A history of PlayStation collaborations, from McDonald's to Les Benjamins

Since the first PlayStation was released in 1994, the console and its successors have sat comfortably on the throne of gaming. Despite competition from Nintendo and Xbox, each generation of PlayStation has remained some of the bestselling, with the most successful of all being the PlayStation 2, which sold more than 160 million units.

With its popularity comes the demand for co-branded merchandise. This past weekend, Turkish clothing brand Les Benjamins announced a collaboration with PlayStation to release clothes with the console’s logo and tagline. The collaboration is the latest attempt by PlayStation to expand its brand and cement its place in pop culture.

Here, we look at all the different collaborations with PlayStation over the years.

Clothes

Les Benjamins’s PlayStation release includes three T-shirts, two sweatshirts, a hoodie, a bomber jacket, a polo shirt and jeans. All the items bear the PlayStation logo with the brand’s name written in the console’s recognisable font.

The clothes also make use of the four shapes found on every PlayStation controller – circle, square, X and triangle.

Last year, to celebrate PlayStation’s 30th anniversary in December, Japanese clothing brand Beams released a set of hoodies and crewnecks that celebrated the gaming console. These were a lot more subtle in their representation and used the PlayStation’s iconography in a minimalist way.

German sportswear brand Puma also collaborated with PlayStation to release a line of colourful T-shirts. The Puma line used hues such as baby blue and violet to present a more playful side of the console.

Shoes

Alongside the tees, Puma also released a PlayStation shoe collection that is closer in spirit to the console colours. The sports shoes came in black, white and blue and featured details that fans of the console will recognise.

The biggest shoe collaboration for PlayStation was in 2021, when rapper Travis Scott and Nike released a special pair. The Nike Dunk Lows feature the signature Travis Scott reverse swoosh and the original PlayStation Logo with Japanese lettering under it.

The cream and light blue footwear was an instant hit with collectors and PlayStation fans alike. Today, the shoes sell for upwards of $2,000 on marketplace StockX.

Food

PlayStation fans were given a chance to play with their food with a pasta collaboration in 2023. British online supermarket Ocado and pasta makers Garofalo teamed up with Sony to create pasta shaped like the characters on the Sony controller.

The PlayStation pasta was sold in a 500g bag that cost about $3. The collaboration was the first of its kind for PlayStation, but it wasn’t the first time the console was associated with food.

In 2012, American fast-food chain Taco Bell ran a promotion for participants to get a chance at owning the portable PlayStation Vita console. Four years later, the chain announced another promotion for a chance to win a golden PlayStation 4 console, which has now become a sought-after collector’s item.

The first documented collaboration between PlayStation and a fast-food chain was in 2001, when McDonald's released a Japan-only exclusive Happy Meal toy that featured four characters from PlayStation games.

The characters were PaRappa the Rapper from the game of the same name, Toro from Doko Demo Issyo, Pipo Saru and Chocobo from Ape Escape.

Toys and collectibles

There have been numerous releases of toys and collectibles that feature PlayStation game characters. Most recently, Sony released keychains that featured all the controllers and portable devices from its history.

These keychains were only available in Japan and could be found at gachapon machines, coin-operated capsule toy vending machines.

The most well-known collaboration for PlayStation toys and collectibles is with Funko. The company, which produces figurines that feature characters from pop culture, collaborated with PlayStation to release a line of some of its most recognisable characters.

Some of the most popular of these are of Joel from The Last of Us, Kratos from God of War, Sam Porter Bridges from Death Stranding and The Hunter from Bloodborne. Many of the PlayStation Funko figures sold out immediately and can only be bought on the second hand market for exorbitant prices.

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