Team Asobi launched a new Astro’s Playroom update, with the second of four new Bots available now. Players who unlock these new bots can bring them into the upcoming Astro Bot, which releases on September 6.

What’s in the new Astro’s Playroom update?

Team Asobi’s studio head, Nicolas Doucet, reiterated in Monday’s PlayStation Blog post that the upcoming Astro Bot game sees players rescuing 300 bots scattered across multiple galaxies. Half of them are cameo Bots referencing other PlayStation games. These include Bloodborne and Returnal, from which Astro’s Playroom got the first two new Special Bots. Players have been able to unlock Lady Maria since last month, with the Bot version of Returnal protagonist Selene arriving in the second update.

As with the previous Astro’s Playroom update, the studio tasked the player with finding Selene somewhere in the game and then completing a puzzle to rescue her. According to Team Asobi’s Studio Head, Nicolas Doucet, players found and freed Lady Maria in under three hours. The next new Bot arrives in August, with the fourth coming in September. Based on the trophy names and teasers, they will be based on Gran Turismo and Ape Escape.

How to unlock Lady Maria and Selene

To unlock Lady Maria, Astro’s Playroom players need to head to the Render Forest area in the CPU jungle. Maria’s capsule will appear when players climb to the top of a large plant behind the Bloodborne Hunter Bot. They then need to search the trees above for a clock symbol matching the one on the pod. Standing near the clock and pressing the Options button brings up a screen where players must enter the date 24/11/2015, the release date for Bloodborne’s The Old Hunters DLC. Doing so unlocks Lady Maria and the Hunted Down trophy.

Meanwhile, the Selene Bot is in the Deep Dataspace of Astro’s Playroom’s SSD Speedway. To the left of the buried Ball Shooter chest is a swirling vortex. Players must jump toward the vortex to land on the hidden platform to reveal Selene’s pod. Then, they must proceed through the shooting section, stopping in the room with the low-hanging lights. They will find a small astronaut doll on the walkways above. This being a Returnal reference, players then need to die and respawn to free Selene.

The post Astro’s Playroom Update Adds New Bots You Can Bring Into Astro Bot appeared first on PlayStation LifeStyle.

Fresh from the announcement of the new Astro Bot game, the Astro’s Playroom 1.900.000 update has added new trophies and in-game extras.

Team ASOBI may be tinkering away on a full-fat Astro game, but it hasn’t prevented the developer from adding to its beloved PS5 pack-in title. Moreover, it appears the new goodies are related to Astro Bot.

Here’s what’s new in the Astro’s Playroom 1.900.000 update.

Astro’s Playroom 1.900.000 update details

• A mysterious portal has appeared in the center of PlayStation Labo. Could this be related to ASTRO’s new big adventure?
• A new collection of gatchas have also been added. Time to go spend those extra coins!
• A Special Bot has appeared in GPU Jungle and needs your help! Solve the riddle to rescue it. It may all be connected to Astro’s next big adventure? Let the search begin! Tick Tock…

New Trophies

Silver

• Four The Players – Rescued all four Special Bots. Time to go off to a new adventure!

Bronze

• Hunted Down – Rescued Special Bot trapped in GPU Jungle.
• No Escape! – Rescued Special Bot trapped in Memory Meadow.
• Bronze Deja Phew! – Rescued Special Bot trapped in SSD Speedway.
• Grand Tourist – Rescued Special Bot trapped in Cooling Springs.

Astro’s Playroom is free to download on PS5.

Astro Bot will be released for PS5 on September 6, 2024.

The post Astro’s Playroom 1.900.000 Update Adds New Trophies and In-Game Extras appeared first on PlayStation LifeStyle.

Sackboy: A Big Adventure is crossing over with the free PS5 game Astro’s Playroom. Earlier today, developer Sumo Digital announced that players can equip the free Astro Bot costume later this week.

