Sony Europe's New PS4 Commercial Shows What You Can Do

Double life

by Sammy Barker Thu 29th Nov 2018

Sony’s launched a new commercial in Europe which builds on the idea that you can be anyone and do virtually anything when you’re playing on the PlayStation 4. The campaign, which is titled ‘This Could Be You’, shows ordinary people in extraordinary circumstances – all of which are linked to some of the year’s biggest games, such as Red Dead Redemption 2 and Call of Duty: Black Ops 4.

It’s a pretty vanilla commercial really, but we suppose it safely gets the platform holder’s message across. Would this convince you to buy a PS4 if you didn’t own one already? Let us know in the comments section below.

[source youtube.com]

As the Editor of Push Square, Sammy has over 15 years of experience analysing the world of PlayStation, from PS3 through PS5 and everything in between. He’s an expert on PS Studios and industry matters, as well as sports games and simulators. He also enjoys RPGs when he has the time to dedicate to them, and is a bit of a gacha whale.

1
FullbringIchigo
Thu 29th Nov 2018

been seeing this on TV the past week or so, it 's OK certainly not the worse advert i have seen for a console

2
RogerRoger
Thu 29th Nov 2018

I really like it, although obviously the "Wild West Game" and "Game Where You Parachute In With Everybody Else" nods have been done as close as the lawyers would allow, without official branding or paying for the pleasure. As such, Spider-Man really sticks out as being the only actual game-game featured.

3
lacerz
Thu 29th Nov 2018

@RogerRoger
I'm pretty sure that Sony has marketing deals for both of those games (RDR2 & COD:BOPS 4)

4
get2sammyb
Thu 29th Nov 2018

@RogerRoger They do have marketing rights to Red Dead and Black Ops... Beaten.

5
RogerRoger
Thu 29th Nov 2018

@lacerz @get2sammyb This is true, fair enough.

Maybe because they have those deals in place, the lack of more direct nods (like with the Spider-Man footage) is what I found conspicuous by their absence. It feels like they're being vague because they don't have the rights, when they actually do.

Still a nice advert, I like it a lot.

6
lacerz
Thu 29th Nov 2018

@RogerRoger @get2sammyb
I think they were trying to make everything live action, not in-game, but for Spider-man it required CGI, which gave it more of an in-game appearance. They didn't specifically name Spider-man, just like they didn't name FIFA/RDR/BOPS, but we all know who Spidey is.

And I agree. Nice ad. I've really liked the Sony ads this generation.

7
Hapuc
Thu 29th Nov 2018

Still they will never surpass Micheal.

8
RogerRoger
Thu 29th Nov 2018

@lacerz Good point, well made; thanks. I guess a similar discussion about whether to include Spider-Man took place at the concept stage, and marketing decided they couldn't do the ad without him.

Which is fair enough. He's been doing Sony proud of late.