summary
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Sackboy may have lost its place as a PlayStation mascot.
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The Littlebigplanet franchise appears to be in decline.
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The Astro Bot is gaining popularity as a potential new PlayStation mascot.
Sony doesn’t have a permanent mascot like Mario or Sega and Sonic the Hedgehog, but a handful of Sony characters are considered unofficial mascots at some point.
One of these previous PlayStation mascots is at risk of losing a spot completely in the PlayStation family.
The Dawn movie shows a PlayStation Productions intro, omitted by one character
Eagle-Eye Radec (via PSLS) noticed that the PlayStation Productions intro shown at the start of The Dawn Movie Adaptation removed Sackboy from the stable character. The photo above is the intro to the Gran Turismo movie, which was exhibited at the cinema in 2023.
You can see that the cute character has been removed as a button, up to the intro to Dawn.
Sony hasn’t confirmed anything, but this doesn’t work for characters that once had their own gaming franchise (Little Big Planet) with their own calls. Sony has not shown that a new Little BigPlanet game has been created so far. The character’s lonely standalone title, Sackboy: A Big Adventure, was released in 2020, but it wasn’t as big a hit as some would have hoped for, and there’s nothing about such a sequel.
If the characters are actually phased out, that wouldn’t be a bit surprising as PlayStation has more popular characters making rounds: Astro Bot. The platformer has not only won multiple Game of the Year Awards, but has also received so much praise and success that even Sony’s corporate overlords want such a game.
Sony also confirmed that they are pursuing Astorobot movies. If that sees the light of day, Sony will probably officially give the characters PlayStation mascot labels.
Is this the end of the Sackboy and Little Big Planet franchise? That’s certainly true given the latest releases are Sackboy: A Big Adventure, PS5 and PS5. There was the ultimate Sack Boy game released for mobile devices in 2023, but for obvious reasons I’m not going to count it.
If this is the end of Sackboy’s line, the characters will join other notable PlayStation characters such as Jak & Daxter, Sly Cooper, and more.
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