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'Astro Bot' Wins Highest Award at Oscars of Video Games

Video game "Astro Bot" -- a family-friendly sci-fi adventure -- was named 2024's Game of the Year. AFP
Video game "Astro Bot" -- a family-friendly sci-fi adventure -- was named 2024's Game of the Year. AFP
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'Astro Bot' Wins Highest Award at Oscars of Video Games

Video game "Astro Bot" -- a family-friendly sci-fi adventure -- was named 2024's Game of the Year. AFP
Video game "Astro Bot" -- a family-friendly sci-fi adventure -- was named 2024's Game of the Year. AFP

Video game "Astro Bot" -- a family-friendly sci-fi adventure -- was named 2024's Game of the Year on Thursday at the annual awards considered the Oscars of the digital entertainment industry.

The platform game featuring the adventures of a small space robot was also awarded "best family game", "best game direction" and "best action/adventure game" at The Game Awards 2024 in Los Angeles, AFP reported.

It has sold more than 1.5 million copies according to Sony, which owns the 65-person Japanese studio Team Asobi responsible for the mega-hit.

Onstage at the Peacock Theater, Team Asobi's French chief Nicolas Doucet praised the studio for designing a game that "put the user first".

"It was just about the kids," he said. "Especially because we had this huge, huge privilege to be potentially the first game to be in the hands of children."

As video games have exploded into the mainstream, The Game Awards have emerged as the industry's most prestigious prize for developers.

Last year's ceremony garnered 118 million global livestreams, according to organizers. By comparison the movie industry's 2023 Academy Awards pulled in fewer than 19 million viewers, according to US media.

Medieval fantasy saga "Metaphor: ReFantazio" was another major winner on Thursday, taking the titles of "best role-playing game" and "best narrative".

The game was also produced by a Japanese studio -- Atlus -- and published by gaming giant Sega.

Poker game "Balatro" won "best mobile game" and "best independent game".

For their eleventh edition, The Game Awards invited celebrities including actor Harrison Ford and rapper Snoop Dogg, who performed a song from his new album "Missionary".

The ceremony also announced new games, including "Intergalactic" by Naughty Dog studio, the developers behind "The Last of Us".

Hazelight Studios founder Josef Fares -- whose previous title "It Takes Two" won the highest award in 2021 and sold more than 20 million copies -- announced a new sci-fi and fantasy game "Split Fiction".

Ceremony host Geoff Keighley also acknowledged the "sad reality" of widespread layoffs plaguing the industry.

"Over the last three years we've lost more than 34,000 jobs," he said. "This has consequences. You can't make great games without great people."

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Varieties

Cute carnivores: Bloodthirsty California Squirrels Go Nuts for Vole Meat

This handout photo obtained from the University of California on December 18, 2024, shows ground squirrels eating voles in Davis, California. Sonja Wild / University of California, Davis/AFP
This handout photo obtained from the University of California on December 18, 2024, shows ground squirrels eating voles in Davis, California. Sonja Wild / University of California, Davis/AFP
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Cute carnivores: Bloodthirsty California Squirrels Go Nuts for Vole Meat

This handout photo obtained from the University of California on December 18, 2024, shows ground squirrels eating voles in Davis, California. Sonja Wild / University of California, Davis/AFP
This handout photo obtained from the University of California on December 18, 2024, shows ground squirrels eating voles in Davis, California. Sonja Wild / University of California, Davis/AFP

Squirrels might look like adorable, nut-hoarding furballs, but some are ruthless predators that hunt, tear apart, and devour voles.
That's the startling finding of a new study published Wednesday in the Journal of Ethology -- the first to document widespread carnivorous behavior in these seemingly innocent creatures.
"There is always something new to learn and wild animals continue to surprise us," lead author Jennifer E. Smith, an associate professor of biology at the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire told AFP.
"In a changing world with many technological advances, there is no replacement for direct observation of natural history, including watching the squirrels and birds that often visit our backyards."
The observations were made this summer, during the 12th year of a long-term study conducted at Briones Regional Park in Contra Costa County, California.
Between June and July, researchers recorded 74 interactions involving California ground squirrels and voles, with 42 percent of them involving active hunting of their fellow rodents.
Co-author Sonja Wild, a postdoctoral researcher at the University of California, Davis, admitted she was initially skeptical of the reports brought to her by undergraduate students who first witnessed the behavior.
"I could barely believe my eyes," said Wild. But "once we started looking, we saw it everywhere."
It was previously known that as many as 30 species of squirrels opportunistically consume meat, ranging from small fish to birds. However, it was unclear whether this behavior stemmed from scavenging or active predation.
The new study is the first to confirm that hunting is, in fact, a common behavior.
Researchers observed squirrels crouching low to the ground before ambushing their prey, though more often, they chased voles, pounced, and delivered a neck bite followed by vigorous shaking.
The study also found that the squirrels' carnivorous behavior peaked during the first two weeks of July, coinciding with a surge in vole populations reported by citizen scientists on the iNaturalist app.
Other animals, such as raccoons, coyotes, and spotted hyenas, have been known to adapt their hunting strategies in response to human-induced changes in their environments.
"In a changing world, it can be daunting to consider all of the challenges that human presence, habitat loss, and climate change impose on animals," said Smith.
"Our study offers an exciting silver lining, demonstrating the incredible flexibility that some animals possess."
Several questions still remain unanswered.
Researchers hope to investigate how widespread hunting behavior is among squirrel species, whether it is passed down from parents to pups, and how it affects their broader ecosystems.