Highlights
- Sony has filed trademarks for Astro Bot, suggesting that a new game in the franchise could be in development.
- Astro’s Playroom received critical acclaim for its use of the DualSense controller and homage to PlayStation’s past.
- Team Asobi, the developer behind the Astro Bot series, is reportedly working on its biggest project yet, which may or may not feature Astro Bot characters.
Sony has recently filed trademarks for Astro Bot, suggesting that a new game in the franchise could potentially be in the pipeline. Sony’s Astro series has primarily been used as tech demos for the company’s hardware. It started with The Playroom, which showcased the capabilities of the PlayStation Camera and the PS4’s DualShock 4 controller and continued with Astro Bot Rescue Mission for the original PlayStation VR headset.
The latest game in the series is Astro’s Playroom, which was released as a pack-in launch title for the PlayStation 5. Astro’s Playroom is a short but sweet 3D platformer that is primarily designed to highlight all the unique features of the PlayStation 5’s DualSense controller. Astro’s Playroom earned critical acclaim at the time of its release, with many praising its clever use of the DualSense controller and the many ways it pays homage to PlayStation’s past.
Luckily for those that enjoyed Astro’s Playroom, it seems a new game in the series may very well be in the works. Sony has filed a fresh trademark for Astro Bot in Europe, suggesting that it still has plans for the franchise moving forward, though there’s no other information to share at this time. It’s possible such plans could include a full-fledged traditional game based on the cute robot characters, but it’s also possible that a sequel to the VR game Astro Bot Rescue Mission could be on the way instead. Ultimately, fans will just have to stay tuned and see what exactly Sony does with the trademark. It’s entirely possible that it won’t do anything with it and the Astro Bot franchise will remain dormant.
While it remains to be seen if a new Astro Bot game is going to happen or not, fans can count on developer Team Asobi delivering some kind of new project. Team Asobi’s next project is said to be its biggest to date, though it remains to be seen if the game will feature the Astro Bot characters or not. So far, every game Team Asobi has made has starred the Astro Bot characters in some capacity, so it wouldn’t be surprising at all if the next game carries on that tradition.
Team Asobi has consistently released a new project every few years since launching The Playroom in 2013. It released The Playroom VR in 2016, and dropped Astro Bot Rescue Mission in 2018. Of course, Astro’s Playroom released in 2023 to coincide with the release of the PS5 console. According to this pattern, fans are due for a new Team Asobi game, though perhaps the new game being the biggest the studio has made to date has pushed things back a bit.
