PlayStation’s 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.
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To go alongside this news, they are proud to show their new logo which you will see in our future productions. they 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, they 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. Also, developers have a million anecdotes to share about the making of our games so please come and say hi.
The team was first assembled in 2012, a bit more than a year before the launch of PS4. Back then, a handful of us was working away on tech demos showcasing what the new hardware could do. they sat down one day and decided they needed a name for our team; something that would work as a reminder to us of what they believed to be the most important part of any video game: great gameplay and that second-to-second enjoyment it can provide.
In the Japanese language, the word “Asobu” literally means “To Play” and so they 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, PS 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.
So, who are the Asobis then? Well, since they are a PlayStation game development studio located in the cool and vibrant Tokyo, the majority of the team are Japanese. They also have several members coming from various other countries: England, Germany, France, Scotland, Korea, Spain, and Colombia.
Technology has also been a defining factor for Team Asobi. Many Asobis have a real love affair with tech but they 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 they are continuing to enjoy experimenting with it at this very moment.
Finally, PS 5 inspire by crafted video games and all of Team Asobi members are keen gamers. They 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.
