While the listing doesn’t go into too many details about this project, some information can be gleaned thanks to mentions of “creating playful and stunning looking environment art for our game”. This might indicate that either Team Asobi is working on a brand new entry in the Astro Bot series, or its new project will at least have a similar tone.

There is also a listing for a Gameplay Programmer that mentions creating “advanced and fun gameplay mechanics around physics engine”, as well as an encouragement to “bring your own game design sense, creativity and humor to these interactions.” The role, reporting to the Lead Gameplay Programmer, has been described in the listing as a mid-level / senior position.

Neither Sony nor Team Asobi have made any official announcements regarding their next project. However, considering the fact that Astro Bot came out back in 2024, the studio is likely to have already begun at least pre-production on a new game.

A sequel to Astro Bot wouldn’t be too surprising, since the 3D platformer even saw praise from PlayStation Studios head Hermen Hulst during a business update. He praised the title for its universal acclaim, and referred to it as an “emerging IP”.

Sony executive Hiroki Totoki had also expressed enthusiasm for Team Asobi’s work back in February 2025. “At The Game Awards 2024, our first-party title Astro Bot won four categories, including Game of the Year and Best Family Game – the most of any title,” he said, before going on to praise Helldivers 2 as well.

“In addition, the live service game Helldivers 2, which was released in February last year, won Best Ongoing Game and Best Multiplayer Game awards. The fact that titles in genres we are planning to expand in the future, including titles for families and live service games, have received these awards is a major stride towards building a broad title portfolio.”

The last time we heard from Team Asobi was when studio director Nicolas Doucet spoke about how the DualSense controller and the SSD are the best reasons for PS4 owners to finally upgrade to the current-gen PS5. He noted that, while visual upgrades are also important, the more unique features of the PS5 are the true console sellers.

“When you put graphics side-by-side between an end-of-lifecycle PS4 game and early cycle PS5 game, you could argue, to an untrained eye, that it’s hard to see the difference,” said Doucet back in October. “But early on [with PS5] we got the DualSense prototypes, with this haptic feedback and adaptive triggers. And we tried to understand what could be different about having this kind of trigger, so you can simulate pulling something, or cracking something, or crushing something… We tested all of that.”

In the meantime, check out our review of Astro Bot, which is exclusively available on PS5.

Doucet, whose studio is responsible for the critically-acclaimed platformer Astro Bot, points out that, while late PS4-era games and early PS5 games may not be that different in terms of visual fidelity, the newer features on the PS5 make the console worth it. These features include the DualSense controller’s haptic feedback and adaptive triggers, as well as the SSD used for game storage over the PS4’s considerably slower hard drive.

“When you put graphics side-by-side between an end-of-lifecycle PS4 game and early cycle PS5 game, you could argue, to an untrained eye, that it’s hard to see the difference,” said Doucet. “But early on [with PS5] we got the DualSense prototypes, with this haptic feedback and adaptive triggers. And we tried to understand what could be different about having this kind of trigger, so you can simulate pulling something, or cracking something, or crushing something… We tested all of that.”

“When you’ve gone through [that process], you get to appreciate the changes. There are some leaps, but they’re maybe less obvious than when we went to HD graphics. That’s something that you can just stare at the screen for a few seconds and understand. With the controller, you have to get it in your hands and get a feel for it.”

As for the leap in quality offered by the PS5’s SSD, Doucet also brings up games where players are likely to see frequent loading screens, like FromSoftware’s Souls series where player death is a common occurrence, which often tends to involve a loading screen before the player respawns.

“But I do think the PS5, between the DualSense and the SSD, really brought something special,” explained Doucet. “With the SSD… I’m thinking of things like the Souls games, where you die a lot. And when you die, you used to have to wait a long time before you get a second try. With the SSD, that becomes really, really fast. So, in terms of just the pleasure of play, that’s really increased.”

When comparing PS5 with PC as a gaming platform, Doucet also noted a major advantage that console developers tend to have: being able to target a single set of hardware. This, according to Doucet, “allows us to focus, because you’re not putting in time dealing with compatibility or permutations. It’s why I’ve always liked consoles.”

