'Astro Bot' wins highest award at Oscars of video games

Video game "Astro Bot" -- a family-friendly sci-fi adventure -- was named 2024's Game of the Year on Thursday at the annual awards considered the Oscars of the digital entertainment industry.

The platform game featuring the adventures of a small space robot was also awarded "best family game", "best game direction" and "best action/adventure game" at The Game Awards 2024 in Los Angeles.

It has sold more than 1.5 million copies according to Sony, which owns the 65-person Japanese studio Team Asobi responsible for the mega-hit.

Onstage at the Peacock Theater, Team Asobi's French chief Nicolas Doucet praised the studio for designing a game that "put the user first".

"It was just about the kids," he said. "Especially because we had this huge, huge privilege to be potentially the first game to be in the hands of children."

As video games have exploded into the mainstream, The Game Awards have emerged as the industry's most prestigious prize for developers.

Last year's ceremony garnered 118 million global livestreams, according to organisers. By comparison the movie industry's 2023 Academy Awards pulled in fewer than 19 million viewers, according to US media.

Medieval fantasy saga "Metaphor: ReFantazio" was another major winner on Thursday, taking the titles of "best role-playing game" and "best narrative".

The game was also produced by a Japanese studio -- Atlus -- and published by gaming giant Sega.

Poker game "Balatro" won "best mobile game" and "best independent game".

For their eleventh edition, The Game Awards invited celebrities including actor Harrison Ford and rapper Snoop Dogg, who performed a song from his new album "Missionary".

The ceremony also announced new games, including "Intergalactic" by Naughty Dog studio, the developers behind "The Last of Us".

Hazelight Studios founder Josef Fares -- whose previous title "It Takes Two" won the highest award in 2021 and sold more than 20 million copies -- announced a new sci-fi and fantasy game "Split Fiction".

Ceremony host Geoff Keighley also acknowledged the "sad reality" of widespread layoffs plaguing the industry.

"Over the last three years we've lost more than 34,000 jobs," he said. "This has consequences. You can't make great games without great people."

© Agence France-Presse