USA TODAY International Edition
In PlayStation 5, feedback gets into all the feels
Sony is kicking off its marketing blitz for the PlayStation 5 video game system.
A new digital advertisement touts a refreshed PS5 global theme of “Play Has No Limits” for the new gaming console, due to launch this holiday season.
The 74- second spot is almost completely computer- generated, a strategy necessitated by the coronavirus pandemic. More than 70 visual effects artists worked on the project, which stars a young woman exploring a fantastical landscape in which a giant kraken straight out of “Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest” breaks through an ice floe.
As the adventure continues, she escapes to find herself in a “Call of Duty”style encampment just before it’s shelled. Next, we see her firing burning arrows at God of War- sized monsters.
Those vignettes are meant to emphasize the PlayStation 5’ s features, including 3D audio, which will deliver different sounds across the soundscape simultaneously; feedback in the controller to deliver sensations; and controller triggers that may mimic tension, such as a more accurate feel for the gas pedal in Gran Turismo 7.
“The idea behind the spot is ... showing how ( the PS5) will immerse the player in the game world through the use of those features,” said Eric Lempel, Sony Interactive Entertainment’s global head of marketing.
You can learn more about these features in a new blog post on PlayStation. com. An example, in describing the haptic feedback built into the controller, Brian Horton, creative director on “Marvel’s Spider- Man: Miles Morales,” suggests players will get a feeling for Spidey’s Spider Sense.
“The haptic feedback precision allows us to do all sorts of new things,” Horton said. “We’ll be hinting to players which direction attacks are coming from by providing haptic feedback from the appropriate direction on the DualSense wireless controller.
“What does it feel like to use Miles’s stealth ability? How does a Venom Blast feel? Because of the high resolution of
DualSense wireless controller’s haptics system, we can really push the dimensionality of the feedback. For instance, as you hold down Square to do a Venom Punch, you feel Spider- Man’s bioelectricity crackle across from the left side of the controller, culminating in the right side on impact.”
When players can get the new console isn’t official yet. Sony has not announced a release date – or a price – but the game maker has said it will be out this holiday season.
Had there been no pandemic, Sony likely would have had live events this summer and fall for consumers and the media to get their hands on the PlayStation 5 controller and test games.
“Normally, when we go to market, it’s a big event,” Lempel said. “We want to still preserve all of the excitement and make sure we are celebrating this moment for the fans. But the current situation of the world made it harder for us to go to market the way we would like, so there’s a lot of challenges with that.”
This new spot is “trying to convey a feeling,” he said. “We think people will start to get some of those feelings from seeing this.”
To maintain social distancing, the actress in the spot filmed some portions in a studio and other segments from her apartment.
Workarounds caused by the pandemic will continue as PlayStation 5s and video games are sent to retailers. Sony didn’t offer details f on the rollout of the console.