PlayStation quietly killed off an entire franchise without you noticing

Among all the excitement of the recent State of Play online event last week, Sony may have killed off a big PlayStation franchise without anybody noticing.

A couple of the headline reveals during the State of Play event were a new gameplay trailer and release date for the Silent Hill 2 remake developed by Bloober Team as well as a new trailer and release window for the Until Dawn remaster for PlayStation 5.

Check out the Astro Bot trailer below!

The other major news was that popular platformer Astro Bot is finally getting its own standalone full release. Typically, up to this point, Astro Bot games have been playable demos bundled with a PlayStation console or PSVR headset as a fun way to show off a ton of cool features.

The Astro Bot games have always been fun to play, which is impressive considering they’re free. However, the demo that came with the PlayStation 5, Astro’s Playroom, had reached new heights in gameplay, visuals and immersion. For many, it ended up being one of the best platformers of this generation (again, this is a free game).

So it was perhaps only a matter of time before Sony would cash in on its popularity with the announcement of Astro Bot during the recent State of Play. Of course, this is good news for PlayStation and platforming fans, but sadly, it seems that there is some sad news to report coming from the Astro Bot reveal.

The sad news in question is for the PlayStation-exclusive series, Knack. The first game to be released was as a launch title for the PlayStation 4 and Sony had hoped that Knack would be a system seller. Sadly, that was not to be with common complaints of the game having uninspired gameplay, a boring story and inconsistent difficulty spikes that would frustrate players.

Developed by Japan Studio, the same team behind the Astro series, on the aggregate website Metacritic, Knack scored a very disappointing 54. Sony had hoped to right the wrongs with Knack II in 2017 and while it did show some improvements including the option of co-op play, it wasn't enough to save this series and since that time, we’ve heard nothing more.

Yet it seems during the Astro Bot gameplay reveal, the fate of Knack may have been subtly revealed. As highlighted by Twitter user Radec, a screengrab from the trailer features an Astro Bot that appears to be mourning the Knack protagonist in tiny pieces.

This is by no means official confirmation but it could be the closest thing. It’s not like Sony would come out and tweet “Knack is dead”, so this is perhaps a subtle way to remind what fans may remain, that Knack III probably isn't happening anytime soon (if at all).

Astro Bot will be exclusively released for the PlayStation 5 on 6 September 2024.