While he comes off as a jerk, and possibly is one, I can understand the sentiment, having spent a few years of my life among ethnically Chinese people in Asia. There is this drive and aspiration to be recognized by leading brands in the West as equals, perhaps even betters. Due to a history of subservience and shame and a strong nationalistic current seeking to undo that.

This game is one of the most ambitious and accomplished to come out of China and they’re hungering for that kind of recognition. So it is likely that fans of the game feel it was ‘stolen’ from them and he seems to be responding to that sentiment. To us it looks petty, but to some of the game’s most ardent Chinese fans this may have been an appropriate response. Not sure how this was received in China though, just speculating.

[–] batmaniam@lemmy.world 16 points 6 days ago

Not going to lie, despite loving the stories about the monkey king, I skipped it entirely because of the notes they sent to content creators. Which would also be why I skip movies and games that take the US' DoD money. I'm glad it got passed over.

[–] djsoren19@yiffit.net 12 points 6 days ago (1 children)

On the one hand, I can kinda get it. It must really suck to lose to a self-servicing corpo ad-a-palooza, even one as well crafted as Astrobot. It's like losing a collectible contest to FunkoPops, just clear feelsbad.

On the other, fuck this guy for dragging nationalistic pride into a dumbass award ceremony. The Geoff-fest is always a stupid corporate cockgag that celebrates publisher money more than developers, taking it personally and trying to pretend like all of China was snubbed only serves to makes BMW look worse.

[–] Aurora_TheFirstLight@lemmy.blahaj.zone 5 points 6 days ago

I don't feel it was undeserved, it's good that super productions lose to better crafted titles, maybe one day actual indie games will be on the contest for game of the gear

[–] somedev@aussie.zone 10 points 6 days ago (4 children)

Haven't really been following it all - after reading the article I think maybe its because Astro Bot had a larger audience because its generally more accessible?

[–] tb_@lemmy.world 7 points 6 days ago (1 children)

Black Myth Wukong had one of the highest concurrent player counts of Steam of all time. The game was very popular in China.

Meanwhile Astrobot's sales figures were lacklustre, according to some reports.

[–] somedev@aussie.zone 1 points 5 days ago

I know a couple of my friends were pumped for it, bought Black Myth Wukong played it for a few days and never touched it again.

They really smashed the marketing for that game.

[–] RightHandOfIkaros@lemmy.world 7 points 6 days ago* (last edited 6 days ago) (1 children)

I think you are right. Its why Fortnite usually wins in categories it is in, because at the end of the day it mostly comes down to a popularity contest.

I mean, I heard people I know in real life discrediting BMW even being nominated because "oh all the Chinese are voting for it." I was like what, you think Chinese Gamers only count for 3/5ths of a Gamer?? I personally wouldn't be surprised if this sentiment was shared with at least some of the judges.

I'm not saying BMW should have won, personally I liked it but it wasn't perfect and I didn't play Astro Bot. It's just crazy to me that people are reacting like this over a video game just because it came from China. They're not acting like that over Marvel Rivals, probably because they don't know it's from China yet, lol.

[–] dragonfucker@lemmy.nz -3 points 6 days ago

If they wanted a game with Sun Wukong in it to win at the game awards, they should have nominated Warframe for Best Continuing Game

[–] brsrklf@jlai.lu 3 points 6 days ago

I haven't played that Astrobot game (I don't have a PS5) but I am not surprised with it being highly praised honestly.

Astrobot Rescue Mission was awesome, even forgetting about it being VR. It's very fun and well designed, with new ideas all the way through, up there with Super Mario Galaxy to me. That team definitely knows their stuff.

[–] g1ya777@lemmy.world 3 points 6 days ago

But its an exclusive, only PS5 players can play it.

[–] Rooty@lemmy.world 6 points 6 days ago* (last edited 6 days ago) (1 children)

BMW looks like a terribly mediocre souls-like, and it's like 60 bucks on Steam. The hype surrounding it is manufactured AF.

[–] DragonTypeWyvern@midwest.social 1 points 6 days ago

12 souls-like fans absolutely furious

[–] aciDC14@lemmy.world 4 points 6 days ago

Pizza Tower: «First time?.»

[–] tacosanonymous@lemm.ee 5 points 6 days ago

I was not surprised how well Astro Bot did. It was accessible and well made. Sam Lake nailed it with his little speech.

[–] DNU@lemmy.world 2 points 6 days ago (1 children)

I'd be ashamed too, losing to astro bot. What I've heard from the Platformer community is that while the game is good, it's very short and lacks in the amount of unique areas (and enemies?) and as such is more or less blitz and glamour. Like, props to sony for producing jump and runs, but still...

[–] Ostrakon@lemmy.world 9 points 6 days ago

I just finished Astro Bot and it is a very good game. However, it is very derivative of Mario to the point where it is very clearly a Mario game, except you are collecting PlayStation member-berries instead of stars or whatever.

I loved it, but I have a hard time justifying it as GotY. IMO it should have gone to Wukong or Balatro.

[–] frigidaphelion@lemmy.world 1 points 6 days ago

This game looked nice and was awful to play. There isnt really anything else to say.

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