File this one under the funny folder, as PlayStation has censored an Xbox One controller in an official Destiny 2: Forsaken PS4 trailer. We have to give props to Screen Rant for catching this in the recent extended video documentary about the development of the new expansion, which we recently covered. Sony posted the full documentary from Activision on its channel, but with one noticeable difference: the blurred Xbox One controller.
This hilarious moment happens at one point in the video in which Bungie developers are shown chatting about the game at their desks, with one developer holding the seemingly taboo controller in his hands. Nothing else in the scene or trailer is censored; just the controller in that one shot. It is a very minute detail that would’ve probably been otherwise overlooked.
But because PlayStation chose to bring attention to the Xbox One controller in the Destiny 2: Forsaken trailer, we can clearly see at what lengths the company will go to in order to avoid giving any exposure whatsoever to its direct competitor, Microsoft. You can clearly see the censored controller in the screenshot above, but if you’re looking to find it as part of the video in its entirety, you’ll find the shot at around the 2:42 mark of the video on YouTube.
Interestingly enough, this is far from the first time PlayStation has gone out of its way to avoid giving any points to a competitor in gameplay footage. In fact, it happened before almost exactly a year ago at E3 2017. The Anthem trailer from EA and BioWare was edited by Sony to make it look like the button prompts were for a PS4 controller, instead of the Xbox One which was what it originally was. This actually resulted in PlayStation having to recall the footage later on.
While we don’t necessarily expect that to happen with this Destiny 2: Forsaken trailer, this is a funny situation to lighten the mood ahead of E3 2018 next week where we could potentially see even more jabs from one hardware manufacturer to another, like in previous years.