PlayB3yond
Latest
PSP January Content Pack now available
Every month, Sony offers an EXE file they call the "Content Pack" which contains a variety of files, like videos, music and wallpapers for your PSP. This month's pack contains an extensive eight-minute video preview of the upcoming Ratchet & Clank game. You'll also get to keep those creepy PLAY B3YOND ads for the PLAYSTATION 3, and see the "Gran Turismo Awards."This video-heavy package clocks in at a hefty 178MB. Feel free to visit Sony's official US website to download.[Thanks, Lucas Caruana!]
Solving the playb3yond advertisements, baby and all
That title worked out better than I thought, if you like nursery rhymes. Let's get right to the meat of this article -- Peter Dille, SCEA Head of Marketing, talks about the different advertisements: how they were born, raised, and brought to fruition. The baby was spawned from Sony's desire to "have a brand spot that was provocative and would evoke emotion and imagination." The Rubik's cube "was a creative way to get a feature/function benefit across - the Cell Processor is powerful and smart - in a simplistic, clean, metaphorical way." How about the SIXAXIS commercial? It's like the Wii commercials -- showing the functionality of the device in a metaphoric way. There is a ton of more interesting material in the original article, but we'd rather leave it for your enjoyment -- our summarizing it would only detract from its value.
PLAYB3YOND wants your soul... for marketing purposes only
The official Playstation 3 marketing site is active and waiting for you to offer up a couple minutes of your life to check it out. Of course, you have to be over 18 to enter. Not like it's a brainteaser to get around that checkpoint. In fact, it's probably more of a demographic checker than a visit limiterizer. Yeah, it's a word. Scrabble, baby. So what's there? Uh, it's hard to explain. Ever read the book House of Leaves? It reminds this blogger of that for some reason. A PS3 pops up from the floor of a white room as if the floor were made of water. Then, slowly but surely, the bottom right of the wall gets taken over by some black vines (maybe closer to Mirrormask than House of Leaves...) that reveal a bunch of weird, crazy symbols. Now... someone solved the puzzle, but we can't figure it out. Then again, we're busy bees and don't have the time! So a good man by the name of Zelda X sent in some fun solutions. The symbols seem to have moved, but their meanings are still the same. Have fun learning some news about upcoming titles, etc!
PS3 viral web code cracked
A few days ago, Sony launched the PlayB3yond web site with a picture of a melting clock and minimal fanfare. Yesterday, the site updated to a feature a mysterious assortment of 26 clickable symbols that bear a passing resemblance to the PlayStation controller buttons. Mere hours later, the mystery has been solved by intrepid Joystiq reader Zelda X (who either has an inside source or way too much free time). Using the alphabet key and codes in the image above, PS3 fans can use the PlayB3yond site to unlock wallpapers, soundtracks, videos and behind-the-scenes interviews for some big name PS3 launch games. Try not to get too excited.It's not clear whether this list is complete or if other words and phrases will also unlock content. Some common PS3-related phrases returned nothing when tried by Joystiq, and the codes found on recent PS3 billboards were similarly useless. Perhaps something more interesting will come out of the site in the weeks leading up to the PS3 launch, but as of now, this attempt at a viral ad campaign doesn't really hold a candle to a major multimedia marketing event like ilovebees.
