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 shirts, 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.
But 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 the release of 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 $2.92. 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 special 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 McDonalds 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.
The Outsider
Stephen King, Penguin
Brief scoreline:
Al Wahda 2
Al Menhali 27', Tagliabue 79'
Al Nassr 3
Hamdallah 41', Giuliano 45 1', 62'
Arctic Monkeys
Tranquillity Base Hotel Casino (Domino)
'Avengers: Infinity War'
Dir: The Russo Brothers
Starring: Chris Evans, Chris Pratt, Tom Holland, Robert Downey Junior, Scarlett Johansson, Elizabeth Olsen
Four stars
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'Operation Mincemeat'
Director: John Madden
Cast: Colin Firth, Matthew Macfayden, Kelly Macdonald and Penelope Wilton
Rating: 4/5
KILLING OF QASSEM SULEIMANI
COMPANY%20PROFILE%3A
%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3EName%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20Envision%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EStarted%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3E2017%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EFounders%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3EKarthik%20Mahadevan%20and%20Karthik%20Kannan%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EBased%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20The%20Netherlands%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3ESector%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20Technology%2FAssistive%20Technology%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EInitial%20investment%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20%241.5%20million%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3ECurrent%20number%20of%20staff%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%2020%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EInvestment%20stage%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20Seed%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EInvestors%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%204impact%2C%20ABN%20Amro%2C%20Impact%20Ventures%20and%20group%20of%20angels%3C%2Fp%3E%0A
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MATCH INFO
Cricket World Cup League Two
Oman, UAE, Namibia
Al Amerat, Muscat
Results
Oman beat UAE by five wickets
UAE beat Namibia by eight runs
Namibia beat Oman by 52 runs
UAE beat Namibia by eight wickets
UAE v Oman - abandoned
Oman v Namibia - abandoned
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
In numbers: China in Dubai
The number of Chinese people living in Dubai: An estimated 200,000
Number of Chinese people in International City: Almost 50,000
Daily visitors to Dragon Mart in 2018/19: 120,000
Daily visitors to Dragon Mart in 2010: 20,000
Percentage increase in visitors in eight years: 500 per cent
MATCH INFO
Uefa Champions League semi-finals, first leg
Liverpool v Roma
When: April 24, 10.45pm kick-off (UAE)
Where: Anfield, Liverpool
Live: BeIN Sports HD
Second leg: May 2, Stadio Olimpico, Rome
Fifa Club World Cup quarter-final
Kashima Antlers 3 (Nagaki 49’, Serginho 69’, Abe 84’)
Guadalajara 2 (Zaldivar 03’, Pulido 90')
Six large-scale objects on show
- Concrete wall and windows from the now demolished Robin Hood Gardens housing estate in Poplar
- The 17th Century Agra Colonnade, from the bathhouse of the fort of Agra in India
- A stagecloth for The Ballet Russes that is 10m high – the largest Picasso in the world
- Frank Lloyd Wright’s 1930s Kaufmann Office
- A full-scale Frankfurt Kitchen designed by Margarete Schütte-Lihotzky, which transformed kitchen design in the 20th century
- Torrijos Palace dome
Simran
Director Hansal Mehta
Stars: Kangana Ranaut, Soham Shah, Esha Tiwari Pandey
Three stars
The specs: 2019 Mercedes-Benz GLE
Price, base / as tested Dh274,000 (estimate)
Engine 3.0-litre inline six-cylinder
Gearbox Nine-speed automatic
Power 245hp @ 4,200rpm
Torque 500Nm @ 1,600rpm
Fuel economy, combined 6.4L / 100km
Summer special
England squad
Joe Root (captain), Alastair Cook, Keaton Jennings, Gary Ballance, Jonny Bairstow (wicketkeeper), Ben Stokes (vice-captain), Moeen Ali, Liam Dawson, Toby Roland-Jones, Stuart Broad, Mark Wood, James Anderson.
Women’s T20 World Cup Asia Qualifier
ICC Academy, November 22-28
UAE fixtures
Nov 22, v Malaysia
Nov 23, v Hong Kong
Nov 25, v Bhutan
Nov 26, v Kuwait
Nov 28, v Nepal
ICC T20I rankings
14. Nepal
17. UAE
25. Hong Kong
34. Kuwait
35. Malaysia
44. Bhutan
UAE squad
Chaya Mughal (captain), Natasha Cherriath, Samaira Dharnidharka, Kavisha Egodage, Mahika Gaur, Priyanjali Jain, Suraksha Kotte, Vaishnave Mahesh, Judit Peter, Esha Rohit, Theertha Satish, Chamani Seneviratne, Khushi Sharma, Subha Venkataraman
Killing of Qassem Suleimani
More on Quran memorisation:
Another way to earn air miles
In addition to the Emirates and Etihad programmes, there is the Air Miles Middle East card, which offers members the ability to choose any airline, has no black-out dates and no restrictions on seat availability. Air Miles is linked up to HSBC credit cards and can also be earned through retail partners such as Spinneys, Sharaf DG and The Toy Store.
An Emirates Dubai-London round-trip ticket costs 180,000 miles on the Air Miles website. But customers earn these ‘miles’ at a much faster rate than airline miles. Adidas offers two air miles per Dh1 spent. Air Miles has partnerships with websites as well, so booking.com and agoda.com offer three miles per Dh1 spent.
“If you use your HSBC credit card when shopping at our partners, you are able to earn Air Miles twice which will mean you can get that flight reward faster and for less spend,” says Paul Lacey, the managing director for Europe, Middle East and India for Aimia, which owns and operates Air Miles Middle East.
BUNDESLIGA FIXTURES
Friday (UAE kick-off times)
Cologne v Hoffenheim (11.30pm)
Saturday
Hertha Berlin v RB Leipzig (6.30pm)
Schalke v Fortuna Dusseldof (6.30pm)
Mainz v Union Berlin (6.30pm)
Paderborn v Augsburg (6.30pm)
Bayern Munich v Borussia Dortmund (9.30pm)
Sunday
Borussia Monchengladbach v Werder Bremen (4.30pm)
Wolfsburg v Bayer Leverkusen (6.30pm)
SC Freiburg v Eintracht Frankfurt (9on)
WHAT IS A BLACK HOLE?
1. Black holes are objects whose gravity is so strong not even light can escape their pull
2. They can be created when massive stars collapse under their own weight
3. Large black holes can also be formed when smaller ones collide and merge
4. The biggest black holes lurk at the centre of many galaxies, including our own
5. Astronomers believe that when the universe was very young, black holes affected how galaxies formed
The five pillars of Islam
1. Fasting
2. Prayer
3. Hajj
4. Shahada
5. Zakat
