Sony PlayStation

A platform for the game-changers

Sony PlayStation revolutionised the gaming world with groundbreaking entertainment, revolutionary graphics and gameplay. It delivers unbelievable experiences and incredible adventures allowing players to delve into new worlds with access to whole universes in the palm of their hands. With a growing network of 80-million active users, Sony PlayStation is celebrated for its innovative products and services. Sony turned to DEPT® with the vision of allowing its global audience from all corners of the world to purchase their official merchandise.

E-Commerce Enterprise

Through integrating the range of digital expertise within DEPT®, the PlayStation Gear merchandising platform was born and released throughout Europe. CentreSoft, the UK’s leading multi-format specialist distributor of video games, contracted DEPT® for the project on behalf of Sony. DEPT® strategists analysed the logistics of the retail venture, whilst our creative and technical craftsmen designed and built a bespoke e-commerce platform that boasts a truly interactive online shopping experience. The marketing team optimises the website, ensuring optimal performance and search visibility for the brand new domain. Launch campaigns were executed to introduce the storefront, engage with target audiences and increase traffic. 

Merging gameplay with online shopping

The Approach

Taking UX to the next level

Code for international conquest

Immersive design

The Result

Collaborating with Sony PlayStation to design, build, and launch a new multilingual e-commerce storefront throughout Europe was a massive achievement for DEPT®. The entire build from wireframes and planning, through to coding and tactical implementation took less than 6 months to complete, as the project was expedited in order to be live for the world’s largest gaming conference, E3 Electronic Entertainment Expo, and to partake in Sony PlayStation’s annual ‘Days of Play’ campaign. The initial release of PlayStation Gear was highly successful and laid a solid foundation for continued growth.

High search visibility

Prior to launch, as a brand new domain, playstation-gear.com had no visibility on search engines. Using a range of tools to monitor site performance, conduct behavioural analyses and optimise accordingly, the website is now approaching 3 million sessions. Over 650, 000 sessions are from organic search and almost 500, 000 are from paid search, as a result of executing organic and paid campaigns; the channels work in tandem, ensuring PlayStation Gear is positioned in a prime position within the search engines.

Organic search reach

PlayStation Gear has grown in organic visibility for a range of brand, product and generic search queries since its launch. Each version of the multilingual platform appeared in over 2k core search queries which were instrumental in driving traffic and conversions. With over 650 root domains link to the website providing 76k+ backlinks, organic visibility is continuing to grow. In a single month alone, organic search has driven 82k sessions to the site.

Since launching in May 2017, PlayStation Gear has won multiple awards and is continuously praised in the gaming-community and over social media. Working in an agile way, under such a tight deadline, has strengthened DEPT®’s relationship with Sony and has led to a long-term partnership.

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Aaron Wegmann