MANILA, Philippines – The Game Awards 2024 recently crowned Astro Bot as its Game of the Year, marking the third time that a Sony-owned studio has gotten the accolade after 2020’s Last of Us Part II, and 2018’s God of War.
But, of course, that isn’t the only big gaming story this year. Let’s take a look back at some of the other highlights of the year from Rappler’s coverage.
13-year-old becomes first player to beat Tetris
An American teenager eventually forced the game Tetris into a “kill screen” forcing the game to crash after accumulating more points than the game could handle — the first time that the feat has been achieved by a human. Previously, an artificial intelligence was able to do the same feat.
The Palworld phenomenon
Palworld, dubbed “Pokemon with guns” was the most hyped title to start 2024, with the kind of gameplay that some have said is what Pokemon players have been hoping to see from Pokemon. It sold 7 million copies in 5 days in January.
However, Palworld’s character designs were too Pokemon-inspired, eventually leading Pokemon intellectual property owner Nintendo to sue Palworld in September.
Tackling accessibility in gaming
In February, we highlighted Sony’s efforts in making gaming more accessible to those who have physical disabilities with its Access Controller.
We invited Kevin Maglaqui, also known as One Hand Gaming, to demonstrate the new controller, its pros and cons, and the gaming genres that the controller may be more suitable for.
We have our assessment of the controller here.
Interview with FFVII Rebirth director Naoki Hamaguchi
There’s no other game this year that had more hype than Final Fantasy VII Rebirth, and the game was big enough that its publisher Square Enix held a series of rare local launch events for the game, and even brought its director Naoki Hamaguchi to the Philippines for a media interview.
Hamaguchi talked to us about the most difficult aspect in developing the game:
“So, the most difficult challenging aspect was to define how big the world map will be. One thing that’s difficult about creating an open world map is if it’s only about moving to one place and another, this would be a negative thing in the game. But if it’s too small, you wouldn’t be able to feel the ‘open-worldness’ so I needed to have enough space, enough area, but also give the right amount of content so that it’s not too vast and empty but like still have the freedom to have the adventure and that was the very first challenge that the development team had in the process.”
Rebirth, along with Astro Bot, led The Game Awards 2024 with 7 nominations apiece, but unfortunately the competition was tough, and Rebirth scored just 1 win, Best Score and Music. It’s still a big win though as Rebirth features some of the most iconic music in gaming.
Discussing how Southeast Asia will eventually be able to produce its first triple-A game
This year, China was finally able to produce its first ever triple-A game — a label typically denoting blockbuster production values — with Black Myth: Wukong, which eventually became a Game of the Year nominee, and helped give Chinese mythology a big global platform.
In March, we also discussed just how Southeast Asia might be able to make its first triple-A game in the future.
“For the far future, I would love to see big studios emerging from Southeast Asia, multiple big studios emerging from Southeast Asia. But before we get that, I believe that we need one success story to inspire everybody else to say that it’s not impossible to do it. Let’s do this,” Mufizal Mokhtar, general manager of Virtuos KL studio and art director of games like Assassin’s Creed: Odyssey.
Game studio co-founded by Filipina wins at 2024 BAFTA Games Awards
The BAFTA Games Awards are some of the most prestigious trophies in gaming, along with The Joystick Awards and The Game Awards.
At the BAFTA held in April, a Filipina made the country proud with a company she co-founded taking home the trophies for “New Intellectual Property” and “British Game.”
Gwen Foster told Rappler after the win, “We really didn’t plan any speeches since we didn’t actually think we were going to win. The games nominated are all really great, and we at Sad Owls Studios are such big fans of the other teams. The original goal was for us and the team to enjoy, and be cheerleaders of everyone else. Totoo ‘yung kaba. (The nervousness was real)”
Chiming in on the Assassin’s Creed Shadows controversy
This year, there was reactionary backlash that debated whether protagonist Yasuke, a black samurai, was really a samurai and gamers called out Ubisoft supposedly for not being historically accurate. There was also backlash against Naoe, a female ninja.
Ubisoft explained, “Our intention has never been to present any of our Assassin’s Creed games, including Assassin’s Creed Shadows, as factual representations of history, or historical characters. Instead, we aim to spark curiosity and encourage players to explore and learn more about the historical settings we get inspired by.”
![[OPINION] The ‘AC Shadows’ controversy is a microcosm of hate, ignorance made large](http://www.rappler.com/tachyon/2024/07/Assassins-creed-shadows-yasuke-naoe.jpg?fit=449%2C449)
We wrote, “For the reactionaries calling Yasuke and Naoe attempts at forced diversity, this little portion of the statement of the development team is perhaps more important to me. It’s a reminder to, as Ted Lasso might have put it, ‘be curious, not judgemental.’”
