Sony Announces Shapes of Play: Battle PlayStation Board Game

Sony Interactive Entertainment has opened up pre-orders for Shapes of Play: Battle, which is a board game from the team that designed the PlayStation console. This game is a piece of commemorative merchandise for the 30th anniversary of the PlayStation.

The board game costs $44.99. It’ll come with a storage box, 16 black and white game pieces, and a game board. The pieces look like the circle, square, X, and triangle that make up the four buttons on a PlayStation controller. As for the goal of the game, it’s similar to Connect 4 or Tic-Tac-Toe. Whoever lines up four different shapes (of the same color) first wins.

The color of the board is a kind of slate gray, making it resemble the original PlayStation. While the black-and-white pieces look stylish and enhance the game board’s aesthetics, the color choice might also have to do with the fact that the PS5 (the latest console in the PlayStation family) is black-and-white. The pieces are also quite pretty on their own, and they fit well inside of the board. This makes the game quite easy to store.

Sony released the PlayStation (later known as the PS1 or PSX) in late 1994 for the Japanese audience. Its competitors included the SEga Saturn and the Nintendo 64, and achieved popularity with the sheer amount of games available. Many popular franchises got their start on the PlayStation as well, such as the Final Fantasy and Tekken series. That also got many people to start playing it.

Shapes of Play: Battle is available for pre-order and will come out on December 9, 2024. You can also get Shapes of Play: Create (multicolored wooden blocks) and State of Play: Recharge (silicone shapes to “recharge your hands” in between gaming session) for the anniversary.