Sackboy: A Big Adventure crosses over with Astro’s Playroom

The Astro Bot costume arrives in Sackboy: A Big Adventure as a free DLC on March 8. The studio has only shared one image of the costume so far and has yet to show how it will look in the game. However, unlike some other costumes, which are just Sackboy in a funny outfit, this looks more like a Little Big Planet version of the character. It has a larger, boxier head and a proportionally smaller body. The Astro costume’s antenna is also a lot bigger than the original. This has the side effect of making him look a lot more like the Reddit mascot than the designers probably intended.

Astro’s Playroom is a free 3D platformer that comes pre-loaded in all PS5s. It primarily serves as a tech demo for the console’s DualSence controller. It was also the last original game from Gravity Rush developer Japan Studio before its dissolution in 2021. The timing of this new crossover is interesting given the new Astro Bot game reportedly in development.

Meanwhile, Sumo Digital’s Sackboy: A Big Adventure is a 2020 spinoff of the Little Big Planet series. It follows the titular Sackboy in his quest to save Craftworld from the villainous Vex. The game features hundreds of costumes, with developers frequently more through updates. Many of these outfits are inspired by other Sony properties. Past crossovers include characters from God of War, The Last of Us, Ratchet and Clank, Horizon, and Uncharted.

The post Sackboy: A Big Adventure Getting New Astro Bot Costume appeared first on PlayStation LifeStyle.

Sony reportedly has a new Astro Bot game in development and its release date window is sooner than one would expect. According to journalist and insider Jeff Grubb, the next Astro Bot could be out as soon as 2024.

Astro Bot is one of the new unannounced Sony games coming before March 2025, leaker claims

Yesterday, a statement made by Sony Group CFO and Sony Interactive Entertainment chairman Hiroki Totoki was widely misconstrued. Totoki said that Sony will not be releasing a game from “major existing franchises” before March 2025. This was somehow interpreted by some as Totoki confirming that there won’t be any Sony-published games coming this year despite the company having already announced Concord, Stellar Blade, and Rise of the Ronin among others.

Speaking on his Game Mess Mornings podcast, Grubb reiterated that SIE does have unannounced games in the pipeline possibly coming soon, and one of them happens to be an Astro Bot starrer.

While we can’t confirm or deny Grubb’s report and ask our readers to take it with a grain of salt, Totoki’s statement certainly has been taken out of context. What he’s likely referring to as “major existing franchises” are Sony’s tentpole IPs like God of War and Spider-Man.

The post New Astro Bot Game Release Date Window Possibly Leaked appeared first on PlayStation LifeStyle.

A new Team Asobi game has been revealed by the developer, with its next project described as a “full-blown commercial title.” Given that it will also “follow in the footsteps of the games it has done before,” Team Asobi hints that this could be the giant Astro adventure that we all want on PlayStation consoles after Astro’s Playroom. Whatever the studio’s next game, it has stocked up a lot of good will from PS5 owners and Sony for creating a great platformer out of what might have been just a free tech demo.

How the new Team Asobi game takes advantage of PlayStation hardware

Talking at length with GamesIndustry.biz, Team Asobi’s creative and studio director Nicolas Doucet shared some information on the follow-up to Astro’s Playroom. According to the piece, it will likely utilize the PS5 Dualsense controller and its haptic feedback and adaptive triggers to their fullest extent. Doucet has described the controller as a “special weapon” for the studio and that one of the first things the developer does with new technology is “to use it in ways you’re not supposed to.”

Team Asobi’s close proximity to PlayStation’s hardware team in Japan is one of its best assets, as the developer is “one of the first people to get [its] hands onto prototypes.” This allows for a lot of experimentation and outside-of-the-box thinking. In fact, the developer makes it a point to recruit members in the programming community and hobbyist scene who like to tinker with motion sensors, VR headsets, and eye-detection hardware. On that front, Team Asobi plans to expand its number of employees from 60 to 100.

