One of our first thoughts when the DualSense controller was revealed this week was Astro Bot. While the PlayStation 4 generation may have started with Knack as its mascot, Japan Studio’s cutesy VRobot has definitely oofted the shape-shifting brute aside. A real Game of the Year candidate like PlayStation VR’s sublime Astro Bot Rescue Mission helps, of course.

But seriously, look at the character next to the DualSense controller and tell us you can’t see the similarities:

Here’s the interesting part: we know that the Astro Bot development team, which is located within Sony’s Japan Studio, is working on a series of tech demos to showcase the unique features of the PlayStation 5. Our original assumption was that this would be some kind of new Playroom title, but we’re beginning to believe a new Astro Bot adventure could be a launch title for the next-gen console.

We wouldn’t expect this to be a virtual reality release, but we would expect it to utilise all of the new features of the DualSense controller, including the adaptive triggers, haptic feedback, and microphone. Not only would this make sense from a branding perspective, but it’d also check the family-friendly box – something Sony likes to do whenever it launches a new system.