Matt Kim
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Spoiler: We mention a few cameos that appear in Astro Bot.
While today PlayStation’s headquarters may be located in San Mateo, California, the history of Sony’s beloved video game console brand started in the early 1990s in Tokyo, Japan. Ken Kutaragi – who would later become known as the father of PlayStation – had been working together with Nintendo on a CD-ROM add-on for the Super Nintendo. When this got canceled, Kutaragi went to Norio Ohga (Sony’s CEO at the time) with the proposal of making Sony’s own console.
“Do it!” Ohga famously said. As a result, in December 1994 the original PlayStation hit store shelves in Japan.
While Kutaragi is no longer involved with the PlayStation brand today, his legacy has not been forgotten. At Team Asobi – Sony’s inhouse development studio best known for the Astro Bot series – artwork along the walls depicts PlayStation’s 30-year journey.
“Do it! Go and make PlayStation. That was the order given to Kutaragi,” says Team Asobi studio director Nicolas Doucet as he shows us around his studio. “Here you can see Kutaragi walking around near Tokyo Tower as he gets struck by an amazing idea of making a 32-bit machine. The rest is history.”
Needless to say, the original PlayStation was an instant hit. With over 100 million units sold, it won the console war by a large margin against industry veterans Nintendo and Sega. Sony’s PlayStation has been an almost unbeatable brand since, launching some of the most successful consoles of all time. However, there is one department that Sony could never really compete in: coming up with a brand-defining mascot character.
Finding a Mascot
Sony just never seemed to have an answer to Nintendo’s Mario or Sega’s Sonic the Hedgehog. Crash Bandicoot was an iconic character that was exclusive to the PlayStation at the time, but he belonged to a third-party studio. And while Toro from the Doko Demo Issho series reached mascot-like status in Japan, the cute feline character was hardly known outside of PlayStation’s home country.
But maybe the PlayStation didn’t need an answer to Nintendo and Sega’s beloved mascots. Games were entering an era in which more realistic human characters like Cloud Strife, Solid Snake and Lara Croft were becoming the new industry icons. As this more mature stream of gaming culture evolved, cutesy mascot characters and the 3D platformers they called home became less and less common. When Microsoft entered the industry with the Xbox in 2001, Halo’s Master Chief instantly shaped the console’s image. Microsoft’s purchase of Rare, a studio that had created platformers with mascot-like characters for Nintendo, almost seemed like an afterthought.
For Nintendo, however, platformers and mascot characters continue to be an essential part of its business and identity. While fans feared that Nintendo could no longer compete during the GameCube era and later the Wii U era, the house of Mario’s inventive spirit allowed it to make multiple comebacks. The combination of beloved characters and playful technology set it apart.
Today, PlayStation’s cinematic blockbuster titles still mostly cater to a mature audience, but Team Asobi is taking a different approach. The studio’s roster of delightful robots and the inventive gameplay with which they and players interact have been compared with the Nintendo way.
“Given Nintendo’s pop-culture standards, it’s always a nice compliment to be compared with Nintendo, but we don’t think about it too much,” Doucet says.
In the same way that Nintendo marries inventive hardware with its iconic characters, Doucet says they’re working on highlighting the PlayStation’s unique power. “PlayStation makes very high-spec machines, so we can do more advanced physics as they require a lot of calculation. We have to be aware of what makes our platform special, and iterate on that in our games.”
But utilizing the uniqueness of hardware is something that Team Asobi has always been good at – arguably more than any other PlayStation studio.
“Originally, we didn’t think that we would go back into making games. We thought that we were going to be a unit that only does R&D,” recalls Doucet. “However, some of our prototypes were received positively internally and we were asked to compile them as a preloaded game on the PS4 for people that have a PlayStation Camera.”
This became The Playroom, Team Asobi’s first game.The Playroom came preloaded with the PS4 when it launched back in 2013 and functioned as a showcase of what the PlayStation Camera and DualShock 4 controller could do. One of the mini games featured was AR Bots, a tech demo-like experience that made it seem as if 40 little robots were inside the DualShock 4. By swiping the touchpad you could throw them into the room and interact with them through the PlayStation Camera in AR, before sucking them back into the controller.
“The Playroom is now more than 10 years old, but it still makes people laugh. That’s a good sign, right?” says Doucet.
“These robots started out as bland white characters that we called AR men. When we were tasked to turn this prototype into an actual experience for players, we had to quickly come up with a character design. The fastest possible route was a robot with a simple nose, mouth and big LED eyes so that we had nothing complicated to animate.”
