-received by the 1.5 million-plus players who opted to purchase it).

Doucet has it right. The industry recognition for Astro Bot conveys an important message. The cynical and profit-driven may view its accomplishments and suggest a shift toward creating 3D platformers that attract players of all ages. However, the perceptive and innovative will recognize the same outcome and note that there are countless remarkable games that could be made within the same budget and team size—and they simply require those in charge of the finances to enable it.

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