It features various characters drawn from video game franchises owned by or strongly associated with PlayStation competing against each other in multiplayer battles.

The game's existence was leaked prior to its official announcement in April 2012, along with a significant number of its playable characters.

PlayStation All-Stars Battle Royale is a platform fighter, similar to the style of Nintendo's Super Smash Bros.

Battles take place on a 2D plane, with players able to freely move around a stage to approach or escape their opponents.

Level 1 super moves have the lowest AP cost but typically cover a short range and can only hit one character; in contrast, Level 3 supers require significant amounts of AP but have an extended duration time and can potentially defeat multiple opponents before they expire.

During gameplay, item pick-ups will spawn on the battlefield, such as the Hedgehog Grenade from Resistance, the Gravity Shield from Wipeout, Baumusu's Axe from Rise of the Kasai, and Razor Claws from Ratchet & Clank.

The game features a traditional single-player arcade mode, in which players must defeat several randomly-selected opponents, followed by a character-specific rival battle and, ultimately, a battle against the game's main antagonist and final boss, Polygon Man, the former mascot for the Sony PlayStation in North America.

[8] Rumors begin circulating that an unknown entity is seeking the strongest warriors in all worlds, gathering many powerful opponents to prove itself superior.

Omar Kendall, formerly a designer on the UFC series, the Backyard Wrestling franchise, and X-Men: Next Dimension, assumed the role of game director after joining SuperBot.

[14] In early 2011, it was discovered that the independent studio based in California, SuperBot Entertainment, was working on an un-announced "combat heavy" multiplayer title for the PlayStation 3.

[15] In November 2011, images of the game (then codenamed as Title Fight) popped up online, showing Sweet Tooth from the Twisted Metal series and Kratos from God of War.

It was claimed the game features a number of Sony mascots such as Parappa the Rapper, Sly Cooper, Nathan Drake (Uncharted), Colonel Mael Radec (Killzone) and Fat Princess.

[18] On April 23, 2012, a tweet by the newly formed SuperBot Entertainment Twitter page said: "Boot sequence initiated.

[8] In July 2012, it was announced that former Capcom community manager and Evolution Championship Series (Evo) co-founder Seth Killian had taken a role at Santa Monica Studio, where he would assist PlayStation All-Stars developer Superbot Entertainment.

[28][29][30] In late July, files found in one of the multiplayer beta versions of the game pointed to an array of unannounced characters and stages, including levels set in the worlds of Resistance, Uncharted 3, PaRappa the Rapper, LittleBigPlanet, Killzone, LocoRoco, BioShock Infinite and more.

An array of character names were also uncovered inside the demo's files, including DmC: Devil May Cry's Dante, Evil Cole from Infamous, Raiden from Metal Gear and others.

[34][9] On August 13, 2012, SuperBot Entertainment announced that the game had been delayed by one month from its original October 2012 release to November 2012.

PlayStation All-Stars, along with Sly Cooper: Thieves in Time and Ratchet & Clank: Full Frontal Assault, were the first games announced for the program.

[39] On November 15, 2012, Seth Killian announced that the first downloadable content for PlayStation All-Stars Battle Royale would arrive in the form of two new playable characters: Kat from Gravity Rush and Emmett Graves from Starhawk, along with a new stage, "Fearless", based on Heavenly Sword and WipEout.

[44] Shortly after E3 2013, Shuhei Yoshida of SCE Worldwide Studios commented on future DLC releases, mentioning the game's sale of 1 million units but claiming "it was not enough to have the momentum in terms of a business standpoint to continue to add characters or do a sequel".

[46][47] On August 4, 2013 Santa Monica Studios confirmed that there would be no more DLC characters or stages, but said that they planned on releasing four outfits formerly exclusive to those who pre-ordered the game, as well as skins for Zeus and Isaac.

[63][64] While some critics thought it lacked depth, others believed that filling up the meter to land a knock-out added strategy to an otherwise only decent fighting experience.

[68] The Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences awarded PlayStation All-Stars Battle Royale with Fighting Game of the Year during the 16th Annual D.I.C.E.

[45] In August 2013, a free-to-play minigame collection, PlayStation All-Stars Island, was released for iOS devices as a cross-promotion with Coke Zero.