Astro Bot is Born
These were the early beginnings of what would one day become Team Asobi’s trademark character, Astro Bot. While Shigeru Miyamoto designed Mario to match the technical limitations of the time, Astro’s simple design also came from limitations. Perhaps the simplicity of their character design is what makes both Mario and Astro so iconic and easy to recognize.
“On top of that, we wanted them to look futuristic, as the game was launching together with a new console,” says Doucet. “At the same time, we wanted these bots to have a bit of a belly so that they looked endearing and that you would want to protect them.”
It could be said that the combination of futurism with cuteness perfectly embodies the identity of the Japanese roots of the PlayStation brand that Kutaragi started. Characters like Toro, Parappa and Ape Escape’s monkeys share a somewhat similar blend of digital, cool and cute.
Team Asobi’s success with creating a game to showcase new PlayStation technology led to its next game, The Playroom VR. Similar to its predecessor, The Playroom VR was a free launch game for the PlayStation VR that functioned as a showcase for Sony’s venture into the world of virtual reality. While the team’s focus was on creating a collection of short multiplayer experiences, there was one exception.
“We had made a prototype of a 3D platformer in VR, and there was something special about it,” says Doucet. “We decided to break the rule of only including multiplayer experiences and added it to the package. It ended up being far more popular than any of the multiplayer games we focused on!”
That 3D platformer was named Robots Rescue. While no name was given to the robot you controlled, it was the first time that Astro could be seen in his final design. Robots Rescue was a short experience that consisted of just one stage, but it was so well received that Team Asobi decided to make their next game a full-fledged virtual reality 3D platformer. That became Astro Bot: Rescue Mission, released in 2018. It remains the highest rated PlayStation VR game on Metacritic to this day, with critics citing that it does for VR what Super Mario 64 did for 3D. Astro’s first full-fledged adventure instantly made both Team Asobi and Astro a force to be reckoned with.
“This is also when we came up with the name for Astro,” says Doucet. “We wanted to have a short, snappy name that is international and easy to pronounce in any language.”
Astro Bot: Rescue Mission was a huge critical success, but its exclusivity to PlayStation VR was a double-edged sword. Although VR allowed Team Asobi to differentiate its game from other 3D platformers, PS VR had a relatively small install base. For a family-friendly IP like Astro Bot, the fact that the PS VR was recommended for players over 12 also limited the game’s appeal.
“VR is great as it gives you a special card to play, but the audience is more limited,” Doucet says. “We wanted to touch a wider audience, but that meant that we had to compete with developers that have been making 3D platformers for more than 20 or 30 years. It was a big test for us to see if we were capable of doing that or not.”
The result was Astro’s Playroom, a 3D platformer that was, once again, released as a free game designed to showcase a new piece of hardware. It came pre-installed on the PlayStation 5 when it went on sale in 2020. It was easily one of the best games available on the system at launch. To this day, its creative use of the DualSense controller’s haptic feedback and adaptive triggers showcase what the controller can do better than pretty much any other game. Doucet tells us that while Team Asobi learned from Guerilla Games (Horizon Zero Dawn) and Santa Monica Studio (God of War), those same studios, in turn, asked Team Asobi for advice on how to utilize the DualSense’s haptic feedback and adaptive triggers.
One of the key reasons behind Astro’s Playroom’s creative use of the DualSense was Team Asobi’s close collaboration with Sony’s hardware division.
“Team Asobi’s studio is just across the street from our building, so they were always the first to prototype with our hardware,” says Senior Principal Product Manager Toshi Aoki, product director for the DualSense controller.
“Whenever we had something ready at the hardware team, we would just call Team Asobi and hand it to them,” Aoki explains. “A few days later they would call us back to show us something. With this quick loop, they could give us feedback on what they wanted added to or removed from the hardware.”
Aoki continues, “For our hardware, we want to give the player a new experience rather than just a piece of technology. In that regard, working closely with Team Asobi really helped us.”
The ever-growing install base of the PS5 has allowed many players around the world to enjoy Astro’s Playroom. Filled with references to hardware throughout PlayStation’s history and boasting an abundance of cameo appearances from popular characters, Astro’s Playroom celebrated PlayStation’s history in a unique way. This made Astro not just the new kid on the block, but established the bot as a character integral to the PlayStation brand.
Gaining Icon Status
As the PS5 is still a platform with a relatively mature audience, Sony likely doesn’t have the intention to cement Astro as the system’s one and only mascot. But maybe they should? A new iconic character representing your brand through top-quality games couldn’t possibly be a bad thing. Especially since a family-friendly 3D platformer like Astro Bot is also the type of game that the PlayStation’s library has been lacking.
