The archive · Content & Film · Marketing decision · 2017–2018
Sony's Gravity Cat film sells Gravity Rush 2 by bending gravity in the real world
To launch PS4's Gravity Rush 2, Sony and Hakuhodo shot a live-action film where a girl and her cat run across walls and ceilings, then fall into the sky.
Sony Interactive Entertainment Inc.
What it had to solve
Gravity Rush 2 (GRAVITY DAZE 2) is a PS4 action-adventure game in which gravity gets a 360-degree makeover, so the launch needed to make that strange promise feel tangible to players.
How it works
Gravity Rush 2 asked players to control gravity, but a trailer full of floating combat does not make that promise feel real. Sony and its Japanese agency Hakuhodo instead shot a live-action film in which gravity itself is the stunt: a girl and her cat run across the walls and ceiling of an ordinary room and finally fall into the sky.
The cat was a calculated choice — it is the heroine's sidekick in the game, and cat videos are among the internet's most shared content. The production kept every shot as realistic as possible so viewers would wonder how the impossible angles were achieved, then wrapped the visual trick in a small story about a university student stuck on her thesis who learns to break out of fixed ideas — the game's own message, 'Break out of your world's box.'
The approach travelled through the awards circuit rather than through gameplay footage: Entertainment Grand Prix at Spikes Asia 2017, a Grand Clio for Original Content at Clio Entertainment 2017, and a double Grande Lotus at ADFEST 2018 in Branded Content and Film Craft, with further Cannes, London International and New York Festival metals.
Why it lands
- A literal trailer would have explained the mechanic; the film instead makes viewers feel what controlling gravity might be like.
- A cat gave the idea built-in shareability and tied directly to the game's own heroine and sidekick.
- Shooting for realism turned the 'impossible' visuals into the message — the how-did-they-do-it question is the hook.
- Giving the trick a character story stopped it from being a pure gimmick and carried the game's theme.
What it did
The film won the Entertainment Grand Prix at Spikes Asia 2017, a Grand Clio at Clio Entertainment 2017, and two Grande Lotuses (Branded Content and Film Craft) at ADFEST 2018, alongside further Cannes and New York Festivals metals.
What you can take
When a product's core promise is hard to explain, demonstrate it as a physical stunt: realism made viewers wonder how the impossible shots were made, and that curiosity did the distributing.
Since then
Gravity Cat went on to collect a long award run through 2018, including Grandes at ADFEST, a Spikes Asia Entertainment Grand Prix, a Clio Entertainment Grand Clio and Cannes metals, making it one of the most decorated game-launch films of the period. Hakuhodo published the case as a demonstration of turning product mechanics into entertainment rather than explanation.
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