E3 06: Sony launches new teaser campaign

  • By Tor Thorsen, Brendan Sinclair, GameSpot
  • Posted May 6, 2006 9:19 pm PT

One year after the infamous "Welcome Chang3" campaign, Sony is once again plastering the LACC with mysterious advertisements.

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LOS ANGELES--Last year, journalists who arrived early for the Electronic Entertainment Expo glimpsed the first clues that the event had a momentous announcement in store. Until then, Sony had maintained a monastic level of silence regarding its next-generation console. The device didn't have a name yet, and reps for the electronics giant shot down any inquiry about the unnamed device with the refrain "Sony has not made any announcements regarding PS3." (Sony used PS3 as shorthand in correspodence but insisted it was not an official name.)

That official wall of silence showed its first cracks the weekend before E3. As a small army of roadies set up dozens of multimillion-dollar displays inside the Los Angeles Convention Center, Sony was busy plastering the outside with massive billboards saying "Welcome Chang3." The words were written in the distinctive PlayStation 2 font and were next to partially obscured re-creations of the PlayStation's emblematic triangle-circle-square-X buttons.

Not only were the "Welcome Chang3" ads on the LACC's exterior, but they also appeared inside bus shelters around the massive venue and, most eerily, on stickers stuck to the screens of televisions inside game journalists' hotel rooms.

Within days of the ads going up, Sony officially unveiled--and named--the PlayStation 3 in a press conference that remains controversial to this day. One year later, the Japanese electronics giant appears to be up to the same tricks. Once again, Sony has covered the area around the LACC with a series of ads. But while the "Chang3" ads were pretty obvious, the new campaign is taking a more subtle tack.

The most obvious ads are a series of massive billboards prominently visible from the LACC's main entrance. One shows a surrealistic take on a game of rock-paper-scissors--with the person making "scissors" having steel blades for fingers, and the person making "rock" having a stone fist.

Another ad, which covers one side of the neighboring Staples Center, shows a massive canyon with a person in the upper right-hand corner who looks as though he's about to jump off a cliff on a skateboard into the world's biggest vert ramp. Two ads on nearby triangular kiosks show similar scenes of extreme outdoor activity: one of a woman traversing a series of gymnastic rings above red-hot lava flow and another of someone playing on a swing--underneath a structure resembling the 630-foot St. Louis Arch.

All four of these ads have two things in common--they each have the words "Play Beyond" on the top and the PlayStation logo at the bottom. However, their meaning is less clear. The most prevalent theory is that they are the beginning of the ad campaign for the PlayStation 3's online service, since they appear to be deliberately one-upping Xbox 360's current tagline, "Jump In." Others have taken the rock-paper-scissors ad as a portent that the new PlayStation 3 controller--which will be unveiled on Monday--will have some kind of motion-sensing capability like the Nintendo Wii.

However, until there is official word, these theories are just that--theories. As of press time, Sony reps were unavailable for comment. However, their meaning should be more clear on Monday afternoon following Sony's pre-E3 press conference, which will be streamed live as part of GameSpot's E3 Coverage.

279 Comments

  • carnie06

    Posted Aug 5, 2006 10:44 pm PT

    i kinda agree with devjins theory...as in all the pics there is an "obstacle". like dev said, the scissors in the first pic is the xbox, while the stone fist being the ps3 crushes the xbox, the 3rd pic, the lava river can be the xbox and the "swinger" =P is the ps3. the 4th and 5th pic same idea, the skater will conquer the worlds biggest vert, and the person will conquer the arch like a giant swing set...good idea if this was their plan...or at least i think so...

  • vamroc

    Posted May 9, 2006 7:56 pm PT

    NO KILL ZONE 2 ??? Sony has just been informed its parked in Bill Gates's spot and must move it's car

  • 00Rambol00

    Posted May 9, 2006 9:50 am PT

    hmmm if its got motion sensors i reckin ps3 are eatin away nintendo's idea's..... lol

  • ewjim

    Posted May 9, 2006 5:35 am PT

    Not good - SONY cut some SPECIFICATIONS!

