Astro's Playroom

The game is a sequel to Astro Bot Rescue Mission and comes pre-installed on every console, serving additionally as a free tech demo for the DualSense controller. The game was announced on 11 June 2020, at the PlayStation 5 reveal event. The game starts in a hub world called CPU Plaza which is modeled after the inside of the PlayStation 5 console and provides access to four worlds which are each themed after a component of the console, and the artifacts are themed after the corresponding console.: GPU Jungle , Cooling Springs , SSD Speedway , and Memory Meadow . The plaza also houses two other areas: Network Speed Run, in which players can compete in unlockable time trials for the fastest time which can be shared to online leaderboards, and PlayStation Labo, which houses all of the collectables a player has collected. Each of the four worlds are split up into four levels that are interconnected with each other. For example, one world features a frog suit with a spring at the bottom in which the controller must be tilted laterally to guide the frog and the trigger pressed down to compress the spring, which offers resistance similar to how a real spring would using the adaptive trigger system. Another example is the ball suit in which the player must swipe the touchpad to guide the ball. Puzzle pieces are used to fill in a PlayStation mural that adorns the walls of the PlayStation Labo area. Artefacts are stored in PlayStation Labo where Astro Bot can later interact with them by punching or jumping on them. At the end of each world, there is an area inspired by the startup sequences of the previous four PlayStation home consoles, where the player receives an artifact of the respective console as a reward for completing the world. Once the T-Rex has been defeated, the credits roll and the player is rewarded with artifacts from the PlayStation 5 era, including the DualSense controller and the PlayStation 5 console itself. Team Asobi began development on Astro's Playroom in early 2018. The game initially started as a series of tech demos for the PlayStation 5's DualSense controller, although its status as a launch title was not established until later in development. According to creative director Nicolas Doucet, at least 80 tech demos for the DualSense controller had been designed while working on the game. As a celebration of the PlayStation brand, the game features appearances by characters from several PlayStation franchises, as well as characters from series by third-party developers, such as Bandai Namco Entertainment, Capcom, Square Enix, Konami, and Activision.