Our goal was to create a cultural moment that would break the convention of a typical video game premiere and could compete with the biggest movie or TV series premieres. We wanted to create something that the gaming community would be excited about and celebrate one of the biggest PlayStation’s titles. During the campaign we were not able to use any elements from the upcoming game. In order to emphasize the importance of the plot in God of War Ragnarök, we decided to take advantage of the element, which ties the first and the second parts together, that is the epic soundtrack created by Bear McCreary. That’s how we came up with the idea of organizing a symphonic concert featuring plot summary from the previous installment of God of War.

Our task was to create buzz around the launch of God of War Ragnarök while not being able to use assets from the upcoming game. So we focused on reminding players what they loved about the previous part by combining a recap of the events with an extraordinary live music concert. The PlayStation brand message is For the Players. That's why we invited 200 members of the PlayStation community (1/3 of the audience) to attend the live music event. The tickets could be won in

a competition organized through the brand’s social media.

The God of War reboot was released on PlayStation 4 in 2018, and the sequel followed on November 9, 2022 on PlayStation 5. We came to the conclusion that the best way to increase interest in the game would be to rekindle the emotions and excitement that players had when playing the previous installment. Therefore, we decided that the concert would be accompanied by a special video that would summarize key moments in the game. One of our goals was to create an event that would become a celebration for all players, so we organized a special contest where they could win tickets to the premiere. During the concert, we hosted more than 600 people, 200 of whom belonged to the PlayStation community. The competition was widely promoted in the gaming media and on PlayStation's social media channels.

It took a lot of work to implement our idea – the preparations for the concert took about 7 months. First, our idea had to compete with a dozen others in an internal vote, then we had to find a suitable orchestra and conductor. Another challenge was to rearrange the original game soundtrack for the orchestra and fitting it into the recap video from the game, which was projected on a movie screen during the concert. The concert was accompanied by communication on PlayStation's social media channels, as well as gaming and entertainment media. There was also a competition, in which fans could win tickets to the event. In addition, we had to prepare the cinema auditorium for the symphony orchestra and the audience of 600 people. The concert was also recorded and the video relation of the event can be found on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d23BW7bb3MU

The God of War Ragnarök opening concert was an overwhelming success. Not only did we appreciate the Polish gaming community and break the convention of a standard video game launch, but we also exceeded our targets. Let the numbers speak for themselves.

• More than 80 publications on social media

• Estimated reach of 2 500 000,

• Channels covering the concert had a total of 18,000,000 followers,

• ROI of PLN 454 000,

• More than 130 publications and posts on influencer profiles, as well as editorial social media profiles from the gaming, technology and news industries,

• with a total reach of 56 000 000 and AVE of 518 000 PLN.

Last but not least – there were many positive comments about the campaign form the Polish PlayStation community on social media channels.