Sony shut down its legendary Japan Studio<\/a> – the crew responsible for nurturing groundbreaking games like Shadow of the Colossus, Gravity Rush, Bloodborne and Ape Escape. When Japan Studio was shuttered, some of its employees were folded into Team Asobi, which itself was a part of Japan Studio until its ultimate demise. In a sense, then, Team Asobi has become the steward of Japan Studio’s deeply-important legacy, one that can be seen emanating beautifully in this latest trailer.<\/p>\n\n\n\nAs well as tugging rigorously on our nostalgic heartstrings, I think part of the reason we delight in Asobi’s thoughtful, often-profound references to Old PlayStation is that, ultimately, this is what we have left of that era. Yes, you can still play some of the games that Astro Bot is referencing – those that gave PlayStation an early reputation for playful creativity. A few have been remastered or remade in the years since. But most of them are inaccessible on modern platforms, for whatever reason, which hollows out part of the homage.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Outside of Astro Bot, and whatever Media Molecule may be working on, it feels like PlayStation is moving away from that anything-goes approach it nurtured in the late 90s and early 2000s. The company is now known for best-selling games like The Last of Us, Horizon, God of War and Spider-Man. It’s not to say these transmedia franchises aren’t astounding creative achievements in themselves – I thoroughly enjoy most of PlayStation’s prestige output. But I don’t think I’m the only one who yearns for more ingenuity – even if it isn’t a fascinating new IP, there’s plenty of revivals waiting in the wings. There hasn’t been a mainline Ape Escape game for nearly 20 years now, which feels like a criminal offence to culture.<\/p>\n\n\n\n