Summary
- Sony plans to make more games like Astro Bot.
- The company says Astro Bot’s success validated its strategic expansion to family-friendly games.
- As of late 2024, Astro Bot is estimated to have made back its development budget around ten times over—and counting.
Sony will release more games like Astro Bot, a senior company official has confirmed. The decision to continue investing in Astro Bot-like projects is being framed as part of Sony’s foray into family-friendly games.
Team Asobi’s latest platformer debuted as a PlayStation 5 exclusive in early September 2024. Astro Bot was met with near-universal acclaim, to the point that every major review aggregator platform lists it as the highest-rated game of 2024. It also enjoyed strong sales relative to its estimated budget, in addition to winning numerous accolades, thus establishing itself as both a critical and commercial success.
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Moving forward, Sony is planning to release even more games in the vein of Astro Bot. That’s according to Sony President Hiroki Totoki, who said as much during a February 13 earnings call following the publication of the group’s latest financials, VGC reports.
Astro Bot’s Success Didn’t Change Sony’s Game Strategy
Reflecting on Astro Bot‘s recent awards sweep, Totoki suggested that the game’s success didn’t necessarily change Sony’s overall content strategy—although it certainly validated it. The executive echoed a similar sentiment about Helldivers 2, which won the Best Multiplayer Game and Best Ongoing Game at The Game Awards 2024. “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,” Totoki remarked during the earnings call.
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.
Astro Bot Likely Made Back Its Budget 10 Times Over—And Counting
The commercial momentum of Team Asobi’s latest game has been in line with its critical reception, with Sony previously announcing that Astro Bot had surpassed 1.5 million sales as of early November 2024, nine weeks following its market debut. While this figure is still on the lower end for a major GOTY award-winning game, it’s likely enough for Astro Bot to have broken even multiple times over, not least because it was developed in only three years by a Japan-based team of approximately 65 people. With Glassdoor’s data showing that the median game developer salary in Team Asobi’s hometown of Tokyo is around $45,600 per year gross, Astro Bot‘s budget was ostensibly in the ballpark of $9 million—without accounting for marketing expenses and inflation. That’s roughly 10% of the game’s revenue as of November 2024.
In related news, Astro Bot received its latest DLC level—Tick-Tock Shock—earlier today, February 13. For the next four weeks, one more free level will be added to the hit game every Thursday, ending on March 13. It’s presently unclear whether Team Asobi has plans for even more post-launch content beyond this time frame.
Source: Glassdoor
- Released
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September 6, 2024
- ESRB
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E10+ For Everyone 10+ Due To Crude Humor, Fantasy Violence
- Developer(s)
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Team Asobi
- Publisher(s)
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Sony Interactive Entertainment