Team Asobi Reveals Astro Bot’s Original Name

Astro Bot is the feel-good title everybody’s looking forward to this fall, and not without good reason. A creative risk like this has managed to put a smile on a lot of people’s faces ever since it got revealed, especially coming hot off the heels of its predecessor’s brilliance, which is essentially a “tech demo” for the PlayStation 5. 

Expanding on the project in a new blog post, developer Team Asobi has let us fans in on interesting insights, including Astro’s original internal name, character cameos, and the wildlife that’s set to be featured in the upcoming sequel. 

We internally called him Captain Astro. We added a PlayStation blue livery and more parts to have him stand out from the environment, gave him the ability to hover and modified his hands to grab things ,” said Team Asobi’s studio director Nicolas Doucet.

Many of you may not know this, but Astro actually began life in the shape of a VR game that came out in 2018, titled Astro Bot Rescue Mission, so Astro’s Playroom on the PS5 as a launch title, wasn’t exactly a built-from-scratch project. The groundwork had already been laid thanks to the PSVR. 

He also had to feel tangible for VR. We looked at him as if he was a real-life robotics product – it’s a character you can take apart and understand how his joints come together,” affirms Nicolas. 

I’m Glad Astro Is Getting A New Adventure This Fall

Over a week ago, leaked Astro Bot images gave away confirmation that the game is crossing over with an array of different video game franchises, including Tekken, Yakuza, Metal Gear Solid, Stray, Infamous, The Last of Us, and others. The title’s not out yet, and I haven’t even played it, but I can already say for sure that Astro Bot will pack one heck of a good time.

The game is expected to be released on September 6, 2024. It was announced in May this year during PlayStation’s State of Play, and is confirmed to offer free post-launch DLC.