In an effort to ensure that its games appeal to much younger audience, Sony Group’s PlayStation will publish two marquee titles: Astro Bot and Lego Horizon Adventures.
Astro Bot will be exclusive to PlayStation 5 and will launch on September 6, while Lego Horizon Adventures will also come to PCs and to the Nintendo Switch later this year, with a specific date not yet provided with Sony saying that it will come “this holiday season”.
These family-friendly games are a far cry from the bloody games such as Spider-Man, The Last of Us, Ghost of Tsushima and God of War which target a more mature audience due to the nature of its content.
Lego Horizon Adventures has cooperative multiplayer gameplay and simple controls in a kid-friendly package. Players can dress up their characters as hot dogs. They can also pick up and hurl other Lego characters, watching them break apart in creative ways.
“Guerrilla and Studio Gobo have built a playful spin on the familiar Horizon games that unleashes eye-catching stop-motion animation, chuckle-worthy storytelling, and (literal) worldbuilding that will make the familiar series feel like a new adventure,” said Kristen Zitani, a content communications specialist at Sony Interactive Entertainment on the PlayStation blog.
Astro Bot meanwhile features a suite of 3D-platforming stages inspired by Nintendo’s Super Mario Bros. titles. Each world has unique mechanics. Team Asobi, the Japanese studio behind Astro Bot, previously focused on PlayStation VR games. “Astro is back with his biggest adventure yet. Team Asobi’s colorful platformer is brimming with stages featuring empowering new abilities, inventive obstacles, and exciting PlayStation character cameos,” said Tim Turi in a PlayStation blogpost where he reviewed the preview of the game.
As Astro Bot will be exclusive to PlayStation 5, Sony aims to bolster holiday console sales. Sony managed to ship a total of 20.8 million PlayStation 5 units for FY23 short of its 21 million target though an improvement over the 19.1 million units it did in the previous financial year.
