Whereas Sony has fostered a practice of showcasing its largest PlayStation mascots by a brand at first of video games it publishes, comparable to first-party titles on PS5 and ports on PC, the corporate is seemingly leaving former mascot, Sackboy, behind. Noticed by social media X person realradec, the a latest model of the PlayStation brand at first of the Till Daybreak film is missing the protagonist of LittleBigPlanet.
Because the X submit factors out, whereas characters like Astro Boy, Ratchet, Clank, Nathan Drake, and Aloy are current, amongst others, Sackboy is lacking. For distinction, a screenshot of the identical half was posted from the 2023 film Gran Turismo, which nonetheless included Sackboy among the many different mascots.
Sony itself hasn’t made any assertion concerning the matter. Nonetheless, contemplating the age of the LittleBigPlanet franchise, in addition to the truth that we haven’t gotten a brand new mainline recreation within the sequence for the reason that PS3 days, it appears like the corporate is able to depart the basic mascot behind. The final main launch that featured Sackboy as a playable character was 2020 platformer Sackboy: A Massive Journey.
Considered one of PlayStation’s most notable mascots in latest instances has been Astro Bot, thanks largely to the important and business success of the 2024 platforming recreation. The character wasn’t profitable in a single day, nonetheless, as Astro Bot had additionally been in a pair of critically-acclaimed video games earlier than that: PlayStationVR title Astro Bot Rescue Mission, and PS5 pack-in title and technical showcase Astro’s Playroom.
Because the success of Astro Bot, head of developer Workforce Asobi, Nicolas Doucet, spoke about how different builders shouldn’t be scared of creating smaller-scaled titles. In a chat throughout GDC 2025, Doucet talked about that gamers lately usually are likely to have a number of video games of their backlogs owing to digital distribution, and reductions offered by shops like Steam and affords like Humble Bundle.
“From the beginning, we have been within the mindset that it’s OK to make a compact recreation… it’s OK to make a small recreation,” stated Doucet. “So for us, it signifies that we’re making one thing of such scale that we are able to management it absolutely. That’s from a improvement standpoint. However not solely that. For the gamers, everyone knows that gamers in the present day have a backlog of video games and can’t full their video games, so the prospect of a recreation you possibly can really full is a very persuasive argument.”
On the identical occasion, Doucet additionally spoke about a few of the earlier iterations of the sport Astro Bot, one in all which even featured the now-iconic character getting dismembered. In the end, in response to Doucet, the sport went by 23 iterations earlier than it was proven to top-level administration.
“So, on the finish of the sport, Astro sacrificed himself for the staff, and because the credit roll, we needed to make a really grieving second of rebuilding Astro,” Doucet stated about an early iteration, which might require the thought of a “utterly dismembered Astro, so that you gained the torso with out the pinnacle.”
Astro Bot is accessible completely on the PS5. Take a look at our assessment for extra particulars. Additionally try our assessment of the PC launch of Sackboy: A Massive Journey when you’re at it for extra particulars concerning the basic mascot.