Highlighting a game that highlights Filipino culture
“The video game industry sees a lot of stories about the ninjas and samurai of Japan, or cowboys from America’s wild, wild west. With games having become an important venue for storytelling, it’s become crucial that other cultures also get to tell their nation’s tales in this interactive format,” we wrote then in August when we interviewed some of the creatives behind Until Then — an indie game that highlights Filipino culture.
You can rewatch our interview here:
“You’ve got everything from vendors yelling ‘TAHO!’ and waiting sheds made by a certain ‘Governor Kupit,’ to minigames where you have to pass coins in a jeepney or press arrow keys to the lyrics of ‘Auld Lang Syne’ blaring from a videoke machine,” we wrote in June.
Flappy Bird revival?
Remember that hugely popular mobile game Flappy Bird in the 2010s?
It got a revival this year, well, sort of. A new Flappy Bird game surfaced but it was not smooth sailing as its creator said he had no involvement with the game, and that he did not sell anything related to the game’s trademark.
Dong Nguyen responded to the plans to revive Flappy Bird in a September 15 X post, saying he is “[not] related with their game” and did not sell anything related to the game’s trademark.
Connections to crypto have also slightly tainted the game for some.
Gamer priest battling Diablo in real life and in games
Father Antonio Zabala professed his love for the Diablo series of games, making him a fan favorite among gamers:
“Diablo resonates in my being a religious priest. I help people in their struggles. In the same manner, Diablo characters help people in the game, all in the name of doing good,” Zabala said.
Our “What’s your GOTY?” series
We put the spotlight on 6 of the best games this year, which were nominated for Game of the Year this year at The Game Awards 2024. You can also reread the highlights of the awards show here.
Read all our arguments for each of the nominees here:
- What’s your GOTY? ‘Final Fantasy VII Rebirth’ vs. ‘Metaphor ReFantazio’
- What’s your GOTY? ‘Balatro’ is as addictive as they say it is
- What’s your GOTY? Black Myth: Wukong’s ambitious journey to the west
- What’s your GOTY? ‘Astro Bot’ puts fun above everything else
- What’s your GOTY? The DLC dilemma that is ‘Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree’
The following 2 entries were taken from our previous year-ender article “Tech in 2024: Apple’s VR flop, Google AI Search, and smartphones AI edition”
Video game layoffs continue
While the gaming industry seems to be in a healthy condition, with incredible games like the six chosen for The Game Awards’ Game of the Year (Astro Bot, Balatro, Metaphor ReFantazio, Final Fantasy VII Rebirth, Black Myth Wukong, and Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree), the layoffs continue in the industry.
Polygon wrote how, back in June 2024, the layoffs this year had already surpassed the more than 10,000 layoffs in 2023.
The overall revenue for the gaming market may seem large at first, predicted by Newzoo at $187.7 billion in 2024, growing from $184 billion in 2023. Yet, there is an argument that the growth simply isn’t enough and that there are changing player and investor habits.
Polygon wrote that the industry is still feeling the effects of over-investment during the pandemic — money that has all disappeared by now.
Players are also said to be spending less money on games and are focusing their attention on fewer games rather than playing several titles at a time.
Video game investor and The Metaverse author Matthew Ball told the site in February: “Gaming’s long-term tailwinds haven’t changed — there are over [100 million] new gamers born every year, there are more indie successes than ever, the medium’s creative achievements continue to grow (and expand into books, film, TV) — but without material growth in players or spending, or new breakout genres…the challenges seem likely to continue.”
Companies sometimes shoot themselves in the foot, too, reputation-wise, such as when Bungie CEO Pete Parsons continued to spend over $2 million on classic cars while 220 people or 17% of its workforce were laid off.
Nintendo’s next Switch will be backward compatible
News on Nintendo’s next console has been painfully sparse, with Nintendo itself saying that there would be no Switch 2 announcements in its various Nintendo Direct livestreams this year.
But the company threw gamers a bone, thankfully, in November, saying that the next Switch will be backwards compatible.
The Nintendo account on X said then: “This is [Nintendo president Shuntaro] Furukawa. At today’s Corporate Management Policy Briefing, we announced that Nintendo Switch software will also be playable on the successor to Nintendo Switch. Nintendo Switch Online will be available on the successor to Nintendo Switch as well. Further information about the successor to Nintendo Switch, including its compatibility with Nintendo Switch, will be announced at a later date.”
The new console is expected to be announced in March 2025.
Meanwhile, Sony’s November-released PS5 Pro is reportedly seeing good sales numbers despite initial gamer apprehension towards its high price and the absence of things like a disc drive. – Rappler.com