PlayStation, PlayFace

In Japan, Sony has recently launched an amusing project to drive attention around the upcoming release of the new PS3. How does you face look like while you play videogames? Have you got the best “game face”? You can start comparing yourself to a bunch of Japanese videogame players by visiting www.playface.jp or watching the commercials below.

But the good thing is that this is actually an integrated launch plan. It’s not just about TV, or just about the Web. For three months, as from September 3rd, Sony will take the “Playface” concept on tour throughout Tokyo and Osaka. They will invite gamers on the street to play in front of a camera in order to capture their face during the gamepaly.

In this way, they will both run trials of the new Playstation and engage consumers in a contest with an extremely appealing price for any passionate videogamer: the best “Playstation/game face” will be awarded in November with the possibility of trying out all the upcoming SonyPlaystation videogames titles for the rest of his/her life.

As I said, I really loved the project, but googling a bit about it I also found some controversial facts. First of all the campaign looks very very very much inspired by the work of Philip Toledano, a great English photographer who (among the others) back in 2002 shot a series of portraits of people playing videogames.

Also, Kotaku reports that some the celebrities featured in the spot celebrities are rumored to have (former and/or current) drug problems. “The problem with these Play Face ads is that by featuring celebrities with rumored drug problems in a state of gaming ecstasy, many Japanese cannot help but draw a drug connection — not exactly the image Sony Japan is going for, eh?”
The agency is Wieden + Kennedy Tokyo.