“For Astro’s Playroom, there have mainly been two types of audiences,” says Doucet. “First, there are the people who actually are gamers. You hear more from them because they are generally more vocal. They’re mostly the type who crave more colorful games and want to go back to 3D platformers. These players are also happy to see how we treat the PlayStation heritage.
“But then, there’s a whole different type of audience that we hear from through more intimate communication,” Doucet reveals. “People come and tell us it became their kid’s first game or that they played it with their daughter or son. Many people buy a PS5 for themselves, but play Astro’s Playroom with their younger children.”
The fact that Team Asobi’s games have the potential to become someone’s first game is something that Doucet takes seriously.
“I grew up playing games like Mega Man and Castlevania. From music to gameplay and even the package art, these games will stay in my heart forever. The hard work and care of the creators has become a part of many people’s lives. We have the same opportunity with Astro, which is something we do not take lightly.”
Astro’s Playroom’s success allowed Team Asobi to get the green light for a full-scale 3D platformer. Releasing on September 6, Team Asobi’s newest game is simply titled Astro Bot. While Astro Bot: Rescue Mission and Astro’s Playroom both benefited from the marvel of new technology (VR and DualSense respectively), Astro Bot feels more like a direct evolution of Astro’s Playroom.
“We made a lot of prototypes at the time, but the game was too small to put all our ideas in,” says Principal gameplay Programming Lead Masayuki Yamada. “Our newest game has all of the best ideas we had to leave out at the time, as well as plenty of new creative ideas. In that sense it has much more volume, and what we can do with the haptic feedback has evolved a lot as well. On top of that, we’re doubling down on showcasing PlayStation’s heritage through hardware references and cameos of beloved characters in new ways, too.”
According to Jamie Smith, Team Asobi’s Principle Animation Director, the animations of Astro and other characters in the game have been drastically increased. While animation in Astro’s Playroom was simple and limited, this time around the team has gone the extra mile by adding significantly more detail through a wider variation of walk and run motions, swimming underwater, climbing vertical cables and ladders, tons of idle animations and much more. These additions enrich the gameplay while further establishing Astro as a character. Seeing Astro take out and play his PS One or being frightened to death in a horror-themed stage adds to his charm in classic mascot character fashion.
Cameos have more detailed animations too. Smith named Trico and the boy from The Last Guardian as an example.
“If you hit Trico, it will wake up and go back to sleep; but if you hit the boy, Trico will wake up and be protective over the boy like in The Last Guardian. We really wanted to go deeper and depict the relationship between characters.”
The biggest evolution of the cameo characters, however, is that four of them will actually lend you their weapons, which Astro needs to use in stages specifically designed for each one.
“We call these characters PlayStation heroes. They are trapped in boss battles, so you need to defeat the boss to save them,” Doucet explains. “For these PlayStation heroes, we wanted to have a mix of characters from blockbusters and more classic fantasy characters. Since Astro is designed as a family-friendly game that anyone can pick up and play, we wanted these special stages to have simplified game design when compared to the franchise they are based on. Another thing is that we wanted there to be humor. For example, we tried to make [God of War’s] Kratos angry and cute at the same time.”
While more of an extension of its previous titles than something all-new, it sounds like Team Asobi has cooked another stellar game. With over 80 stages and more than 15 power ups, players that wanted more of Astro’s Playroom will unlikely be dissatisfied. It will also be interesting to see what kind of new experiences Team Asobi can deliver with its deep knowledge of the DualSense controller. By paying respect to PlayStation’s heritage in new interactive ways, Astro Bot also seems like the perfect game to mark PlayStation’s 30th anniversary.
“I was at [Tokyo electronics store] Yodobashi Camera last Sunday and saw a father and his son preorder Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 and Astro Bot,” says Doucet. “Clearly, he bought Call of Duty for himself, while Astro Bot was probably for his son. It was the first time I saw someone buy Astro Bot with my own eyes.”
Like Astro’s Playroom, Astro Bot is not just a game that PS5 owners can play themselves, but also one that they can share with their less-experienced loved ones. Will this new adventure bring Astro even closer to mascot character status? If the father and son Doucet saw at Yodobashi Camera is an indication, Astro could very well be on his way to familiarize a younger audience with the PlayStation brand.
Esra Krabbe is an editor at IGN Japan. Astro Bot: Rescue Mission is his favorite game of the last 10 years.