Summary
Astro Botdirector Nicolas Doucet and fellow developers at Team Asobi didn’t expect the game to win the prestigious Game of the Year award at The Game Awards 2024. The Team Asobi developers who stayed behind in Japan were delighted to seeAstro Botwin the top award, and other key staff from the studio shared their thoughts about the moment.
Released on June 26, 2025,Astro Botis the sequel to 2018’sAstro Bot Rescue Missionfor PlayStation VR and 2020’sAstro’s Playroom, which was a pre-installed launch title for PlayStation 5.Astro Botquickly became the highest-rated PS5 game of the yearand by December, it became one of the six titles nominated for the Game of the Year award. AlongsideAstro Bot, the nominees wereBalatro,Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth,Metaphor: ReFantazio,Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree, andBlack Myth Wukong.
Doucet did not expectAstro Botto win the Game of the Year award atThe Game Awards 2024, but he began to think that Team Asobi would receive the top accolade afterAstro Botwon the Best Game Direction award, according toFamitsu(viaTwisted Voxel). After this award win, Doucet began to prepare notes for a speech on his smartphone leading up to the final award segment. WhenAstro Botwas announced as the Game of the Year winner, Doucet was shocked and looked over to fellow members of Team Asobi who were in attendance, including lead sound designer Junko Sano. Doucet didn’t remember much about the final moments of the awards ceremony and his speech due to his shock at that time. On the other hand, Sano was very happy and felt like the award was an unexpected reward for helping the game earn its positive reception from fans. As a developer involved in the Japanese game industry for a long time, she was moved that many Japanese games were nominated at the show alongsideAstro Bot.
Astro Bot Developers Didn’t Expect to Win GOTY at The Game Awards
Lead game designer Hiroaki Yatoku was also happy to seeAstro Botwin the Game of the Year award, and his lasting impression from the moment was seeing everyone on Team Asobi becoming overjoyed. According to Yatoku, Team Asobi developers who stayed behind in Japan watched the awards ceremony livestream and were very happy to seeAstro Botreceive its honors as Game of the Year. It was a moment that Yatoku watched over and over again, but like Sano, he didn’t think about the awards leading up to the ceremony or while working onAstro Bot.
Astro Botwas one of the top games of 2024with a very strong critical reception on OpenCritic at 95 and Metacritic at 94. The Team Asobi-developed platformer also won the Best Family Game and Best Action/Adventure awards at The Game Awards 2024, alongside Best Game Direction and Game of the Year.
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