Red Bull To Become First Home Sponsor

Energy drink Red Bull will become the first major sponsor of Sony’s PlayStation Home online community, planning an entire "tropical island" area for inclusion in a future update. Sony hasn't yet made an announcement, but Red Bull UK brand marketing manager John Beasley spoke to ad trade site Brand Republic about the deal, describing Home as an opportunity to create "memorable and rich content". The tropical island will feature an airplane racing game based on the real-world Red Bull Air Race event. It's unclear, however, whether any Red Bull content will incur a fee -- Beasley did note that Home has the potential to "generate significant revenues." "The game gave us the first opportunity to recreate in the gaming world what we try to do in the real world, which is to facilitate interaction, to give people stories, memories, experiences and a really good opportunity to interact with the brand," added Beasley. Home is currently in closed beta, but Sony has said it will be open for public testing before the end of 2008. No start date for the Red Bull content has been announced, but Sony has indicated that a number of brand partnerships will be announced in the future.