Astro Bot is "a new beginning" for the PS5 mascot, and Team Asobi's biggest game ever with over 80 planets to explore

Astro Bot is set to be a "new beginning" for the mascot we all fell in love with in the PS5's secret best exclusive, and developer Team Asobi is going all out with the "biggest game we've ever made."

Astro Bot courted adorers aplenty in 2013's mini-game collection The Playroom, 2018's PSVR killer app Astro's Rescue Mission, and 2020's Astro's Playroom, which came pre-installed with every PlayStation 5 console. After clacking around inside our PlayStation controllers for over a decade, the upcoming Astro Bot aims to be a new introduction for the hero. 

"We call it Astro Bot because we treat this as a new beginning," studio head Nicolas Doucet tells EW. Astro's DualSense Spaceship supposedly breaks apart early on in the adventure, prompting our bot to travel across 80 levels and six galaxies in search of all the missing pieces.

Astro Bot - Announcement Trailer | PS5 Games - YouTube

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Astro's mission then takes him to the usual platforming locales themed after jungles, sandy dunes, aquatic paradises, and active volcanoes overflowing with lava seen in the trailer above. Other worlds think outside the box, though - one features an island that's actually just the back of a giant crab, for instance - but no matter where Astro's journey takes him, the team wanted a "renewed experience every 10 minutes or so," hence the dozens of planets.

"We wanted to make a big game," Doucet continues. "This is really about going up one notch — really several notches — and having Astro's big story… That's a really, really big game. I think for us, that's the biggest game we've ever made."

Astro Bot comes out on September 6, exclusively for PS5, featuring cameos from across the PlayStation pantheon - except for Bloodborne, of course. 

Check out the other upcoming PS5 games to see what else is on the horizon.