To say platformers played a huge role in the history of gaming is an understatement. Without the success of Super Mario Bros. so many years ago and Mario, along with many other platformers such as Sonic, Donkey Kong and Jak and Daxter helped define multiple different eras of gaming.

However, as things went on towards the end of the PS2 era, platformers became less common. It’s not unnatural for trends to change. Side scrolling platformers were the most common genre during the 8-16 bit eras, then 3d platformers, then fps and RPGs depending on certain regions.

The genre isn’t dead by any means. Platformers are still released by indie developers often and naturally gaming icons like Sonic are always going to be tied to platformers. Most other major devs very rarely put them out however, save for a licensed game like SpongeBob.

However, things may be changing again. And while the recent success of Astro Bot may play a role, it’s far from the only factor to why developers outside of Nintendo could see that platformers are worth investing in again.

The market leader will always be followed.

Astro bot was probably the most unexpected surprise of 2024. It was announced in May then only released a few short months later to widespread critical acclaim, taking game of the year among many other awards as well as being commercially successful selling 1.5 million copies within its first 2 months. While that number may not seem gigantic, it’s impressive considering Astro is one of the few games that has only been released on PS5.

I don’t know if Sony was expecting the game to be as successful as it has been but if they decide to push Astro and possibly resurrect some of their other long dormant platforming ips, the industry may follow suit to an extent at least. Sony is the market leader so, if they decide platformers are worth investing in, then other studios that hold platforming ips may follow suit and decide it’s worth investing in one along with some of the larger projects and we may see them more often outside the usual suspects such as Mario and Sonic, which brings me to my next point.

They Could Help With The Current Issue Of Time & High Budgets In Games

It’s been said that most AAA games take around 5 years to develop if not more at this point and they often cost a lot of money. Now I don’t know what the budget was for Astro but I know that it and other major platformers to come out such as Crash Bandicoot 4 didn’t take nearly as long to develop.

Astro bot took around 3 years to make and I don’t know the exact timeframe for crash for but I know Toys for Bob didn’t even start talking about development until Spyro : the reignited trilogy was well into development so, that’s possibly within a similar time frame as Astro.

With the costs of development growing, games like this could be looked at more as they wouldn’t need as much time and resources but a high quality product that fans like can still very much enjoy. And while Crash 4 didn’t sell as much as hoped, it was still showing strong numbers early on during one of the most crowded seasons of game releases when it did launch.

Naturally not every game will succeed but, after the failure of Concord which had a budget of 400 million (though this has been disputed)reportedly and was in development for nearly a decade, games that cost a fraction of that to make and can be released in 3 years could look more appealing to publishers, and also ties into my next point.

Platformer Protagonists Have A Good Deal Of Marketability

I think part of why Astro bots success is how charming he is as a character and while not always the most in depth characters, platforming protagonists in general tend to be widely appealing. This isn’t a knock towards heavily story driven characters at all as my personal favorite game protagonists are Clementine and Arthur Morgan. However, there isn’t a video game character, and honestly possibly fictional character at this point more recognizable than Mario (the character exceeded the likes of Mickey Mouse in terms of recognition years ago).

On top of Mario, characters like Crash Bandicoot had their own dances and songs named after them after the height of their popularity and people still recognize Banjo-Kazooie to this day despite not having their own game in years, showing long lasting appeal.

Microsoft in particular is sitting on 3 of the most iconic platformers with Crash, Spyro and Banjo-Kazooie and even a relatively newer one with the underrated Super Lucky’s tale that they could nurture. Some higher ups such as Matt Booty did say smaller, highly acclaimed titles were necessary going forward so maybe after seeing Astro win Goty, they’re in the plans to resurrect at least one of these now.

Final Points

This is all just an opinion after all. Astro bot very much could be a lightning in a bottle case. Naturally publishers are always going to want something live service like Fortnite or Apex legends that pretty much prints money but more of those in recent years have failed more than they succeeded, whether critically well received such as Rumbleverse or receiving lukewarm reception at best such as Concord and Foamstars, all of which shut down within their first year active.

I’m not knocking those games at all either as it’s clear why people enjoy them. But the past two years have shown that gamers do enjoy variety with the success of Baldur’s Gate 3 in 2023 and the success of Astro Bot this year. So hopefully it’s a sign that they won’t be putting all their eggs in the live service basket and give other things such as platformers a real try again.