The R&D section of its team is so important that the studio makes it a point to rotate people in and out of R&D regularly so that more developers have a chance to create new gameplay ideas. Using a “quick iteration approach,” the studio can quickly find out within weeks instead of six months whether some innovative mechanic is worth pursuing. So whether or not its next game is really a new Astro game, we can still expect it to be as fun and innovative as its marquee title.

In other news, here’s how to play Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 campaign early, and another reference to PlayStation’s PC launcher has been found.

The post New Team Asobi Game Will Be Its ‘Biggest to Date’ After Astro’s Playroom appeared first on PlayStation LifeStyle.

The long-awaited PS5 Variable Refresh Rate (VRR) support will arrive in a console update later this week. The update means compatible games will be able to sync their graphical output to the refresh rate of the display for compatible TVs. Over the coming weeks, nearly 15 games will receive title updates that will enable VRR support.

When will the PS5 VRR update be released?

The PS5 VRR update will begin rolling out across the world this week although Sony did not give an exact release date. Any players with HDMI 2.1 VRR-compatible TVs and PC monitors will find enhanced performance from PS5 games, especially those that will be getting patches to actively support VRR. The gameplay will benefit from reduced input lag and scene rendering will be seamless. Graphics will also be improved by reducing screen tearing, frame pacing issues, and the minimization of visual artifacts. VRR support will be automatically enabled for players with compatible TVs or monitors, although it can easily be turned off too.

Sony also gave a list of 14 titles that will be receiving patches over the next few weeks to support VRR. The games getting updates soon are:

• Astro’s Playroom
• Call of Duty: Vanguard
• Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War
• Destiny 2
• Devil May Cry 5 Special Edition
• DIRT 5
• Godfall
• Marvel’s Spider-Man Remastered
• Marvel’s Spider-Man: Miles Morales
• Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart
• Resident Evil Village
• Tiny Tina’s Wonderlands
• Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six Siege
• Tribes of Midgard

More titles will also be getting VRR updates and future games may even be released with VRR support included. However, as seen in the screenshot above, VRR support can also be applied to games that haven’t added VRR support yet and may help to improve gameplay in those titles too.

In other news, PS5 US console sales were beaten by both Xbox Series X|S and Nintendo Switch last month due to ongoing console shortages. Elsewhere, the next Assassin’s Creed, Far Cry, and Ghost Recon games are further away from release than Ubisoft would like.

The post PS5 VRR Support Arrives Later This Week appeared first on PlayStation LifeStyle.

Team Asobi, creator of the Astro Bot series of games—most recently the fantastic PS5 pack-in, Astro’s Playroom—have launched a new website where they detail the studio’s past games, job postings, and plans for the future. A relatively new member to the PlayStation Studios family, the studio has revealed that they are “hard at work on [its] most ambitious game yet”, though details are still scarce.

Our new website has launched today. Come and check it out!
本日、ウェブサイトを解禁！ぜひチェックしてみてください。https://t.co/xaquH4q7u3 pic.twitter.com/MBMrmDT2v6

— Team ASOBI (@TeamAsobi) August 2, 2021

The studio revealed the new website via its official Twitter account. Ever since the studio officially joined PlayStation Studios back in June, it has been working on revamping all of its resources and production processes going so far as to post a dozen new job listings. The newly launched website also lists these positions, indicating that the studio is going forwards with plans to expand as it takes on a new project. While Team Asobi has not revealed any information on what the game will look like, from the job postings we can discern that it will likely be some sort of 3D platformer, similar to Astro’s Playroom.

In addition to the job postings, the new website also showcases the studio’s past titles as well as an introductory page filled with photos of the team. As with past posts, Team Asobi describes itself as a “collective of passionate game creators from various nationalities, ages, genders, and backgrounds,” particularly highlighting the team’s multicultural roots. Additionally, the website also shows cute little graphics of Astro promoting the studios’ various job postings, such as the company’s pension scheme, telework flexibility, and relocation support.