Astro Bot has been a massive hit for Sony, with Sony Interactive Entertainment’s Studio Business Group CEO Hermen Hulst praising the title in a business update from back in June. He referred to the PS5-exclusive platformer as one of the “most exciting recent successes” for PlayStation. For more details, check out our review of Astro Bot.

Astro Bot creative director Nicolas Doucet spoke in the interview about how the studio tries to strike a similar balance, and has not yet faced friction that one would expect from the creative aspects of game development with business decisions. He does note, however, that if it were to actually become an issue, a conversation would need to happen.

“If the creative side started feeling ostracised or penalised . . . between us we’d have that conversation” said Doucet (via Genki_JPN). “That would definitely come to a boil.”

Art director Sabastian Brueckner attributes the studio’s success within PlayStation’s ambitious plans as stemming from Team Asobi being a smaller studio with 60 employees. He spoke about how larger studios with 200 or 350 employees wouldn’t have the same level of intimacy between team members as smaller teams would have. “I think that intimacy is really hard to replicate if you would grow to like 200, 350 people,” he said.

PlayStation Studios head Hermen Hulst spoke about how the company wants to approach developing games moving forward, while keeping the same balance. “I don’t want teams to always play it safe, but I would like for us, when we fail, to fail early and cheaply,” he said.

These decisions come in light of Sony over the last year having cancelled several of its live service projects in the wake of Concord’s negative reception by critics and players alike. Addressing these cancellations, Hulst spoke about how PlayStation is now more focused on offering players diverse experiences.

“The number [of live-service releases] is not so important. What is important to me is having a diverse set of player experiences and a set of communities,” he said.

“We have since put in place much more rigorous and more frequent testing in very many different ways,” he continued. “The advantage of every failure… is that people now understand how necessary that [oversight] is.”

Bernstein analyst Robin Zhu also mentioned that Concord might have been one of the major releases that has forced Sony to learn from its mistakes. Zhu also notes that the company is poised for long-term success as long as it doesn’t stray from the kinds of games that made PlayStation popular to begin with.

“That Concord has forced them to learn their lessons is the silver lining,” said Zhu. “Sony is in a great position to capitalise long-term if they focus on the kind of games that make them different and successful.”

As for new projects in the future, Hulst spoke about how PlayStation’s approach to creating and developing new IP is “very intentional”, with the company taking time to understand “how a new concept can turn into an iconic franchise for PlayStsation, that can then again become a franchise for people beyond gaming.”

These are part of the new Vicious Void Galaxy, and players can also discover new Special Bots from other video game franchises. As showcased in the tweet below, this includes Atsu from Ghost of Yōtei and her wolf companion (just in time for the upcoming State of Play deep dive). We won’t spoil the other additions, but suffice it to say that some are more fantasy-like than others.

Astro Bot is available exclusively for PS5 and has sold 1.5 million copies in nine weeks. Sony hasn’t provided any sales updates since, but it has received extensive post-launch support. It was also the recipient of several Game of the Year awards, including at The Game Awards 2024. Check out our review, where we gave it a nine out of ten.

“Astro Bot was a smash hit, achieving universal acclaim among players and critics and sweeping industry award shows,” said Hulst about the critically-acclaimed platformer that came out as a PS5 exclusive back September 2024. As part of the business update, Hulst also referred to Astro Bot as an “emerging IP”, since three titles have been developed featuring the character front-and-center so far.

He also spoke about wanting to make more Astro Bot games in the future, referring to its future as “an enduring and iconic game franchise for PlayStation,” according to X user Genki_JPN.

Sony executive Hiroki Totoki had expressed similar enthusiasm for Astro Bot back in February, praising the game for being nominated across multiple categories during The Game Awards 2024. Totoki had also praised Helldivers 2 for similar reasons.

“At The Game Awards 2024, our first-party title Astro Bot won four categories, including Game of the Year and Best Family Game – the most of any title,” said Totoki.

“In addition, the live service game Helldivers 2, which was released in February last year, won Best Ongoing Game and Best Multiplayer Game awards. The fact that titles in genres we are planning to expand in the future, including titles for families and live service games, have received these awards is a major stride towards building a broad title portfolio.”

Astro Bot had been proving itself to be quite successful shortly after launch. Sony revealed back in November 2024 that more than 1.5 million copies of the 3D platformer had been sold over the span of the title’s first nine weeks after release.

