The members of King Gnu in the new PlayStation Ad

PlayStation Partners With Japanese Band King Gnu for a Rather Peculiar PS5 Commercial

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Published: November 23, 2023 1:18 PM

Today the Japanese arm of PlayStation released a series of PS5 commercials in partnership with the popular local band King Gnu.

The commercial is certainly fairly peculiar but rooted in the tradition of Japanese media. The members of the band face a kaiju that initially defeats them due to its size and power, but then they join up into a giant robot Tokusatsu-style to continue the fight. 

The band members have rather stylized "avatar" forms that represent the symbols associated with the PlayStation buttons, each with their own short video.

The robot formed by King Gnu in the PlayStation commercial

Songwriter Daiki Tsuneta is Circle, drummer Yu Seki is Triangle, bassist Kazuki Arai is X, and vocalist Satoru Iguchi is Square. The commercial also includes the band's new song "):Asura:(".

According to the press release, posters of this collaboration will also appear in Tokyo's streets in Shibuya and Harajuku starting today, while the commercial itself will be showcased from November 27 to December 3 on the giant Hit Led Vision screen in front of Shibuya Station.

You can watch it below. 

This is certainly not the first time that Sony has created commercials that can be defined as a bit wild, and this isn't even the wildest of the bunch. Partnerships with celebrities and musicians is also a rather common occurrence, especially as the Japanese holidays approach. 

In other PlayStation news, we recently learned that the PS5 has shipped 46.6 million units in its lifetime, albeit Sony is still far from achieving its 25 million units target for this fiscal year. Holiday promotion will certainly play a big role in whether the console meets the company's expectations in terms of sales. 

In the meanwhile, SIE is in the process of launching a slimmed-down model of the PS5, with digital and disc versions still separate, but the added ability to mount a Blu Ray reader on the digital version to bridge the gap. 


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Started as News Editor at TechRaptor in January 2023, following over 20 years of professional experience in gaming journalism both on print media and on the… More about Giuseppe