PlayStation Studios’ Astro Bot is nominated for Game of the Year after Concord’s failure

One of the biggest stories in gaming lately has been the unprecedented failure of Sony’s first-party multiplayer game Concord for PlayStation 5 and PC. An Overwatch-style hero shooter that not only failed to find an audience, but was pulled from production two weeks after its release, with Sony offering full refunds to all players. After eight years in development and a budget of over $100 million, it’s arguably the biggest flop in video game history.

It’s a much different story when it comes to Sony’s next first-party PlayStation 5 release, Astro Bot, which is out this week. From developer Team ASOBI, the Super Mario Odyssey-style platformer has received rave reviews from critics — and it’s currently out Metacritic score 94Be sure to watch the trailer above; it looks amazing.

This is a huge deal, and puts this cute platformer in the running for Game of the Year – it’s racked up over 110 reviews so far. There’s also genuine excitement among the PlayStation community for Astro Bot’s release, something that had completely vanished prior to Concord’s release.

Additionally, Astro Bot is a single-player game developed by a small team on a budget that was reportedly much lower than what it would cost to make a game like Concord or God of War. Development from start to finish was completed in three years, and on paper, it was a much less risky proposition than trying to create a “live service” multiplayer game like Concord.

Assuming Astro Bot sells well, it will be interesting to see whether Sony will consider its success and the failure of Concord as a “safe bet” on more single-player games over multiplayer. By all accounts, that’s already happened, even before the surprise success of the multiplayer co-op hit Helldivers 2 earlier this year. The multiplayer Last of Us game has been canceled, and first-party studio Bungie appears to be scaling back its various multiplayer-specific projects.

Whatever happens to Concord, Marathon, and PlayStation’s other multiplayer games, Astro Bot looks set to be a big win for Sony, and it couldn’t have come at a better time.