On February 10th, more than 18,000 people gathered in Oracle Arena in Oakland to experience the perks of a glorious basketball game between the Golden State Warriors and San Antonio Spurs. And while the Warriors played host to the Spurs, the Arena’s basketball court was reimagined as a snowy playground for PlayStation‘s Kratos and Atreus from the popular game “God of War“. Together they fought against a series of brutal Scandinavian monsters: Draugr, Helwalkers, and a very grumpy Ogre.
During half-time, the fans were treated to an impressive virtual battle graciously created by PlayStation and agency BBH New York. Titled “War on the Floor,” the match between the father-son duo and the Nordic creatures started when Arena’s lights went out. For two minutes, the entire hall gradually morphed into a kingdom of ice, where all of its residents froze at the sight of the brave warriors.
The video projection slowly conquered the Arena. First, it was the scoreboard that froze. Then, the floor got dressed in a virtual icy coat that embraced the main action scene. On its surface, all the graphic elements married with each other to tell a Scandinavian legend, in which a series of monsters, creatures, and gods of a darkness try to stop the father and his son from reestablishing order.
Through the first-ever narrated projection mapping adventure, fans had a chance to catch a glimpse of the mystery that spins around the video game’s action. The 3D experience was set to promote Sony’s hotly-anticipated PlayStation game #GodofWar, which was officially launched on April 20th.
The hall was able to accommodate only a limited number of visitors. But that did not stop the Sony-owned brand to reach a much wider audience. Since the internet is more generous in terms of space, thousands of other people were able to follow the duo’s flight from the monsters online, through Facebook Live and a commercial that aired on ESPN.
The creative process was imagined by Santa Monica Studio in partnership with Platige Image. Over the span of several months, the team flirted with different ideas and made sure that the final concept perfectly matches the brand’s own vision for the big game. Although the storyline is worthy of all admiration, the company claims that the sequence presented at the Oracle Arena “does not appear in the game, its inspiration comes directly from Kratos and Atreus’ adventure.”
“In order to achieve our vision, we used the whole court, jumbotron and LED 360°Ribbons with a 1900×56 display. Motion capture was made in Lightstorm – the system created by James Cameron during the development of “Avatar”. That way God of War had a spectacle worthy of its epic status,” says Platige agency about the outstanding world imagined by award-winning director Tomek Baginski. Impressive isn’t it!