Is The McDonald's PS5 Controller Legit, Or Just Clowning? [UPDATE: Removed!]
This week an apparent McDonald's Sony PlayStation collaboration surfaced in Australia. This collaboration appears to have resulted in a fancy new McDonalds Australia 50th birthday celebration PlayStation 5 controller. The odd bit about this situation isn't that the controller exists, but that it appears to exist without any promotional support from McDonald's Australia, Sony Australia, or any of the game streamers supposed to be taking part in the release.
According to Press Start, McDonald's Australia "has created 50 of these limited edition PS5 controllers." The restaurant chain goes by the colloquial name "Maccas" in Australia – Press Start says that a series of "Maccas streams" (video game streamers said to be associated with McDonald's Australia) are participating in the release of this controller.
We've reached out to McDonalds (both Australia and USA) to see what they've got to say about the situation. Meanwhile, we can still discuss the look of the controller.
The controller certainly looks legit. It's a Sony PlayStation 5 controller with custom McDonald's details, including stylized McDonald's French fries in the lower left, a burger in the lower right, and a white/red color scheme throughout. Triangle, Square, Circle, and X buttons are yellow with a gray/mustard yellow print – the same is true of the directional button set. Bumper buttons and joysticks remain black, and the touchpad in the center has the McDonald's logo.
The design seems executed well enough that it may very well be a legitimate, official release. If not, we've got to give props to the person or people responsible for designing this image – it looks good enough to eat!
Stay tuned as we learn more about this very strange situation, and don't lose your lunch when we find out that it's all very real – or a crafty oddity from the start? We shall see!
UPDATE: A McDonalds representative responded, saying "Unfortunately McDonald's stream week has been postponed and won't be going ahead this Sunday. We apologize for any inconvenience caused by this change to our announcement schedule."
So it's certainly real, but – at the same time – it's not really happening (yet, anyway). Cross your fingers McDonald's gets this piece of hardware in order and brings it into existence in a real way, sooner than later!
UPDATE 2: "The image was provided to media in error and there is no commercial relationship between McDonald's Australia and Sony PlayStation," said a McDonald's representative. "Sony PlayStation has not authorized the use of its controller in promotional materials related to the proposed Stream Week event and we apologize for any inconvenience caused. McDonald's Stream Week has been postponed and Sony PlayStation controllers will not be included in the giveaway."