When Sony released its latest version of Astro Bot last year it allowed gamers playing as the cute white robot to unlock bots in various guises, from the fungus-infected zombie in The Last of Us to the knife-wielding mercenary seen in Metal Gear Solid.
The merging of characters — intended to celebrate the 30-year history of the PlayStation console — is symbolic of an accelerating multibillion-dollar effort to squeeze more out of the Japanese tech giant’s vast gaming empire.
去年,索尼推出最新版《宇宙機器人》(Astro Bot)時,玩家操控這位可愛的白色小機器人,可以解鎖不同造型的同伴機器人——從《最后生還者》(The Last of Us)中的真菌感染喪尸,到《合金裝備》(Metal Gear Solid)里的持刀雇傭兵。這樣的角色融合——旨在致敬PlayStation主機30年的歷史——象征著這家日本科技巨頭正加速推進一項數十億美元級別的戰略,力圖從其龐大的游戲帝國中挖掘更多價值。