Now We Know What Sony Really Thinks of Astro Bot and the Playstation Portal

gaming, playstation, video-games

Earlier in November it was reported that Astro Bot has sold 1.5 million copies in 2 months. This number is great for what was expected from Astro Bot. The question has been, does Sony consider it a success?

Yes, Astro Bot is widely praised and nominated for multiple GOTY awards. Our lead reviewer gave it a 10/10. In fact, I think it might just be my personal GOTY. But good reception doesn’t equal success for the studio.

For example, we saw Xbox shut down Tango Gameworks, the creator of Hi-Fi Rush. This game was also received very well and nominated for many awards.

Since lay offs and closures have pressured the game’s industry so heavily this year, its cause quite a lot of concern. If you make a good game and still get shut down, what game can keep a studio afloat?

A similar question has been looming over the Playstation Portal. With many consumers being previous fans of the discontinued PS Vita, fans wondered if the Vita would ever return. The PS Vita was estimated to have sold 10-15 million units. It was discontinued March 1st, 2019, leaving fans anchored to their consoles at home. To the disappointment of many, the Vita has yet to return.

When the PS Portal released, not every consumer understood the assignment. PS Portal can only be used to stream your PS5 via Wi-Fi. It cannot be used to play games natively like it’s spiritual predecessor.

However, only a couple weeks ago on November 19th, Cloud Streaming was enabled on the PS Portal. This is available to anyone who has a Premium subscription, making it possible to stream a selection of games without a Playstation 5.

The Playstation Portal is a great device that has sold an estimated 420K units as of Nov 2024. It’s been deemed a success as well. But enough of a success to get properly supported by Sony?

Well, we finally got an idea of how Sony views the Playstion Portal and Astro Bot. Sony’s CEO, Herman Hulst, and his co-CEO Hideaki Nishin, were interviewed by Tom Gerkin at the BBC amidst Sony Playstation’s 30th Anniversary.

Herman Holst (left) and Hideaki Nishino (right)

When talking about the successes they’ve seen this year versus the let downs, Astro Bot and the PS Portal we referred to as success through the eyes of the CEOs.

Here’s what Herman Holst said about Astro Bot, “I cannot express how happy we are with the reception of Astro Bot".

Hideaki Nishino spoke on the new ways gamers are gaming. “We're always exploring various options for how players can play games.”. He referred to the PS Portal as “a huge success".

This is a big deal, because we now have insight to how Sony looks at these products. If Sony cares, then we get more of that content. Could this lead to Sony making a new native handheld? Will we see Astro Bot 2? With each passing day, the answer ‘yes’ is looking far more likely.