Since its release, the developers behind Astro Bot have revealed quite a few interesting details about the game. For example, creative director Nicolas Doucet had revealed in an interview back in March that the game’s beloved VIP Bot stages were originally conceived as mini-stages.

“The [VIP Stage] was initially thought of as a mini-stage, but it got bigger and bigger,” said Doucet. “It’s not mini at all.”

Doucet had also spoken about how surprising it was for the development team at Asobi to see the success of VR game Astro Bot Rescue Mission – which was essentially the first Astro Bot game ever.

“It was an amazing project because we made it without any expectations,” said Doucet, talking about the fun experimentation that the studio was able to partake in during the development of Astro Bot Rescue Mission. “All we wanted was to do the best possible evolution of that prototype and help VR show people VR can do this, this, this, and that. We were trying to come up with as many original ideas as possible.”

Astro Bot is available on PS5. The game is also available as part of a bundle alongside the console. Check out our review for more details.

These include Twin-Frog Trouble, Suck It Up, Handhold Havoc, High Inflation and a mystery level. Doucet also teased “something really cool” potentially occurring after finishing the Vicious Void. Players can also look forward to new Special Bots for each level, including Atsu from Ghost of Yōtei.

Stay tuned for more details on the levels when they go live. Astro Bot is available on PS5 and received overwhelmingly critical praise and awards last year. Check out our review here.

The total level count is now over 90, with five levels added post-launch, followed by Building Speed and Winter Wonderland. Five more levels arrived earlier this year, and there don’t seem to be any plans to stop soon.

“The original pitch for Astro Bot was written in May, 2021, so, a few months after we began prototyping the game,” said Doucet. “We went through 23 iterations before it was shown to the top management.”

While there were quite a few ideas thrown around with plenty of experimentation, according to Doucet, the final game ended up being close to what the studio had originally pitched to Sony. Doucet said, “generally speaking, we delivered the game quite close to the original pitch.”

Among the various prototypes for Astro Bot, Doucet also spoke about how terms like “happy gameplay,” “techno magic,” and “overflowing charm,” were used to present Astro Bot to PlayStation’s executives. However, the original pitch would end up giving Astro Bot a darker ending than what we ultimately got.

“So, at the end of the game, Astro sacrificed himself for the team, and as the credits roll, we wanted to make a very grieving moment of rebuilding Astro,” Doucet continued, which would require the idea of a “completely dismembered Astro, so you gained the torso without the head.”

Executives seemingly didn’t enjoy the more grim ending to the game. According to Doucet, “some people [were] really upset in the team, for good reasons.”

Ultimately, however, the game went with a “lighter approach with humour, where the player will replace all the parts, and it still conveys the right emotions. The head is always on Astro’s body.”

In a previous talk during GDC 2025, Doucet has also spoken about how it’s okay for studios to make smaller-scaled games. Not only would this be great for the developers, since the scope becomes more manageable, it also ends up being great for players that already have too many games in their backlogs.

“From the start, we were in the mindset that it’s OK to make a compact game… it’s OK to make a small game,” said Doucet. “So for us, it means that we’re making something of such scale that we can control it fully. That’s from a development standpoint. But not only that. For the players, we all know that players today have a backlog of games and cannot complete their games, so the prospect of a game you can actually complete is a really persuasive argument.”

More recently, Sony unveiled an Astro Bot bundle for the PS5. While not featuring any fancy themes or skins, the bundles includes a copy of Astro Bot alongside the PS5 console. The bundle was unveiled earlier this month.

In the meantime, you can check out more details about Astro Bot through our review of the PS5-exclusive platformer. Also check out the details about its most recent update from back in February.

During his GDC talk, Doucet spoke about how the gaming audience in this day and age tends to have several games in its backlogs already. Thanks to the rise of digital distribution over the last decade, as well as steep discounts offered by Steam or Humble Bundle, players tend to buy several games that they don’t immediately rush to finish. This leaves little room for new games that are bigger. Smaller games, however, might have a better chance at capturing audience attention.

Doucet also spoke about the benefit to developers in making smaller games. Since the scope isn’t too wide, developers also have more control over what they’re making and how they go about making it. In this way, making smaller and more compact games benefits both customers as well as developers.

