(adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({}); Sony’s virtual ‘Home’ away from home hasn’t even officially opened to the public yet, and it’s already looking like the neighborhood is getting zoned for commercial use. According to a report this morning on UK-based marketing website BrandRepublic, energy drink manufacturer Red bull has become the first brand to build a presence in PlayStation Home. While game companies have promised to have their own presence in the virtual PS3 community, Red Bull is the first non-gaming company to announce a brand partnership with Sony.

The Red Bull brand will be showcase on a new tropical island built in Home, which will feature an airplane racing game based on Red Bull’s real world Red Bull Air Race series.

Home is currently under construction and likely to be opened up for public testing before the end of 2008. John Beasley, brand marketing manager for Red Bull UK said Home represents an opportunity for brands to create “memorable and rich content”.

Beasley went on to add, “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.”

Beasley believes that Sony’s virtual community will show marketers how in-game advertising can be used effectively and will open up the medium to more brands. Of course, it’s not hard for any gamer to already see how big in-game ads can be, with companies regularly shelling out cash for advertising inside the gaming world. Just take a look at the Sprint ad conveniently tucked away in the theatre of Scene It?: Box Office Smash, or the Obama ads that peppered Burnout Paradise during the ‘08 presidential election.

Of course, it’s all about the bottom line. For its part, Sony has regularly stated that Home will be set up for both gamers and brands to “generate significant revenues”, though it has yet to actually disclose exactly how this will happen, or just which brands have already jumped on board.

In the meantime, Home has already entered the ‘Home’-stretch, leading up to its official public release. The Home beta recently added another large group of members, and has been working on performing various stress tests to the servers. Sony plans for Home to go live with its public launch before the end of the year.
plz rep++

Wow nice i like red bull

Cool, Red Bull is fit!

Well it has been said that games would bbe cheaper if had avertising in them