Every PlayStation 5 Will Launch With A Free Game

Sony’s wildly successful PlayStation 5 reveal stream has come and gone, but fans are still reeling from what was arguably one of the best gaming events in recent memory. We got a look at 26 exciting new titles coming to the hardware, some of which we can even expect at or around launch. Among those announced games were an unexpected lot of vibrant platforming efforts like Sackboy: A Big Adventure, Ratchet and Clank: Rift Apart, Kena: Bridge of Spirits and Astro’s Playroom, all of which look absolutely stellar.

Astro’s Playroom, in particular, really stuck out to some viewers thanks to its colorful environments and classic platforming gameplay. Sony’s adorable robot mascot most recently starred in one of the most enjoyable VR games ever released, Astrobot: Rescue Mission, a cute little PSVR adventure that showed how VR could take an old concept and expand on it in brilliant and creative ways that added meaningful depth to the experience. Now, Astro’s Playroom looks to ditch the VR headset this go-around while taking Astro to new places and presenting him with a host of fresh challenges.

As if the game doesn’t already look like a wonderful time, Sony is sweetening the deal even further by ensuring that every PlayStation 5 will come with Astro’s Playroom already installed on the console and ready for you to dive in. It appears the company is hyping it up as a technical demo of sorts to show off features like the DualSense’s haptic feedback, therefore it may not have a significant amount of content.

An official pitch reads:

Astro and his crew lead you on a magical introduction through PS5 in this fun platformer that comes pre-loaded on PS5. Explore four worlds, each based on PS5’s console components. Each area showcases innovative gameplay that taps into the new features of the PS5’s DualSense wireless controller.

Even if it’s relatively short, it still looks like a fun way to spend an afternoon or so and would probably be well worth paying for. The fact that it comes pre-installed just makes the PlayStation 5 all the more appealing – as if it needed any help in that department.