The Real Reason PlayStation Canceled These McDonald's Controllers

Gaming and fast food have a long, strange history together. From the bizarre cult classic Burger King-centric "Sneak King" to everyone's favorite extra crispy KFC dating sim, "I Love You, Colonel Sanders!," there's no shortage of crossovers between the two. Sadly for fans of video games and finger-licking fast food, however, a recent attempt at throwing some French-fried flair onto a gaming peripheral has Sony less than pleased.

McDonald's Australia had an ingenious way to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the fast food chain making its way to the land down under: giving away PlayStation 5 controllers, of course! The celebration would have taken the form of a "stream week" starting in early August, with popular streamers like Muselk and Jacko G playing their favorite games live. According to Press Start, gamers would have needed to tune into one of the streams to win one of 50 limited edition DualSense controllers.

Not only that, but based on a mock-up design "provided to media in error" (via IGN) the controllers would have boasted a super tacky (and strangely hunger-inducing) McDonald's motif, complete with the company's Golden Arches logo and images of McDonald's fries and a burger. Sadly, however, McDonald's Australia neglected a very important step in giving away another company's proprietary hardware: asking the company first.

Suffice it to say, Sony was by no means "lovin' it." McDonald's Australia promptly pulled their plans to give away their controllers, postponing their stream week indefinitely. Here's what the burger chain had to say about the whole debacle.

Sony was none too pleased with McDonald's Australia, which ultimately forced the fast food chain's hand. As a result of the kerfuffle, Mickey D's Australia released a statement, which read, "Sony PlayStation has not authorised the use of its controller in promotional materials related to the proposed Stream Week event and we apologise for any inconvenience caused." The statement continued, "McDonald's stream week has been postponed and Sony PlayStation controllers will not be included in the giveaway."

While the whole situation might have broken Ronald McDonald's heart, Sony's efforts to block another company from distributing their proprietary hardware is by no means shocking. The company infamously butted heads with PlateStation, a small company that had intended to create custom faceplates for the PlayStation 5. Sony's attention initially forced the company to change its name from "PlateStation" to "Customize My Plates" — which the company later changed once more to "CMPShells" when it settled in for the long haul. Likely realizing how serious Sony's legal team was, however, CMPShells ditched the idea of producing custom faceplates entirely, shifting gears to create vinyl skins that gamers could apply to their default PS5 faceplates. In other words, McDonald's Australia's controller woes are nothing new.

Hopefully, McDonald's Australia's 50th anniversary celebration goes off without a hitch — whenever it finally does take place. And, hopefully, this whole bizarre situation convinces Sony to release its very own food-themed controller. Yep — maybe it's time for "Bugsnax" accessories.