The archive · Content & Film · Marketing decision · 2024–2025
PlayStation turns players' memories into YOASOBI's 'PLAYERS' — 30th anniversary anthem
For PlayStation's 30th anniversary, 26,000+ player memories became YOASOBI's anthem 'PLAYERS' — saving memories as music, winning Spikes' Music Grand Prix.
PlayStation · Sony Interactive Entertainment
What it had to solve
PlayStation turned 30 in December 2024, and Sony's Japan team wanted an anniversary idea that honored players rather than product history. The PS1-era memory card — the small cartridge that held saved games — offered a metaphor for the memories people store inside their games. Sony asked players what game they would erase their memory of just to play it again.
How it works
For PlayStation's 30th anniversary, Sony Interactive Entertainment's Japanese team wanted something that honored players rather than product milestones. The PS1-era memory card — the small cartridge that held saved games — became the metaphor: PlayStation memories could be 'saved' as music.
On December 3, 2024, the day the original console turned 30, PlayStation's official X account asked players for #MemoryOfPlay stories: the game they would erase their memory of just to play it again for the first time. More than 26,000 posts came in, and the SIX/Hakuhodo team brought in YOASOBI, the duo famous for turning stories into songs.
YOASOBI composed the original anthem 'PLAYERS' from those real memories. Released March 21, 2025 alongside a 30th-anniversary campaign film — its characters voiced by actress Nanase Nishino, VTuber Usada Pekora and streamer Kiyo and built around PlayStation's △○×□ symbols — the project won the Music Grand Prix at Spikes Asia 2026, Gold (Entertainment Lotus) at ADFEST 2026 and a Cannes Lions 2025 Silver.
Why it lands
- The prompt — 'what game would you erase your memory to replay?' — asks for a deeply personal answer, so fans donate their own emotional content.
- The memory card turns an obsolete piece of hardware into a container for shared meaning, making nostalgia tangible again.
- Handing authentic fan stories to YOASOBI means the anthem belongs to players, not just the brand.
- Casting a VTuber, a streamer and an actor deliberately spans fandoms that rarely overlap, uniting them in one shared moment.
What it did
More than 26,000 player stories powered the anthem; the song and film became a cross-fandom cultural moment, winning the Music Grand Prix at Spikes Asia 2026, Gold (Entertainment Lotus) at ADFEST 2026, a Cannes Lions 2025 Silver and further regional awards.
What you can take
An obsolete object can hold modern meaning: collect the audience's own stories first, then let a beloved artist turn that intimacy into the work — the brand's history becomes the fans' history.
Since then
After the March 2025 release, 'PLAYERS' kept generating life: an English version and a special collaboration movie followed, and the campaign swept regional award shows through 2026 — Spikes Asia Music Grand Prix, ADFEST Entertainment Gold, Cannes Lions Silver and MAD STARS honors. For PlayStation it set a template for anniversary marketing: instead of a nostalgic product montage, build the celebration from the audience's own memories.
Sources
- Project: MEMORY CARD
- 「Project: MEMORY CARD」──YOASOBI為PlayStation®30週年創作的主題曲特別廣告公開！
- Project: MEMORY CARD
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