Introducing Team Asobi, creators of the Astro Bot series

[Aranea Highwind]

 

Hi everybody, we hope you are all doing well and keeping healthy.

 

Today, we have colorful news coming to you from Team Asobi, the Tokyo-based PlayStation studio responsible for the Astro Bot series.

 

Following the release of Astro’s Playroom for PlayStation 5, Team Asobi is now spreading its wings and growing bigger! This is a very exciting time for the team, and we are very much looking forward to this next chapter. We wanted to take this chance to thank all of you, the PlayStation fans, for your kind words of support over the years, especially since Astro made its big debut on PlayStation 5 alongside the DualSense wireless controller.

 

While we are growing and challenging bigger things, our mission at heart remains the same as ever: bring you PlayStation magic, innovation and put smiles on your faces with fun, colorful games for all ages.

 

To go alongside this news, we are proud to show our new logo which you will see in our future productions. We took inspiration from what Team Asobi meant to us. Some of the old-timers might recognize other influences from the PlayStation early days as well!

 

To keep in touch, we are also launching our own social channels on Twitter and Instagram to keep you updated on all things Team Asobi! Please follow them and don’t hesitate to engage with us.  We have a million anecdotes to share about the making of our games so please come and say hi!

 

 

And in case you are not familiar with Team Asobi, let us tell you more about our origins.                         

                                                           

The team was first assembled in 2012, a bit more than a year before the launch of PS4. Back then, a handful of us were working away on tech demos showcasing what the new hardware could do. We sat down one day and decided we needed a name for our team; something that would work as a reminder to us of what we believed to be the most important part in any video game: great gameplay and that second-to-second enjoyment it can provide!

 

In Japanese language, the word “Asobu” literally means “To Play” and so we settled on “Asobi “. Those simple five letters were a surprisingly fitting name with a good sound to it and it stuck!

Fast-forward a few years, the team is still expanding, we launched Astro Bot: Rescue Mission in 2018 and Astro’s Playroom for PS5 in 2020. And now, Team Asobi has become the newest internal studio within the PlayStation Studios family. At the heart, our philosophy revolves around that quintessential joy in play, be it through pixel-precise character controls, exploiting a cool new controller in surprising ways or packing humorous animations in every nook and cranny, this is the stuff that excites us

 

So, who are the Asobis then? Well, since we are a PlayStation game development studio located in the cool and vibrant Tokyo, the majority of the team are Japanese. We also have several members coming from various other countries: England, Germany, France, Scotland, Korea, Spain, and Colombia. It’s important for us to have this mixed background to help us create games that are universal. And of course, we all share that same love for Japan: its craft, its pop culture, its gaming heritage but also its beautiful seasons, wacky innovations (so many!!) and delicious food!

 

Technology has also been a defining factor for Team Asobi. Many Asobis have a real love affair with tech but we also realize that technology in itself is only the starting point. It then needs to be turned into something magical and awe-inspiring to be really meaningful. In that respect, working with the DualSense controller as of late has been great fun and we are continuing to enjoy experimenting with it at this very moment. But shhh it’s a secret!

 

Finally, we inspire from crafted video games and all of Team Asobi members are keen gamers. We love all types of games including, of course, platformers that deliver that second-to-second joy where every single successful jump you make is a mini story in itself.

 

That’s all from us today. Let’s face it, the last 18 months have been really tough for many people around the world and we sincerely hope that through the joy of play, these hard times were made easier to bear. We would like to send you all our biggest wishes of well-being. Thank you for being such a great community and we look forward to your comments. See you all very soon!

 

 

Edited June 2, 2021 by Aranea Highwind

[Dreakon13]

Were they not a "internal studio" for Playstation before?

[Undead Wolf]

9 minutes ago, Aranea Highwind said:

We also have several members coming from various other countries: England, Germany, France, Scotland, Korea, Spain, and Colombia. It’s important for us to have this mixed background to help us create games that are universal.

 

So Studio Japan gets gutted with Team Asobi rising from its corpse only for it to get changed into a multinational company. Wonderful... ?

[nrs1nrs1]

6 minutes ago, Dreakon13 said:

Were they not a "internal studio" for Playstation before?

they were a singular "team" within the Japan Studio umbrella, now it seems they are an entire studio unto themselves. More employees and a larger budget is a given.

[xZoneHunter]

While i wasn't a fan about hearing Japan Studio rebranding and a lot of names behind very good games leaving playstation, i did enjoy Astro bot: Rescue mission a lot more than expected. Looking forward to see what game they create next.

[Zephrese]

Excited to see where they'll go and what they'll do next, they deserve it. ?

[monteblommie]

We at sony fully support japanese development.

That's why we have gutted studio japan, forced them to make shit knack games instead of the horror game or scifi game they wanted to make, we also shooed away the creator of ico, shadow of the colossus and the last guardian and the creator of silent hill and gravity rush, massively undermarketed gravity rush 2 and have now turned the remaining husk of studio japan into yet another multinational soulless company.

 

Only saving grace is that the astrobot games are actually good but i have no idea how many of that dev team are actually left.

Edited June 3, 2021 by monteblommie

[Abby_TheLastofUs]

1 hour ago, Undead Wolf said:

 

So Studio Japan gets gutted with Team Asobi rising from its corpse only for it to get changed into a multinational company. Wonderful... 

 

Japan Studio had non-Japanese employees too.

 

Having employees of other nationalities is not what makes a company multinational. It's when business operations take place in more than two countries at the same time. Sony is obviously a multinational company and has been for a long time.

 

Team Asobi as a studio isn't any more "multinational" as you referred to it, than Studio Japan. The studio is located in Tokyo and that's where its international employees will work from.

 

You don't need to get offended over every little thing happening with Sony. International employees are extremely common, and like I said at the top, it was true of Japan Studio as well. Japan Studio getting shut down is reason enough to be upset, you don't need to fabricate additional reasons to be offended by.

 

Edited June 3, 2021 by Abby_TheLastofUs

[EDGES]

so kill Team Ico, makers of Ico, Shadow Of The Colossus, games that inspired the creator of the Souls games to get into gaming and make the Souls games, kill Team Gravity/Siren the makers of Silent Hill/Gravity Rush, kill the external Japanese developer support team that co produced Bloodborne, Demon's Souls Remake, Persona 5 and Yakuza games help market/localize and other countless Japanese games, kill the Mark Cerny team that did Knacks, and rise the Team PS5 Demo, thanks Sony, amazing, it feels so good to be a PlayStation fan in 2021, thanks Jim Ryan

[TrophyChief]

Looking forward to seeing what the team brings to the platform. Enjoyed Astro’s Playroom.