Astro Bot (6th September 2024)

[drahkon]

Still thinking a lot about this game
I kinda want the mechanics of Downsize Surprise to be used for a full game.

 

Edited Tuesday at 06:39 AM by drahkon

[drahkon]

PSVita 2 with Astro Bot launch title when?

[EEVILMURRAY]

Just a couple of side notes... I've defeated the bird so the 1-2 or do levels after that to do, so maybe I haven't come across this yet, but did those bonus robots from the bullshit riddles have any impact? 

Also, just a small niggle, but prior to release in the Playroom in secret labo there was that portal which when you tried going in it gave you a prompt to the PS store. Did anyone else think it would take you to the game if you owned it and tried going through? It was the first thing I tried after installing as I thought it was going to be a nice touch, but it just tried selling it me again. I was devastated.

[drahkon]

1 hour ago, EEVILMURRAY said:

did those bonus robots from the bullshit riddles have any impact

Yes. You have 4 more bots.

 

[EEVILMURRAY]

15 minutes ago, drahkon said:

Yes. You have 4 more bots.

 

Wow... What a treat.

[Julius]

Going to be keeping my Astro away from the toaster moving forwards 

[Hero-of-Time]

 

This is why we can't have nice things.

[Julius]

27 minutes ago, Hero-of-Time said:

This is why we can't have nice things.

Hmm, okay.

So, my first reaction was: oof, that sounds a bit concerning. 

But then after a little ponder and some digging around, it also seems pretty great for a first big release for an IP? Which was only really building off a great reception to a niche game (in terms of audience size) in Rescue Mission because VR, and a pack-in title that I still think too many people probably skipped over. 

Meanwhile, Ratchet & Clank had been around for nearly two decades by the time Rift Apart came out, was one of only a few seriously big name releases in 2021 (I was looking back at what I played in 2021 just last night and my GOTY was Tsushima's DLC lol), sales were obviously inflated for a lot of things when it comes to games in 2020/2021 because COVID, so weirdly, I think that's a pretty decent turn out? 

Going back and dragging out some old tweets of Dring's, I found this:

Quote

Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart is no.1 in the UK boxed charts. Its sales are in line with some of the other new releases this year, such as New Pokemon Snap and Monster Hunter Rise. It sold three times more then Returnal at launch.

If Rift Apart sold 3x what Returnal did at launch and Astro Bot sold ⅓ less than Rift Apart at launch (physically) then, in the UK at least, it sold double what Returnal did. Which sounds pretty good on paper, obviously the install base has increased a good bit since then, but still. And roughly ⅔ of the likes of a Monster Hunter launch on Switch (just physical) is nothing to sneeze at, either. 

This is also not to mention that digital storefronts have only grown since Rift Apart, and I think the super late review embargo on this likely pushed people who heard about the game through word of mouth to pick it up digitally over physically. Heck, I've never thought about it before, but I wonder if that's part of PlayStation's idea behind such a late review embargo lift? 

I completely agree with the assessment of it likely having a longer tail, too. This is rightly going to be in GOTY conversations (and hell, for my money, has a brilliant shot at winning if Rebirth is its competition, for a whole number of reasons), it has released far out enough to get a decent discount for Black Friday/Cyber Monday and Christmas sales, etc. It being a lock-in for GOTY talks means it will be cemented as one of those "must-play" titles which is going to make a whole bunch of lists on IGN and the like in the next few years, and is one of few first-party PlayStation exclusives parents will find being recommended as perfect for kids, too. 

Guess we'll need to wait on official word to come down, but if it has sold a few million its launch weekend worldwide across digital and physical, which I feel like this goes some way to suggesting, I think that's a really great start. 

Edited Tuesday at 02:57 PM by Julius

[Julius]

Sakurai has shared his enjoyment of the game: 

Quote

Cleared "ASTRO BOT" by rescuing 300 people.

This doesn't take that much time, but I found myself playing it for fun and interest.

Great game.

I want your time with the game to be satisfying!

And Asobi got back to him:

Always love to see things like this 

[drahkon]

6 minutes ago, Julius said:

I found myself playing it for fun and interest.

Lol. What a dweeb.
You only play games for graphics and large open worlds.

By the way:

Edited Wednesday at 02:56 PM by drahkon

[Hero-of-Time]

16 minutes ago, drahkon said:

Lol. What a dweeb.
You only play games for graphics and large open worlds.

And trophies. In fact, just scrap the other two.

