How PlayStation engineered its next great game

The making of Astro Bot and the "love story" it's part of. Plus: Details on Sony's other big 2024 family game, Lego Horizon Adventures.

Astro Bot races into action. Screenshot: Team Asobi, Sony Interactive Entertainment

If creating a fun video game was easy—if there was a formula to it—then there would never be a dull game.

But it’s hard, unpredictable work. What works for one studio might not even work for another.

Nevertheless, after a demo last month of PlayStation 5 exclusive Astro Bot sent every reporter or critic who previewed it babbling with glee, I had to ask how the team did it.

I was in Los Angeles, sampling upcoming games and chatting with developers. 

I played Astro Bot on a Saturday, was impressed, then met with Nicolas Doucet, head of the game’s studio Team Asobi, on Monday.

I asked: How did the team find the fun in the game while making it? I felt silly asking such a softball, and I braced myself for a potentially generic answer.

Over the next several minutes, however, Doucet answered with fascinating specificity.

“We have a kind of studio value that is playful,” he said. “And it means that we really want to treat the game as a toy as well as a game.”

And there was more.