PlayStation's new showcase is headlined by the unusually cheerful Astrobot
Sony closes with the kind of game usually highlighted by Nintendo
Sony PlayStation showcases in recent years might have culminated with a gritty God of War or a punch-filled Spider-Man adventure. But it’s been a while (if ever, no time to check!) since one ended with a game like Astrobot, which closed today’s State of Play.
Astrobot, the latest in one of Sony’s best-reviewed but least-heralded series, is a September-slated PlayStation 5 exclusive. It’s an action game featuring cute robots who jump, hover, swing, and swim through colorful worlds. It appears to be a happy, sunrise of a game.
Previous Astrobot games were charming hardware showcases: 2018’s Astro Bot Rescue Mission demoed the capabilities of Sony’s first VR headset; 2020’s Astro’s Playroom launched bundled with the PS5, and serves as a showcase for the PS5 controller’s motion and haptic features (while doubling as a nostalgia showcase for other PlayStation devices and characters).
Sony hasn’t said much about the new Astrobot, which doesn’t seem to be serving as a tech demo this time around. Just that it’ll be much bigger than the previous ones.
It’s at least clear that the new Astrobot is meant for a wide age group, the kind of games that fill the semi-regular Nintendo Direct showcases from the makers of Mario and Zelda but rarely get a prime spot—if any airtime—at the most aggressively-toned PlayStation and Xbox events.
Today’s Sony event, which ran just over 30 minutes, was dubbed a State of Play, a classification by Sony that signaled a less impactful run of games than last year’s May PlayStation stream, which was called a PlayStation Showcase.
That bit of labeling was consistent with Sony statements earlier this year that 2024 would be a relatively quiet time for its internal studios and would not feature any major franchise sequels (apologies to Astrobot!).
Other games shown during today’s event, which drew over 300,000 viewers on YouTube, include:
Concord, a 5v5 first-person sci-fi shooter from Sony-owned Firewalk Studios, with gameplay reminiscent of Activision Blizzard’s Overwatch. It will have a beta in July and launch on PS5 and PC August 23.
Silent Hill 2 remake, from Konami and Bloober Team, offering an overhaul of the acclaimed horror game, now with an October 8 release date.
Until Dawn, a 2015 horror game that plays like surviving a slasher film, set for a PS5/PC edition in the fall.
God of War Ragnarök, the latest PlayStation hit now also announced for PC (Sept. 19)
Infinity Nikki, an “open-world dress-up adventure” with a beta coming to PS5 by year’s end.
Sony’s State of Play aired 23 hours after the PlayStation’s new co-CEOs, who start the roles on June 1, gave a livestreamed briefing from Tokyo about the company’s gaming business.
“PlayStation is not just about gaming console hardware,” Hideaki Nishino, the co-CEO of PlayStation’s platform said. “It is not just about content. It is an experience and a community who share this excitement.”
During the briefing, Nishino said that PS5 was a more lucrative system for Sony than its predecessors.
PS5 owners are spending some $731 on average compared to $580 per PS4 owner at the same point in that machine’s lifecyce, Nishino said. Spending per user has nearly tripled on add-on content, though it has dipped on the purchase of full games.
Sony says it has sold 56 million PS5s to consumers as of April 30 and that 49 million consoles are active each month (as well as 49 million PS4s, the continued relevance of the PS4 userbase something Game File readers are well aware of).
Another notable PlayStation stat: 35% of PlayStation Plus subscribers pay for the “Extra” or “Premium” tiers, which grant access to libraries of games. The other 65% subscribe to “Essential,” which is required for online multiplayer for premium games (it’s not needed for free games such as Fortnite).
Throughout the presentation, PlayStation’s CEOs made repeated references to getting costs under control. That’s a no-brainer in an event pitched to investors but also of the moment for a PlayStation division that has been reporting greater sales figures but slimmer profits.
Bringing PlayStation games to more platforms, such as PC, can help make the most out of a game’s development costs, co-CEO and head of PlayStation studios Hermen Hulst said.
Outsourcing development will help, too, Hulst said: “We are increasing our use of external development teams, outsourcing partners and co-development agreements with teams in lower-cost regions allowing us to control the scope and scale of our games without compromising on quality.” He drew a contrast with the cost of development in California, where many of Sony’s most acclaimed teams (Naughty Dog, Sony Santa Monica, etc) are based..
As for the division’s much-discussed expansion into live-service games like Concord and this year’s 12-million-selling Helldivers 2, Hulst offered this reassurance to fans of PlayStation’s more traditional games such as God of War and Last of Us: “Each calendar year we plan to have at least one tentpole single player launch during the holiday season.”
Update, 8:02am - June 1, 2024: Removed a phrase in the section about the spending comparison of PS4 and PS5 users to avoid the implication that the price of PS4 and PS5 consoles was factored in to the figures shown by Sony.
Adjusting that $731 backwards for inflation by seven years (absolute guess, I haven’t worked out what the actual equivalent timescale would be) comes out at $570, so pretty equivalent to PS4 really:
https://www.calculator.net/inflation-calculator.html?cstartingamount1=731&cinmonth1=4&cinyear1=2024&coutmonth1=4&coutyear1=2017&calctype=1&x=Calculate#uscpi
I really regret buying my PS5... Infinite Wealth is a lot of fun, but everything else I’ve tried has been extremely underwhelming or better on my Switch. The price on PS Plus is insane now.