Astro Bot is finally coming exclusively to the PlayStation 5 on September 6. And, if Nicolas Doucet, the director of the incoming PS5 exclusive, has his way, a PC version is all but guaranteed.
In a response to a question by MinnMax, Doucet revealed Team Asobi wants to hear from players who would like to see PlayStation’s newest mascot join God of War, The Last of Us, Ghost of Tsushima, and Marvel’s Spider-Man on PC.
However, while most, including Doucet, would love to see Astro Bot come to the PC, Sony has two perfectly good reasons why it won’t let this happen.
Astro Bot and its prequel, Astro’s Playground, were both made to showcase the PS5 and the DualSense, much more so than any other game. It will require a herculean effort to adapt the game on any other platform, especially on PC. Unlike other first-party PlayStation exclusives, like, for example, Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart, which was one of the first AAA titles to take advantage of the DualSense, Team Asobi did an excellent job integrating the PS5 controller’s features in fun and creative ways that would be difficult if not near-impossible to replicate on other controllers or a keyboard and mouse without extensive work.
Now, even if Astro Bot is good enough to warrant buying a DualSense to enjoy, the problem is getting all the features of the DualSense on the PC.
Unlike the Xbox controller, which has a wireless dongle that lets it retain functionality on the PC as on the Xbox, the DualSense doesn’t have one. You’ll have to plug it in to get the same level of haptics and other features you get on a PC.
What this means is that you’re asking PC gamers to buy a controller specifically to enjoy Astro Bot and make do with playing wired.
Astro’s Playground would then become a hard sell to PC gamers who aren’t already familiar with the mascot.
But that’s not the only reason why Sony might not want to bring Astro Bot to PC. There’s precedence that first-party PlayStation platformers don’t do particularly well when you bring them over to the so-called master race.
The aforementioned Insomniac Games title, Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart, wasn’t the biggest seller on Steam. Sackboy: A Big Adventure fared worse on Valve’s digital games distribution platform. Make no mistake, both are well-loved by players but failed to move the needle commercially. The amount of work required to get Astro Bot to the point that it becomes as enjoyable on PC and other controllers as it is on PS5 requires the kind of investment and return that Sony likely hasn’t seen yet in its PC ports.
Sony probably already knows this, which is why it’s putting its money into marketing Astro Bot all over the world, knowing full well that it’s a system seller. This is true in China, where Black Myth: Wukong made PlayStation relevant in a mobile-driven market following its release last month.
Besides, Astro Bot is Sony’s latest mascot. It kind of makes sense that Sony prefers to keep it on PS5, if only for a little while longer.
Hopefully, though, the obvious demand for Astro Bot will encourage Sony to revive some of its iconic platformers, like Jak and Daxter and Sly Cooper.
