As part of the marketing campaign for the recently released Gran Turismo 7, video game and tech giant Sony has unveiled a massive, car-packed display. The sprawling, next-gen racing simulation game has been out for a few days now and has been earning solid scores from critics and audiences alike, with Screen Rant praising Gran Turismo 7 for its tight mechanics and reverence for racing culture.
It’s been a long wait for fans of PlayStation’s best-selling racing franchise; the last mainline entry in the series dropped back in 2013 for the PlayStation 3. Gran Turismo Sport helped tide over many gamers, but others remained anxious for the next proper Gran Turismo chapter. For many, that is exactly what they’ve gotten with Gran Turismo 7, as players have been praising the cross-gen title for its excellent graphics, extensive customization and progression options, and elegant implementation of the PS5’s DualSense controller. Despite some controversial aspects like the surprisingly expensive microtransactions in Gran Turismo 7, the game appears well on its way to being one of the year’s best-sellers.
Sony doesn’t seem interested in resting on its laurels waiting for that to happen, as the company’s latest marketing endeavor suggests. Twinfinite reports that a massive “car vending machine” emblazoned with Gran Turismo 7 has appeared in Singapore. The display was created in collaboration with Autobahn Motors, a local exotic car dealership, and looks to be an operating business in the middle of the city. The PlayStation Asia YouTube channel recently shared a video promoting the massive car dispenser, which is reportedly twenty stories tall.
While this building is certainly attention-grabbing, this isn’t too off-brand for Sony’s marketing team. The company has built a reputation around unique, memorable, and strange advertising strategies; it wasn’t that long ago that the infamous PS3 baby commercial aired, sticking in the minds of countless viewers (for better or worse). Just a few weeks ago, a to-scale Clawstrider statue appeared in London to promote Horizon Forbidden West— an approach similar in spirit to this Gran Turismo display.
As more people begin to congregate in public spaces and Sony continues with its annual release schedule, it’s likely that more of these attraction-style marketing displays will be cropping up around the world. The company has shown in numerous ways how committed it is to moving PlayStation-exclusive titles and PS5 consoles en masse, and expensive, striking creations like this one serve as further proof of that fact. With PS5 games like Forspoken and God of War: Ragnarok releasing this year, it will be interesting to see what else Sony has up its sleeve.
Gran Turismo 7 is currently available on PS5 and PS4.
