The video game industry was beginning to ignore hardcore gamers and was instead marketing to families. We saw an opportunity to remind gamers that the PS3 is, was, and always will be for them. Using a combination of web videos, emotional TV spots and a special interactive destination for gamers on Facebook, we saluted gamers and gave them tools to share their stories and make content celebrating gaming as a valid endeavour. Everything was informed by the rally cry: Long Live Play.

We used Twitter and YouTube to launch a web video announcing our new tagline: 'Long Live Play'. We followed that with 'To Michael', a live-action TV spot giving an epic tribute to gamers. Our Hall of Play app on Facebook was gamers' place to connect, show off, make a shareable 'Michael' spot with their own name and picture in it. It’s also where we aired a month-long series of videos honouring real PlayStation gamers for their accomplishments.

The'“Long Live Play' tagline launch video was covered by more than 85 gaming and news sites. The 'Michael' film shot to the top of YouTube’s trending chart as the most-viewed, highest-rated and most-favourited video of the week. In 1 week it received more than 5 times the views of any other video on PlayStation’s channel, ever. Gamers and bloggers were talking about the campaign everywhere, and PS3 saw a 65% increase in black Friday sales over the previous year.