Astro Bot wins Game of the Year

Astro Bot has gained the highest prize on the videogame business’s greatest awards ceremony.

The cute and vibrant PlayStation platformer beat Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth, Black Myth: Wukong, Metaphor: Refantazio Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree and Balatro to be named Game of the Year at The Game Awards .

Accepting the trophy, Nicolas Doucet, studio head of developer Team Asobi, appeared to pay tribute to rival Nintendo.

Astro Bot additionally picked up three different awards – Best Family Game, Best Action/Adventure and Best Game Direction.

It was additionally evening for the poker-themed indie hit Balatro, which gained three awards together with Best Mobile Game.

Role-playing sport Metaphor: ReFantazio additionally gained three awards, in what was a powerful evening for Japanese sport builders.

Black Myth: Wukong, based mostly on Chinese legends, proved as soon as once more to be massively widespread with followers, successful the publicly voted Player’s Voice Award.

It was a disappointing evening for Final Fantasy VII: Rebirth, which had been nominated in seven classes however solely took dwelling the perfect music trophy.

Melina Juergens, from Cambridge, UK-based studio Ninja Theory, gained the perfect perfomance prize for taking part in the title function in Hellblade 2: Senua’s Saga.

There aren’t many occasions the place you may get performances from a full orchestra and Snoop Dogg.

The rapper dropped by to current the Best Ongoing Game Award to Helldivers 2, and carry out a brand new music.

And it would not be gaming’s greatest evening with out some shock celeb appearances.

Harrison Ford took to the stage alongside Troy Baker, the person who performs Indiana Jones within the latest sport based mostly on the movie collection.

The Game Awards – generally known as “the Oscars of gaming” – is usually criticised for spending extra time displaying commercials and trailers for brand new video games than it does on handing out awards.

However, final 12 months organisers claimed the occasion attracted 118 million livestream viewers, and people previews are one of many greatest attracts for gaming followers.

In more moderen years, larger publishers have tended to avoid wasting their greatest bulletins for their very own separate stay occasions.

As anticipated, there was no new info on Grand Theft Auto 6 or Nintendo’s subsequent console – two of essentially the most anticipated upcoming releases.

But that did go away room for a model new sport from Naughty Dog, the PlayStation studio identified for hits together with The Last of Us, Uncharted and Crash Bandicoot.

Intergalactic: The Heretic Prophet, launched with a shiny trailer blended to It’s a Sin by the Pet Shop Boys.

A sequel to Capcom’s Okami was additionally revealed, and Polish developer CD Projekt Red confirmed The Witcher 4 was in improvement.

A standard grievance about The Game Awards is that it usually fails to acknowledge wider points within the business.

Against a backdrop of widespread layoffs worldwide – a development that has continued this 12 months – critics of the 2023 present known as for winners to be given extra time on-stage to talk out.

This 12 months’s the occasion launched the Game Changers Award.

The winner, Amir Satvat, a director at Tencent Games within the US, arrange a private mission to assist just lately laid-off sport builders discover new work.

In an emotional acceptance speech, he mentioned “rising up, all I ever wished was to be part of the online game business”.

He additionally thanked his dad and mom, who he mentioned “taught me that my worth lies in how I deal with different folks”.

Larian Studios boss Swen Vincke, who offered the Game of the Year award after his staff’s Baldur’s Gate 3 gained the title final 12 months, was additionally praised for his remarks.

He took goal at chasing market share and “arbitrary gross sales targets” and mourned the “misplaced artwork” of studios making “a sport they wish to play themselves”.

This 12 months’s ceremony passed off as a strike by online game actors over AI protections and dealing situations rumbled on.

Acting union SAG-Aftra and Game Workers of Southern California introduced plans to plans to distribute leaflets exterior the Peacock Theatre venue, the place the ceremony is held, this 12 months.

Other controversies this 12 months have included the nomination of Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree within the Game of the Year class.

Some followers argued the growth pack – an add-on for 2022 Game of the Year Elden Ring – should not have been eligible.

And others had been upset when three of 5 nominations for the Player’s Choice prize – the one award totally voted for by followers – went to free-to-play cell video games together with Genshin Impact.

The remainder of the winners are determined by a panel of business consultants and a fan vote which counts for 10% of the ultimate rating.

There are 30 awards in complete throughout a variety of classes together with audio design, greatest unbiased sport and accessibility and innovation.

The full record of winners is on the Game Awards web site.

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