McDonald’s Australia has designed its own PS5 controller in a fast food style. Originally, 50 units of the controllers for the PlayStation 5 were supposed to be given away for the birthday to streamers and gamers. However, shortly after the announcement, McDonald’s had to remove them from the promo: apparently, McDonald’s forgot to ask Sony for permission at all.
What kind of controller is this? The McDonald’s controller is a “Custom Controller”, meaning it looks different from the regular DualSense for the PlayStation 5 that you can usually find in stores.
Instead of plain black or white, the controller would have been decorated with fries and burgers, would have had a small McDonald’s logo printed on it, and would otherwise have come in the cheerful red and white of the fast food giant.
However, regular functions would have been hidden underneath. So it is a “normal” DualSense in a prettier look. The special thing, besides the appearance: McDonald’s only wanted to give away 50 units worldwide. So it’s a true collector’s item:
What was the effort for? The McDonald’s controller was planned as a promotional action for the 50th birthday of McDonald’s Australia. There, the “Stream Week” was supposed to start on Sunday, August 1.
Australian fans would have had the chance to win such a controller from several Twitch streamers. However, the event had to be postponed shortly before the start, and the prizes had to be changed.
McDonald’s plans birthday event apparently without Sony
This is why McDonald’s had to backtrack: In a statement, McDonald’s Australia revealed that Sony PlayStation had objections. It states: “Sony PlayStation has not authorized the use of the controller in promotional material in conjunction with the proposed Stream Week, and we apologize for the inconvenience” (via Press-Start.com.au).
According to research by IGN, the image is an “internal concept” that should never have been published because it never left the planning phase (via IGN.com; the title image also comes from there). The image has mistakenly leaked to the media, and there is no commercial partnership between McDonald’s Australia and Sony PlayStation.
The Stream Week itself has been postponed to an unknown date, and the prizes have been adjusted. Now there are hoodies and a subscription for the respective streamers to be won. However, the controllers have been removed from the prize pool.
Such custom controllers are usually seen more often, as some companies work with console manufacturers to create special collector’s items for promotional purposes. Here, it was apparently overlooked to ask for permission beforehand.
On Twitter, a user commented (via Twitter.com): “Considering that Sony is blocking this promotion, they should [McDonald’s] do the same thing but with Xbox controllers. I’m sure Microsoft cares infinitely less.”
Sony has also allowed such special controllers before and even produced them themselves, but only for very special purposes:
Sony finally makes nice controllers for the PS5, but keeps them for themselves