“From the start, we were in the mindset that it’s OK to make a compact game… it’s OK to make a small game,” said Doucet, according to GamesRadar. “So for us, it means that we’re making something of such scale that we can control it fully. That’s from a development standpoint. But not only that. For the players, we all know that players today have a backlog of games and cannot complete their games, so the prospect of a game you can actually complete is a really persuasive argument.”

To Doucet’s credit, Astro Bot is an incredibly tightly-packed game that, despite having several levels and secrets, should take most players between 12 and 15 hours to finish. Doucet spoke about how there could be more play time to be extracted from Astro Bot thanks to optional stuff, but that was never a priority for Team Asobi.

“It’s a game in which you collect a lot of characters… But that’s never really been the focus,” said Doucet in an interview back in July 2024. “We never said it absolutely has to be 20 to 30 hours of play. We want to really make a game in which the tempo is constant throughout and that each level is the same quality rather than having moments that are actually a little long.”

Astro Bot was released for the PS5 back in September. Since its release, the platforming title has gone on to become incredibly successful in terms of both critical reception as well as sales figures. Thanks to the game having sold more than 1.5 million copies in just a few months since its release, even Sony president Hiroki Totoki spoke about wanting to release more family friendly games.

Aside from our own review (which you can check out here), if you want an example of how well-praised Astro Bot was with critics, the title was the most highly-reviewed game on Metacritic for 2024.

“Astro and his mothership, together,” posted the official PlayStation X account. “Announcing the PS5 console Astro Bot Bundle, including the console itself and Astro’s biggest adventure yet. Available at select retailers globally starting this week.”

Far from a limited edition release, the Astro Bot PS5 bundle is simply a combination of the console and a copy of the game. The bundle will not include any themes or skins on the hardware.

Since its release, Astro Bot has seen quite a bit of success both in terms of critical response, as well as sales. The title sold 1.5 million copies in its first 9 weeks of release. Since then, Astro Bot has gone on to become the highest rated game on Metacritic in 2024.

The game has also gotten several updates, including one in February that brought with it new levels, as well as support for the PS5 Pro’s more powerful hardware.

For more details about the PS5-exclusive platformer, check out our review of Astro Bot.

Astro and his mothership, together 🤖🚀

Announcing the PS5 console Astro Bot Bundle, including the console itself and Astro’s biggest adventure yet. Available at select retailers globally starting this week. pic.twitter.com/66D0CjA759

— PlayStation (@PlayStation) March 10, 2025

“It was an amazing project because we made it without any expectations,” said Doucet, talking about the fun experimentation that the studio was able to partake in during the development of Astro Bot Rescue Mission. “All we wanted was to do the best possible evolution of that prototype and help VR show people VR can do this, this, this, and that. We were trying to come up with as many original ideas as possible.”

“We had no idea it would actually be a profitable game and even take us some awards,” he continued. “So that was really, really nice.”

Doucet also spoke about working on the next Astro Bot title: Astro’s Playroom. “We made some demos once again and showed them to the world, same kind of thing,” said Doucet.

He also recently revealed in an interview with Famitsu that one of Astro Bot‘s most beloved features – its VIP Stages – were originally planned to be mini-stages. For context, VIP stages are the ones that feature characters from classic PlayStation franchises, like God of War’s Kratos and the monkeys from Ape Escape.

Astro Bot Rescue Mission was essentially the debut of the franchise. Released in 2018 exclusively for the PS4’s VR headset, PlayStation VR, the game was a showcase of just about every kind of gameplay trick possible with the unique medium.

The whole game was designed around the DualShock 4 controller and the VR headset and allowed players to experience a third-person platformer game from a unique perspective. Players would interact with the game’s environment in unique ways as well, such as smashing walls with headbutts.

Astro’s Playroom, on the other hand, was designed as a simpler 3D platforming experience, this time around showcasing the various features of the PS5. All its levels were designed around one of the PS5’s features, including its internal hardware and the DualSense. Despite essentially being a tech demo, Astro’s Playroom got quite a bit of praise for being a genuinely fun and accessible platformer.

More recently, Astro’s Bot has been incredibly successful developer Team Asobi. The PS5-exclusive title was well-received and even ended up being the highest-rated game on Metacritic for 2024. Check out our own review for more details about the title.