How ‘Astro Bot’ Developer Packed in 150 Iconic PlayStation Character Cameos Without Creating ‘Friction or Productivity’ Issues Across Game Brands

When PlayStation‘s “Astro Bot” launches Friday, it will give PS5 owners access to a brand new, fully fleshed out story starring the little robot whose previous claim to fame was teaching gamers all the cool new features for the Sony gaming console launched in 2020 through pre-loaded title “Astro’s Playroom.”

Four years later, Astro has broken out of his playroom and is on a bigger mission: Celebrating the 30th anniversary of Sony Interactive in an easy-entry platformer that features more than 150 cameos of beloved PlayStation characters from across mega hits and deep cuts, including “God of War,” “Ratchet & Clank,” “Ape Escape” and many more.

However, the original idea for the game from Team Asobi was simply to give Astro a bigger space adventure game with more to do, while sprinkling in a few PlayStation references and characters here and there. But the enthusiasm for the game across Sony’s gaming IP brands led to so much more.

“If you asked me the question two years ago about how many we’re going to be able to put in — well, my job is to look at all the problems, so I tend to be pessimistic — where we landed in the end with these 150-plus characters, it’s been really surprising,” Team Asobi studio director Nicolas Doucet told Variety. “Especially what surprised me, and I’m very, very happy with, is the amount of love and care that our partners have shown us, because it was their positive attitude towards the game that made it possible. Ownership of IPs and things like that sometimes can be a subject of friction or productivity, and the fact that we’re able to use these characters and twist them, because a lot of the time we make fun of them, and everybody is just on board and asking for more, I think it goes to show that people really embrace that fun and playfulness. And that’s a really positive human experience because those people were really supportive of what we were doing with their characters.”

A lot of Team Asobi’s teasing aside, “Astro Bot” is largely a love letter to PlayStation from PlayStation, following Astro and the Bot crew after their PS5 mothership (yes, the gaming console is their space ship, and the Dual Sense controller is Astro’s smaller ride across planets) crash lands and Astro is tasked with collecting hundreds of his team members scattered across the galaxy in the wake of the accident.

In his journey around more than 50 planets, Astro runs into his generic Bot buddies, as well as those PlayStation heroes turned into Bot form, like the Botified version of “God of War’s” demigod lead Kratos featured in the image above. PlayStation is keeping the majority of the cameos under wraps until the game launches Friday, so players can enjoy the surprise first hand — and, of course, encourage them to buy the game.