Team Asobi introduces itself as a new independent studio Sony -apkrig

Following an interview with PlayStation Studios boss Hermen Hulst, the old-fashioned Team Asobi studio also introduced itself to fans on PlayStation Blog. As we informed you earlier, with the end of Japan Studio, all activity around this former internal division was to be concentrated and become a separate team. And that’s what happened. Hermen Hulst has already spoken of Asobi and described him as an important part of the PlayStation family with Japanese roots, similar to Polyphony Digital.

The studio not only became independent, but also received its own new logo, and of course its appearance was influenced by Astro.

Team Asobi, based in Tokyo, aims to develop world-class games with the ambition of reaching players of all ages and around the world. Hulst has already indicated that we can look forward to the return of the Astro Bot, which is inextricably linked to Asobi. Further details then appeared in a separate article on the PS Blog. The studio was introduced by its director and creative boss Nicolas Doucet. According to him, Team Asobi is spread out its wings. It is said to be a very exciting period and the developers are looking forward to this new chapter. On this occasion, they wanted to thank the fans for their long-term support.

As the team grows and tries bigger things, their mission, according to Doucet, remains the same – to bring the magic of the PlayStation, to innovate and to put a smile on people’s faces with fun and colorful titles for everyone. The studio not only became independent, but also received its own new logo, and of course its appearance was influenced by Astro. The authors have run their own social accounts on Twitter and Instagram and also shared their story and a bit of history.

This group first came together in 2012, about a year before the release of PS4. At the time, they were working on various technological demos to demonstrate what the new hardware was capable of. One day, its developers sat down and decided they needed a name – something that would remind them of what they thought was most important in every game. It’s supposed to be great gameplay and fun. The word “Asobu” in Japanese means to play, and so Asobi was born. According to Doucet, it is a surprisingly fitting and good-sounding name.

The Playroom (2013) came on the PS4 and The Playroom VR (2016) on the PlayStation VR headset. A few years later, the authors released the VR platformer Astro Bot: Rescue Mission (2018) and finally Astro’s Playroom (2020). And now the team is becoming another full-fledged first party studio under the wings of PlayStation. The authors rely on the pleasure of the game, precise control, the use of a new controller, humor and technological experiments. Based in Tokyo, most of the employees are Japanese, but the team also includes people from other countries – England, Germany, France, Scotland, South Korea, Spain and Colombia. According to Doucet, it is important to have a mixed team because it helps to create games that are universal. But they all share the same love for Japan, its culture and food.

We will probably hear about them more often, they will form bigger games and it doesn’t have to be just titles with Aster in the lead role.

Doucet says Team Asobi has also defined technology. Developers are committed to it, but at the same time they understand that technology alone is not enough and is only an entry point. It has to be transformed into something magical to make real sense. That’s why the authors like to play with the DualSense driver, which they helped to design, and discover its new possibilities. According to Doucet, the whole team is made up of real players who love all possible genres.

It will be very interesting to find out what Asobi will come up with in the future, now that they become a full-fledged team. We will probably hear about them more often, they will form bigger games and it doesn’t have to be just titles with Aster in the lead role. But the sadness over the loss of Japan Studio persists in me, although I understand that from the point of view of Sony’s management, it has probably not created such blockbusters with a global audience in recent years as other first party teams. But not every game necessarily has the parameters of a Hollywood blockbuster…