The website launch comes after the former Japan Studio was restructured to center around the Tokyo-based Team Asobi, alongside a host of several PlayStation Studios acquisitions this year. Astro Bot Rescue Mission Director Nicolas Doucet (who is also pictured on the newly launched website), is currently head of Team Asobi.

[Source: Twitter]

The post Astro Bot Creator Team Asobi Launches New Website, Studio Working on its ‘Most Ambitious’ Game Yet appeared first on PlayStation LifeStyle.

I synthesize and rasterize immaterial things

That I fabricate for you. For you…

Yes I tesselate and animate

These dancing sprites

And sun-lit skies for you.

I do it for you. I’m your GPU.

GPU. GPU.

If you’ve played Astro’s Playroom, chances are, you’ve found yourself humming its catchy soundtrack. Well, we have some good news: the OST is now streaming everywhere – YouTube Music, Spotify, Apple Music, Amazon Music, and Tidal.

The track list is as follows:

1. “That’s The Way To Do It”
2. “CPU Plaza”
3. “I’m Your GPU”
4. “SSD”
5. “Follow Me (Into The Storm) [Playroom Remix]”
6. “Botdi Beach”
7. “Cooling Springs”
8. “PlayStation Labo & Gatcha”
9. “GPU Jungle (Powerup & Boss)”
10. “SSD Speedway (Powerup & Boss)”
11. “CPU Plaza (After Dark)”
12. “They Don’t Make’m Like They Used To”
13. “CRT-Rex”
14. “4K-Rex”
15. “Let’s Do This”
16. “Goal”
17. “Uplifting Little Number”
18. “I Am Astro Bot [Playroom Remix]”
19. “Memories of Play”
20. “CPU Plaza (Mashup Overture)”

The soundtrack is the work of composer Kenneth C M Young, who recently offered some track sketches for free over on Soundcloud via the PlayStation Blog.

“I was out for a run one morning and I was thinking about all these ideas and what was I going to do, and I had this idea of making the PlayStation 5 sing to the player, personifying the spirit of the PS5,” Young told IGN. “It’s nice when you realize you’re able to do something that you probably couldn’t do on other projects, and then you can dial it up and make it your own. The nice thing about the game being pre-installed on PS5 is that it’s this great opportunity to really find an audience.”

Tell me what to do

And I’ll do it for you.

GPU. GPU.

The post PSA: Astro’s Playroom’s Catchy Soundtrack Is Now Available Digitally appeared first on PlayStation LifeStyle.

Naughty Dog developers recently published a blog celebrating some of their favorite games of 2020, which include Sucker Punch Productions’ Ghost of Tsushima, Square Enix’s Final Fantasy VII Remake, Mediatonic’s Fall Guys: Ultimate Knockout (which Shuhei Yoshida’s a huge fan of, evidently), and more.

Here are their top picks (in no particular order):

• Astro’s Playroom
• Demon’s Souls Remake
• Fall Guys
• Final Fantasy VII Remake
• For The King
• Ghost of Tsushima
• Griftlands
• No Man’s Sky
• Marvel’s Spider-Man: Miles Morales

“Hopping into Tsushima and clearing out Mongols from camps is exactly the therapeutic gameplay I needed in 2020,” co-game director Kurt Margenau said of the Sucker Punch hit. “The world is beautiful, there are tons of things to discover, the combat is fluid and surprisingly deep, and I can feel like I’m actually accomplishing something turning the entire map from red to white! Sucker Punch really delivered on the samurai fantasy.”

“I loved the setting for the game, the Japanese countryside,” added vice president Christian Gyrling. “It was incredibly beautiful and satisfying to play as a samurai as I slowly got more and more proficient at using my sword and knives while taking on larger and larger groups of enemies. In the end, I felt like a real badass.”

Co-president Neil Druckmann and game director Vinit Agarwal both voted for Fall Guys. Druckmann revealed that Fall Guys was a stress relief for him during The Last of Us Part II‘s final stretch of development, and it’s the only game that he has unlocked the Platinum trophy for.

For more on their picks, check out the developers’ blog below.

