PlayStation has just launched a new ad campaign that revolves around the slogan “It's happening on PS5”, and many of you are convinced that it was created to make fun of Xbox's slogan “This is an Xbox”.
Older PlayStation owners who were around for the PS1 and PS2 will know that weird ads are something of a PlayStation thing, or at least they used to be. That's why, for most of us, an ad campaign that not only doesn't contain a single frame of video games, but doesn't even reference any of the games you can play on the PS5, isn't completely out of character.
People seem to think PlayStation's new ads are a subtle shot at Xbox
Since PlayStation's new ads aren't intended to showcase new or existing games, their intent will be to spark conversation and hopefully sell more consoles. Well, just hours after they were revealed via a PlayStation blog post and then shared on social media, the first part of that mission has been properly accomplished.
The trio of bizarre new ads have sparked all sorts of conversations, one of the most notable being that they were created to poke fun at Xbox. Xbox has leaned heavily on its “This is an Xbox” campaign throughout 2025, a mantra that has been heavily criticized for being overly confusing and taking focus away from the problems Xbox should be trying to fix.
While Xbox hasn't gone so far as to include an image of a PS5 in its This is an Xbox commercial, with Halo: Campaign Evolved launching on the PlayStation console in 2026, it's safe to assume that Xbox exclusivity will largely be a thing of the past going forward. The Halo remake will literally happen on PS5, as will Forza Horizon 6, along with every other Xbox game happening on PS5 right now, including The Outer Worlds 2, as evidenced by a perfectly placed banner above PlayStation's ad campaign.
Of course, there is no mention of Xbox in the ads themselves. One of them shows a woman stranded in a truck sitting on top of a skyscraper, another has a man carving his way out of a sea monster that has been fished out of the ocean, and the third shows two men emerging from a crashed spacecraft ignored by a passerby. There will also be “unexpected moments” to look out for in the real world as part of the campaign, including crashed UFOs and mysterious creatures, presumably modeled after those from the ads.
- Stamp
-
Sony
- Original release date
-
November 12, 2020
- Original MSRP (USD)
-
$499, €499, £449, £49,980 (Base) // $399, €399, £359, £39,980 (Digital),
- Operating system
-
Orbis Olympics
- Processor
-
Custom 8-core AMD Zen 2
- Resolution
-
720p – 8K
