PlayStation mascots like Kratos and Aloy join the UEFA Champions League to play competitive football in an unbeatable partnership.
In a commercial for the UEFA Champions League, PlayStation characters like Nathan Drake, Aloy, Kratos, Ratchet, and Clank compete in football. The Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) is an annual European football tournament that brings together teams from Europe. The current 2021-22 season will run until May 2022, and soccer’s global popularity makes it a natural fit for PlayStation’s legendary lineup of exclusive games.
Console exclusives are a key way for the gaming industry’s most prominent companies to entice gamers to their particular consoles. Microsoft, Nintendo, and Sony all have popular exclusives on their systems, but PlayStation, in particular, has amassed an extensive library of high-quality titles in recent years. Uncharted, God of War, Ratchet & Clank, and Horizon are among these well-known franchises. So naturally, only PlayStation consoles can play these first-party franchises, typically single-player and narrative-driven games focusing on storytelling and world-building. However, many PlayStation exclusives have been ported to PC recently, allowing a whole new audience to enjoy these grand adventures.
PlayStation has released a new television commercial that features the UEFA Champions League and several of the company’s iconic mascots. The commercial begins with a shot of Kratos and Atreus, dressed in their God of War Ragnarok designs, leading one of the tournament’s teams onto the field. Aloy from Horizon Forbidden West is then seen assisting one of the coaches, using her highly advanced Focus device to plan outplays. When a player is injured, the titular characters from the Ratchet & Clank series appear through a wormhole and carry him off the field. Throughout the game, Nathan Drake, the protagonist of Uncharted, can be seen climbing a grappling hook to get a bird’s-eye view of the entire field.
Despite the PlayStation brand’s immense popularity and the high praise lavished on the PlayStation 5, reports indicate that PS5 sales have fallen short of PlayStation 4. The predecessor to the new-generation console sold around 13.5 million units in its first year, while the PS5 sold 13.4 million units in the same period. This lower sale is expected, given the ongoing shortage of the PS5 and its competitor, the Xbox Series X/S. Still, if Sony wants to match the success of its previous-generation hardware, it needs to make a more significant number of PS5 systems available to customers.
The UEFA attracts large audiences, with a large portion of the world devoted to daily developments in the European football world. This makes the organization an ideal candidate for PlayStation sponsorship, as the gaming company has amassed an iconic roster of exclusive titles and characters in recent years. Heroes like Kratos, Aloy, and Nathan Drake are instantly recognizable, and their exploits can only be had on PlayStation consoles or PCs. Thus, the partnership between UEFA and PlayStation is undeniably valuable to both entertainment behemoths, with some of gaming’s most beloved icons on the field.
Source: PlayStation/YouTube