  • SolidYuna_2004

    Posted May 8, 2006 6:05 pm PT

    sweet ..... that just makes you think of so many things ..... i wonder what the controller will be like .....

  • Burning_Shadow

    Posted May 8, 2006 4:37 pm PT

    That is right cool , although dident nintendo copywrite there controller idea. But if they dident this means bad things for nintendo if that is what sony is doing

  • Stevo9025

    Posted May 8, 2006 4:33 pm PT

    I think the Canyon picture would be a pretty cool level in Killzone. Also I highly doubt Sony will try to attempt anything similar to what Nintendo is trying to do with it's controllers, its not something I can see Sony doing.

  • boo_dat

    Posted May 8, 2006 4:32 pm PT

    add campaign...so?

  • WolfSkill5544

    Posted May 8, 2006 3:21 pm PT

    I can't wait to see the new ps3 controller "hopefully" it will have the same shape as before, even though after the big lost Sony took in the courtroom.

  • Lost2017

    Posted May 8, 2006 2:43 pm PT

    Could Be SomeThing To Make Wii Look Real Bad (By the way most of the people on the other game post think the name's weak)

  • x505

    Posted May 8, 2006 1:44 pm PT

    Sony rips off everything. Hell, they rip ass....I don't know WHY I just wrote that.

  • skinnypete91

    Posted May 8, 2006 12:01 pm PT

    ooooo hooo hooo hhooooo i cant wait!!!

  • sabru8

    Posted May 8, 2006 11:46 am PT

    the game better live up to the ads.

  • DevJin

    Posted May 8, 2006 11:35 am PT

    I think that Scissor --> represent "Xbox" --> X. And, the Stone hand represent SONY's PS3, that JAB, and CRUSH that scissor thingy.

  • melonman2

    Posted May 8, 2006 10:50 am PT

    priity cool ads i must say hope the game look that cool

  • duque501

    Posted May 8, 2006 9:50 am PT

    Wii are the paper?

  • nytrospawn

    Posted May 8, 2006 8:50 am PT

    Play Beyond The Beyond.
    Go, play it now.Damn it. Haha, the Sony Wii.

  • nikolajrh

    Posted May 8, 2006 8:50 am PT

    First of all this is a marketing campaign, I don't think it's meant to deliver some hidden message about the controller having motion control or not. The theme here, and I'm suprised you all miss this, is that with a playstation 3 you get to PLAY BEOYND the normal kind of games. Playing on a swing in the universe of Playstation 3 is like that of the picture! Playing stone scissor in a Playstation 3 universe is like that of the picture... and so on. It is obvously not meant literally, but a metaphor for how much cooler it is to play on a playstation 3 than playing any other imaginable thing. Even if that means mountain rock climbing, cause with a Playstation 3 you can not only climb the mountain, you can can also do otherwise impossible jumps from one mountain to another. Genius campaign in my opinion!

  • shady_825

    Posted May 8, 2006 8:35 am PT

    The canyon one is hilarious.

  • NAITIAN

    Posted May 8, 2006 8:34 am PT

    Does any one think they are trying to show off the capabilites of the new eye toy maybe?

  • landau492

    Posted May 8, 2006 8:26 am PT

    Sony will rule again

  • Chocolicious

    Posted May 8, 2006 8:08 am PT

    I think it has to do with their online strategy. Play anywhere against whoever. We'll see soon enough.

  • extreme_himself

    Posted May 8, 2006 7:50 am PT

    Just a few more hours till we find out ....

  • Jabucket13

    Posted May 8, 2006 7:20 am PT

    Anyway, my guess is that this whole "Play Beyond" thing has to do with their online service rather than control functionality. I doubt that they would try to copy Nintendo at this point.

  • thatguytony

    Posted May 8, 2006 7:16 am PT

    What would E3 be without more Sony hype? Let's just see if Sony actually delivers on what they promise this time around.

  • Jabucket13

    Posted May 8, 2006 7:14 am PT

    Oh the mystery, the intrigue...I LOVE E3!!!!!!

  • Jamaipanese

    Posted May 8, 2006 7:11 am PT

    they just better make sure they get rid of that controller

  • Ninpo_Osa

    Posted May 8, 2006 6:18 am PT

    Rock beats scissors.. How the hell can you people not get this?!

