ASTRO BOT-themed DualSense wireless controller announced
Pre-orders open on August 9.
Sony Interactive Entertainment has announced the DualSense Wireless Controller ASTRO BOT Limited Edition. It will launch in limited quantities alongside the ASTRO BOT game on September 6 for $79.99/ €79.99 / £69.99 / ¥11,980. Pre-orders will open via PlayStation Direct and select retailers on August 9 at 7:00 a.m. PT / 10:00 a.m. ET for the United States, and at 10:00 a.m. local time in the United Kingdom, Austria, Belgium, France, Germany, Italy, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Spain, and Portugal.
The controller features ASTRO’s signature blue accents on the handles and buttons, as well as carved-in lines and ASTRO’s eyes on the touch pad.
ASTRO BOT developer Team ASOBI studio head Nicolas Doucet also shared a summary of some of the “cool things” ASTRO BOT does with the DualSense wireless controller in general:
First, as many of you expect from an ASTRO game, you can feel the surfaces that ASTRO runs and slides on, from grass, sand, metal to more squishy textures or water. That was already the case with ASTRO’s PLAYROOM, but we have increased the number of textures you can feel through the controller.
Next, we doubled down on the adaptive triggers combined with haptic feedback, by tying them tightly to ASTRO’s new powers. For example, when using Barkster, the bulldog Jetpack, you can feel the thruster ratting against your finger in synch with the animation, giving a very dynamic and immersive feeling. Every new power up has been given that same special treatment so you will be able to experience various expressions through your fingers.
Finally, given the number of enemies and boss battles we added to this new adventure, it was important to work on battle and impacts by combining all of the above. Whether it’s stretching, pounding or pummeling hard surfaces, there are many new types of impacts that can be experienced in ASTRO BOT.
And of course, we could not finish this post without mentioning the Dual Speeder, one of ASTRO’s most recurrent gadgets, allowing him to fly into various planets. The Dual Speeder makes full use of motion control, adaptive triggers and haptic feedback. Here is a piece of very early concept art and how it looks in the final game.
That’s all from us! We’ll be back soon for more news around ASTRO BOT.
ASTRO BOT is due out for PlayStation 5 on September 6.
