Sony Wants to Make More Family-Friendly Game After Astro Bot’s Success

gamingbolt.com:

With the massive success of PS5-exclusive platformer Astro Bot, Sony president Hiroki Totoki revealed in an earnings call this week that the company wants to release more family-friendly games in the future. Totoki credited the critical and commercial success of Astro Bot for the decision to make more titles like it down the line.

“At The Game Awards 2024, our first-party title Astro Bot won four categories, including Game of the Year and Best Family Game – the most of any title,” said Totoki, according to VideoGamesChronicle.

Totoki also praised Helldivers 2, pointing out its critical accolades like winning Best Multiplayer Game and Best Ongoing Game awards. Helldivers 2 is also the kind of game Sony would like to release more of in the future.

“In addition, the live service game Helldivers 2, which was released in February last year, won Best Ongoing Game and Best Multiplayer Game awards,” he said. “The fact that titles in genres we are planning to expand in the future, including titles for families and live service games, have received these awards is a major stride towards building a broad title portfolio.”

Further cementing its critical response was the fact that Astro Bot was one of the games with the most nominations during The Game Awards back in December, alongside other major titles like Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth and Black Myth: Wukong.

The title was also quite successful commercially, having sold more than 1.5 million copies just a few months after its September 6 release.

Since its release, developer Team Asobi has continued to support Astro Bot through free updates, bringing in new levels. January saw the unveiling of a brand new stage that was used for the finals of a speedrunning competition.

For more details about Astro Bot, check out our review.