Astro Bot Wins, Witcher 4 And New Naughty Dog Game Revealed
Topline
PlayStation’s mascot platformer Astro Bot won the top prize at the 2024 Game Awards on Thursday night as several major studios unveiled their upcoming projects—including a new sci-fi game from the creators of The Last of Us, Naughty Dog, a first glimpse of the Witcher 4 and a sequel to 2022 award winner Elden Ring.
Astro Bot won the game of the year prize and several other awards on Thursday night.
Key Facts
Aside from the big “Game of the Year” prize, Astro Bot also won the “Best Game Direction,” “Best Action/Adventure Game” and “Best Family Game” awards.
In an emotional acceptance speech, the game’s director Nicolas Doucet said he was thankful for the “huge privilege to be” potentially the first game many children will play, and paid tribute to Sony’s rival Nintendo and its flagship Mario series for inspiring them to make a platformer.
PlayStation maker Sony scored a few other big wins on Thursday night, as its other surprise hit of the year, shooter Helldivers II, won “Best Multiplayer Game” and “Best Ongoing Game.”
Sega’s critically acclaimed role-playing game Metaphor: ReFantazio was the night’s other big winner, as it picked up the “Best Role Playing Game,” “Best Narrative” and “Best Art Direction” prizes.
Indie card game Balatro—which was created by a solo developer and was one of the surprise commercial and critical hits of the year—won “Best Independent Game,” “Best Debut Indie Game” and “Best Mobile Game.”
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What Were The Biggest Announcements At The Game Awards?
As with previous years, aside from the awards, the event also showcased several high-profile new titles from top studios, including Sony’s Naughty Dog, CD Projekt RED, From Software and many others. The night’s biggest announcement was made just before the final award, as Last of Us creator Naughty Dog revealed “Intergalactic: The Heretic Prophet,” a new sci-fi game. Details about the game are sparse, as it is a new franchise for the studio, but on its website, the studio says the game features a new protagonist, Jordan A. Mun, who is a “dangerous bounty hunter.” Tati Gabrielle will play Mun and the game also appears to feature Kumail Nanjiani. CD Projekt RED offered a first look into its next title, The Witcher 4, which stars Ciri—a key side character from the last Witcher game—as its main protagonist. FromSoftware revealed Elden Ring Nightreign a follow-up to the 2022 “Game of the Year” award winner, which is slated to launch next year. Nightreign appears to be a spinoff rather than a direct sequel to Elden Ring, and was described as a “co-op action survival game” instead of an action role-playing game like the original. Capcom also unveiled two games that are follow-ups of 2000s cult classics—the Onimusha action-adventure series and the critically acclaimed Okami. Onimusha: Way of the Sword is the first major entry into the series in nearly two decades and it is scheduled to release in 2026. Way of the Sword appears to retain the fantasy feudal Japan setting seen in other titles in the franchise, but appears to be a soft reboot instead of a sequel. The Japanese publisher also teased that it was working on a sequel to Okami, which was first released in 2006.
Tangent
A notable absentee from the night’s biggest trailers and announcements was Grand Theft Auto VI, the next title in Rockstar Games’ megahit franchise. GTA VI is slated to release in 2025 and even won the “Most Anticipated Game” award on Thursday night. However, Rockstar has yet to show a follow-up to last year’s debut trailer for the game which has racked up more than 225 million views on YouTube.
Further Reading
The Game Awards 2024 Live Winners List, And Game Of The Year (Forbes)
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2024-12-13 05:41:37