[drahkon]

This time I'll play the game without headphones.
Now I can hear the sounds coming from the DualSense.

And as expected: They're really good.

This game...

[Jimbob]

And we're done.  Platinum earned, with some small challenges along the way (if you know, you know).  What an absolute blast that was from start to finish.

Edited Thursday at 02:35 PM by Jimbob
More info

[Hero-of-Time]

Quote

The latest Japanese hardware and software charts are in, and they don't make for particularly positive reading if you're sitting on the Sony side of the fence. To start with, Astro Bot has entered in second place, but with just under 12,700 copies sold at retail, that's hardly worth bragging about. It's an incredibly low debut for a first-party PlayStation release. Here's hoping that digital sales are a lot more robust, because the spectacular platformer deserves all the success it can get.

Then there's the PS5 itself, which has seen its numbers fall off a cliff following the console's recent price increase in Japan. The current-gen system managed to move just 11,800 units — which is less than half the total that it posted in the previous week. Predictable, we suppose, but it's not a good look for Sony — especially in its native country, where its influence has significantly diminished over the years.

On the plus side...

 

 

Edited Thursday at 03:55 PM by Hero-of-Time

[Julius]

19 minutes ago, Hero-of-Time said:

On the plus side...

 

 

Great news. 

I typically love what Dring puts out but I always felt that posting this...

On 9/10/2024 at 3:28 PM, Hero-of-Time said:

 

This is why we can't have nice things.

...when he did seemed very disingenuous, and almost click-baity compared with so much of the great info he regularly puts out. 

So it's great to basically have it gone the other way. Very curious to see if we get any sales figures on the game in the coming days, if it's saved for the next quarterly meeting, or if they just go quiet on it because it hasn't smashed any records.

I imagine PlayStation are probably feeling very embarrassed for closing Japan Studio and having their huge investment in Concord supplanted by Astro Bot's success, so I wouldn't be surprised if they went the silent route. Totally forgot to mention this before but in Bosman's latest Delayed Input episode he mentioned the game not being highlighted as a big upcoming release for PlayStation during some financial results briefing earlier this year. 

As for Japan? It just kind of sucks to read, but with the price of the PS5, the pittance that the yen is valued at right now, and so on, I guess it's not totally expected that the game wouldn't do gangbusters over.

But as few as 12.7k copies selling almost seems malicious for how great a game Astro Bot is 

[Hero-of-Time]

10 minutes ago, Julius said:

But as few as 12.7k copies selling almost seems malicious for how great a game Astro Bot is 

I imagine if this had been on the Switch the numbers would gave been insane. It's a better audience for such a game.

[Julius]

8 minutes ago, Hero-of-Time said:

I imagine if this had been on the Switch the numbers would gave been insane. It's a better audience for such a game.

100%! It feels like such a shame knowing that SO MANY people here on N-E would likely adore this game, but might not get the chance to play it. 

I think I saw a thread on ResetEra the other day which was titled something to the effect of "do you think Astro Bot will be a gateway for more PlayStation owners to come over to Nintendo" and I couldn't help but think that, uh, no, if anything it's going to sell more Nintendo owners on PlayStation? 

Speaking strictly outside of Japan, apparently, of course 

[EEVILMURRAY]

3 hours ago, Hero-of-Time said:

I imagine if this had been on the Switch the numbers would gave been insane. It's a better audience for such a game.

We've got Captain Toad, which Astro Bot is a nice mix of that and Mario Galaxy.

 

I hate it when I complete a game and I feel it's too short, because I want more you fuckers. Because it was that enjoyable. I was a little annoyed about who the final bot was, even though I recognised him, just would've preferred it to be someone I gave a shit about. But that music slams, I dunno how many times it took me to do it, but I did and enjoyed the musical feels along the way.

I hope we get a sequel, lets not have Asobi waste their time with that speedrun bollocks

Edited Thursday at 07:43 PM by EEVILMURRAY

[drahkon]

18 minutes ago, EEVILMURRAY said:

But that music slams

You misspelled slaps.

[EEVILMURRAY]

3 minutes ago, drahkon said:

You misspelled slaps.

BOTH

 

mo' fo'

[Julius]

No surprise considering his love for 3D Mario and the Galaxy games especially, but Dunkey loves it 

Um what?

Spoiler

"look at the physics on the duck's butt" 

Episodes 2 and 3 of the game's BTS series have also been released:

[Julius]

Dring continues to go the other way on Astro sales in the UK, from framing them as seemingly nothing noteworthy to, well, good!