  • chrisdojo

    Posted May 8, 2006 6:05 am PT

    if sony coppies nintendo, i just might have to take them down myself.

  • spidey008

    Posted May 8, 2006 5:58 am PT

    Well I'll have to say that I like the photography in these ads, but I really don't see what all this has to do with gaming.

  • kungl

    Posted May 8, 2006 5:56 am PT

    The eye toy can not compare to the Wii-mote. Sure they do similar things, ie sense motion, but the wii-mote looks to me to be far far more flexible than the eye toy could ever be. Wii seems to blend both traditional and motion sensor control capabilities (it still has a fair few buttons and the analogue stick on the nunchuck attachment). I fail to see how eye toy could ever have a fleshed out game design as opposed to small mini games.

  • jonnyjd

    Posted May 8, 2006 5:28 am PT

    I'm glad to see St. Louis gets a nod in the ad campaign.

  • drew08867

    Posted May 8, 2006 3:53 am PT

    I think the what Sony means by "play beyond" is simply take what we think of games now (rock, paper, siscors, swining, monkey bars) and bring it to the next level. A pretty cool campaign I think, allthough the hand with the siscors is a little Nightmare on Elm Street ish for me.

  • cal_hooper

    Posted May 8, 2006 3:37 am PT

    Hmm, pretty weak for Sony, don't you think?

  • princeofgames90

    Posted May 8, 2006 3:12 am PT

    Yah playstation 3 i cant wait for e3 i mean 12 hours sprates me from PS3 confrece

  • ILUHAN

    Posted May 8, 2006 3:08 am PT

    Very Interesting

  • holbytla

    Posted May 8, 2006 2:42 am PT

    Looks wonderful

  • fallendamnation

    Posted May 8, 2006 2:05 am PT

    Motion sensing gloves?

  • FINNT

    Posted May 8, 2006 1:31 am PT

    NIce ! Only 6 months to go

  • larsypoop

    Posted May 8, 2006 12:24 am PT

    its not "chang" its "change" but with the "e" replaced by a "3"

  • LinkErdrich

    Posted May 7, 2006 11:15 pm PT

    who the hell is "Chang"? THat Arch ad's cool

  • hailltoyou

    Posted May 7, 2006 10:24 pm PT

    Looks COOL

  • yixingtpot

    Posted May 7, 2006 9:29 pm PT

    Sony has the best advertisements, i think they are getting ready to toss the competition into the trash.

  • IIJCII

    Posted May 7, 2006 8:25 pm PT

    Gamespot said it looks like the guy is jumping off t he cliff...When really cliff is the shape of a half pipe and he is dropping in with a skateboard...

  • Bluestorm-Kalas

    Posted May 7, 2006 7:22 pm PT

    that rock paper scissors things owns

  • DiscGuru101

    Posted May 7, 2006 7:06 pm PT

    In classic Sony fashion big hype... Lets hope the games at E3 this year will live up to it. Its going to take more than a Warhawk demo, blu-ray Fantivision, and a punch of weird ass ads.

  • wackoss

    Posted May 7, 2006 6:58 pm PT

    The only similiarity between the eyetoy and the Wii controller is that they offer different ways of playing. The controller is stepping into deeper territory.

    Supposedly they're coming out with a Madden game where the controller acts like the football. You pass it by waving your arm. Interesting idea but if you wanted to play football why not pick up a real one and get some friends together?

    We'll have to wait and see what developers can come up with.

  • ATMolla

    Posted May 7, 2006 6:56 pm PT

    heh, in the last picture you can see the dude taking the picture. gamespot is so professional!
    .

  • n2Deepeth

    Posted May 7, 2006 6:53 pm PT

    I wonder what kind of "change" Sony plans, espcecially since the focus was just mainly on graphical enhancements. Anyway, change, disruption, and revolution are Nintendo's focuses, and it looks like Sony wants some of Nintendo's thunder.

  • Death666666666

    Posted May 7, 2006 6:39 pm PT

    this is taking to long to get what i want from sony

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