After Concord's failure, PlayStation Studios' Astro Bot is a 'Game of the Year' contender

One of the biggest stories in gaming recently 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 taken offline within two weeks of its release, with Sony offering full refunds to all players. After a reported eight years of development and a budget north of $100 million, it's arguably the biggest flop in videogame history.

It's a very different story regarding 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 - it currently has a Metacritic score of 94. Be sure to watch the trailer above; it looks great.

That's huge, and it puts this cute platformer in contention for Game of the Year - with over 110 reviews collated so far. There is also genuine excitement for Astro Bot's release among the PlayStation community, something that was utterly absent before Concord's release.

Also, Astro Bot is a single-player game developed by a small team with a budget that is reported to be a fraction of what it costs to make a game like Concord or even something like God of War. Development from start to finish was completed within three years, and on paper, it was a far 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 if Sony considers its success and Concord's failure and invests in more single-player games as a "safe bet" compared to multiplayer games. By all accounts, this has 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 looks to be scaling back on its various multiplayer-only projects.

Whatever happens with Concord, Marathon, and other multiplayer games from PlayStation, Astro Bot is shaping to be a big win for Sony. And it couldn't have arrived at a better time.