PS3 Fanboy

inFamous is going to be the "next big thing," if Sony has their way. The upcoming 2009 PS3 exclusive from Sucker Punch is going to be getting a massive marketing treatment from SCEA, with a "blockbuster multimillion dollar marketing campaign" in the works. According to a SCEA press release, inFamous will be treated to "aggressive television, print, online and viral advertising campaigns, full promotional support, dedicated point-of-purchase displays and merchandising support." For an untested, new IP, Sony is daring to support the title as a true flagship title.

Sony has become much more aggressive with marketing as of late, especially with the upcoming Resistance 2, which is also getting the same treatment. It'll be interesting to see the extent of this "blockbuster" marketing campaign, and how it will be able to shape the public opinion of such an ambitious (and cool-looking) game.

It seems Sony is finally fed up with being the brunt of industry jokes with its long list of laughable commercials. In Sony's recent internal review for its $150 million advertising account, it eliminated its 13-year ad agency, TBWA/Chiat/Day, from consideration.

With TBWA out of the picture, it leaves four other companies in contention. Two companies, Publicis in the West and Deutsch have been requested to present further information, while the other two have not been contacted, according to Advertising Age.

The recently released company was responsible for delivering Sony's Universe line of commercials, which are currently airing on TV. However, while TBWA/Chiat/Day was tasked with delivering the new line of commercials, Superfad is the production company that actually created the ads, so there still is a possibility that Sony continues the impressive ads.

[Via Max Console]

After watching Sony's latest round of PlayStation 3 commercials, it's probably safe to say most of us were awestruck, especially considering what lackluster commercials we've been subjected to for the past few years. While we assumed Sony's "marketing geniuses" created the new "Universe" ads, the company actually didn't have as much to do with them as previously thought.

In actuality, Sony enlisted the help of marketing company TBWA\Chiat\Day, which, in turn, "commissioned the talents of Superfad who set out to design an animated universe that literally explodes from the system," according to Superfad's website. While we've long said Sony needs to reach outside its current marketing team for ideas, we're happy it finally did. However, we're not too sure how okay it is when that marketing team then creates another commercial using the same artistic direction as the one it created for Sony, which is exactly what happened when Superfad created the Art Connects commercial recently for Target.

Although the two sets of commercials were created by different directors, the artistic similarities can't be ignored as both predominately focus on objects emanating from visually appealing black blobs. In the end, though, it's probably not that big a deal, as we're sure most consumers aren't dumb enough to confuse the two, but it is kinda strange to see both sets of commercials airing on television at the same time. Maybe next time Sony should make sure the company it hires to come up with its next round of commercials isn't so excited with its new style that it also applies it to another client.

Fresh off the release of a couple extremely awesome commercials featuring the 40GB PS3 and a slew of other great features that make us love our PlayStation 3, we were starting to regain some of our lost confidence in the Sony hype machine. However, all that may have grinded to a halt with this bizarre commercial recently released in Europe.

Although we've always thought the European's taste in just about everything is rather odd, this commercial raises that bar to an entirely new and utterly disturbing level. However, while most Sony commercials have always retained their oddity, they haven't always been bad. Anyone remember I am the Wolfman?

[Thanks for the tip, Tom!]

It seems as if Sony has yet another low-budget PS3 model in the works - only this time it's made completely of chocolate. Sony unveiled a stack of 150 PS3s along with a giant Sixaxis controller during Eurochocolate in Perugia, Italy recently. Eurochocolate is an annual nine-day event for chocolate connoisseurs the world over, and features food tasting, competitions and all sorts of other stuff people like to do with chocolate.

However, the revelry quickly turned to shock when, after the unveiling, several people, who we assume were riotous Xbox 360 fanboys, rushed the stage and trampled Sony's hard work. Due to this diabolical act of terrorism, attendees were treated with free chocolate PS3s.

Reports from people on scene claim the PS3 Chocolate disappointingly lacked the internals to support backwards compatibility like Sony's other new system.