[Source: Naughty Dog]

The post Naughty Dog Devs Name Ghost of Tsushima, FFVII Remake, and More as Their Favorite Games of 2020 appeared first on PlayStation LifeStyle.

Just over a week ago, the voting began for the official PlayStation Blog Game of the Year Awards. After a record 2.5 million votes cast despite a shorter voting period, the winners have been announced. The Last of Us Part II is the most successful of them all, taking home seven of the 17 awards on offer.

You can see the full list of all of the winners and runners up below:

PlayStation 4 Game of the Year

• Winner – The Last of Us Part II
• Runners Up – Ghost of Tsushima, Final Fantasy VII Remake, Marvel’s Spider Man: Miles Morales

PlayStation 5 Game of the Year

• Winner – Marvel’s Spider Man: Miles Morales
• Runners Up – Demon’s Souls, Assassin’s Creed: Valhalla, Astro’s Playroom
  

Best Narrative

• Winner – The Last of Us Part II
• Runners Up – Ghost of Tsushima, Marvel’s Spider Man: Miles Morales, Final Fantasy VII Remake

Best Use of DualSense

• Winner – Astro’s Playroom
• Runners Up – Marvel’s Spider Man: Miles Morales, Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War, Demon’s Souls
  

Best Accessibility Features

• Winner – The Last of Us Part II
• Runners Up – Ghost of Tsushima, Marvel’s Spider Man: Miles Morales, Assassin’s Creed Valhalla
  

Best Graphical Showcase

• Winner – The Last of Us Part II
• Runners Up – Ghost of Tsushima, Marvel’s Spider Man: Miles Morales, Demon’s Souls
  

Best Art Direction

• Winner – Ghost of Tsushima
• Runners Up – The Last of Us Part II, Marvel’s Spider Man: Miles Morales, Final Fantasy VII Remake

Best Soundtrack

• Winner – The Last of Us Part II
• Runners Up – Ghost of Tsushima, Marvel’s Spider Man: Miles Morales, Final Fantasy VII Remake

Best Sound Design

• Winner – The Last of Us Part II
• Runners Up – Ghost of Tsushima, Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War, Demon’s Souls
  

Best Multiplayer

• Winner – Call of Duty: Warzone
• Runners Up – Fall Guys: Ultimate Knockout, Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War, Ghost of Tsushima Legends
  

Best Sports Game

• Winner – Tony Hawk’s Pro-Skater 1 & 2
• Runners Up – FIFA 21, NBA 2K21, DiRT 5
  

Best New Character

• Winner – Miles Morales as Spider-Man (Marvel’s Spider Man: Miles Morales)
• Runners Up – Jin Sakai (Ghost of Tsushima), Abby (The Last of Us Part II), Eivor (Assassin’s Creed Valhalla)

Best Independent Game

• Winner – Fall Guys: Ultimate Knockout
• Runners Up – Bugsnax, Worms Rumble, Skater XL
  

Gaming Moment of the Year

• Winner – The Last of Us Part II: Final Showdown
• Runners Up – Ghost of Tsushima: Horseback title sequence, Marvel’s Spider Man: Miles Morales: The bridge sequence, Astro’s Playroom: Experiencing haptics and adaptive triggers for the first time

Best PSVR Experience

• Winner – Star Wars Squadrons
  
• Runners Up – Marvel’s Iron Man VR, Dreams, The Walking Dead: Saints and Sinners
  

Studio of the Year

• Winner – Naughty Dog
• Runners Up – Insomniac Games, Sucker Punch, Square Enix

Most Anticipated Game

• Winner – New God of War title
• Runners Up – Horizon Forbidden West, Resident Evil Village, Final Fantasy XVI
  

Do you agree with the winners? Let us know in the comments below.

[Source: PlayStation Blog]

The post The Last of Us Part II Takes Home Seven PlayStation Blog Game of the Year Awards, Including Best PS4 Game appeared first on PlayStation LifeStyle.