The Playroom VR

''The Playroom'' is a casual video game that is a collection of augmented reality mini-games. It was developed by Japan Studio's Team Asobi division, comes pre-loaded on all PlayStation 4 consoles, and is meant to demonstrate the use of the PlayStation Camera and the DualShock 4 controller. The PlayStation Camera accessory is required to play ''The Playroom''. If a camera is not present, a trailer for ''The Playroom'' will be displayed instead of the full game. Firesprite, a studio founded by former employees of Studio Liverpool, worked on the visuals of ''The Playroom''. Downloadable content is free.

Minigames

Play with Asobi

Asobi is a pet-like robot that can be summoned by rubbing the Touch Pad. Players can interact with Asobi in various ways, and Asobi has the ability to recognize different people through facial recognition. Asobi is an evolution of the previous Sony Computer Entertainment title ''EyePet''.

AR Bots

AR Bots is a minigame that places forty robots in the DualShock 4 controller, which can be seen by swiping down on the touch pad in-game. When in the in-controller view, players can interact with the robots through the controller, utilizing the motion sensor and the buttons. The robots can also be displayed on the television instead of the controller screen by swiping up on the touch pad. When the robots are on the television, it is possible to physically interact with the robots using the PlayStation camera's depth capabilities. AR robots can talk

AR Hockey

Air Hockey, referred to in-game as AR hockey, uses two controllers to augment a virtual play field in front of the players. The motion sensor stretches the play field, and the touch pad is used to control the paddles to return the ball. The first player who scores seven points wins the game.

Downloadable content

There are four add-ons, all of which are free. Two of these add-ons: Toy Maker and AR Studio, enrich the experience by taking advantage of the second screen capabilities built into the official PlayStation App.

Toy Maker

Toy Maker is free downloadable content (DLC) for ''The Playroom'' which takes advantage of the PlayStation App, allowing users to interact with the AR Bots through tablets, smartphones or the PlayStation Vita. Players can create a two dimensional drawing which will become a three dimensional toy for the AR Bots to play with. The Toy Maker DLC was released on 26 November 2013 in North America and was available at the PlayStation 4 launch in Europe on 29 November 2013.

My Alien Buddy

Double Fine Productions created free downloadable content, titled ''My Alien Buddy'', which utilized the skills in augmented reality mini-games that Double Fine learned while making the Xbox Live Arcade Kinect games '' Double Fine Happy Action Theater'' and ''Kinect Party'' for Microsoft. The alien buddy is a deformable toy with which the player can interact. ''My Alien Buddy'' was released on 24 December 2013.

Ninja Bots

A DLC game in which the player controls a ninja AR Bot, evading traps and firing shuriken. The Ninja Bots DLC was released on 13 March 2014 and supports up to four players.

AR Studio

Japan Studio created free DLC content, titled ''AR Studio'', which, when used in conjunction with the PlayStation App, adds many features to help aspiring streamers set the stage for their own unique talk show. A few included features are: colored smoke that comes out of the Dualshock 4 by pressing the touchpad, up to 3 different colored spotlights, a variety of screen filters, and a handful of virtual masks the streamer can put over their face.

''The Playroom VR''

A virtual reality game, entitled ''The Playroom VR'' was released in October 2016. It contains a series of asymmetrical multiplayer minigames to demonstrate the features of PlayStation VR (running on the PlayStation 4). It comes free with the VR headset and contains six minigames: Cat and Mouse, Monster Escape, Wanted, Toy Wars, Ghost House, and Robots Rescue. ''The Playroom VR'' received "generally favorable reviews" according to review aggregator Metacritic based on six critic reviews.
Simon Fitzgerald of '' Push Square'' called it a "good collection of couch co-op mini-games that demonstrate the capabilities of the VR headset superbly. Although a few of the games you'll play once and never touch again, Robots Rescue is a standout experience that you'll wish was a fully-fledged game in itself."

See also

*'' Astro Bot Rescue Mission'', 2018 game for PlayStation VR, starring the Bots seen in-game.
* Astro’s Playroom, The 2020 sequel to Astro Bot Rescue Mission and a tech demo for the PlayStation 5.

References

Notes

Footnotes

{{DEFAULTSORT:PLAYROOM, THE
2013 video games
Augmented reality games
Minigame compilations
PlayStation 4 games
PlayStation 4-only games
PlayStation Network games
PlayStation VR games
Astro Bot
Video games developed in Japan
Multiplayer and single-player video games
PlayStation 4 Pro enhanced games
Video games about robots