If you’ve ever had concerns that major corporations, including the ones behind your favourite video game platforms, want as much of your information as possible, from your private financials to your name, address, and even what you look like, well PlayStation’s latest community program won’t do anything to assuage your fears. The team blue console maker has just announced The Playerbase, a new program giving fans the chance to be scanned into their favourite games, beginning with Gran Turismo 7.
Announced in a new PlayStation Blog post, this program is designed “to offer an opportunity to bring some of our devoted PlayStation fans even closer to the PlayStation experience.” A successful applicant will get the chance to be scanned into a game, in this case, GT7, and actually make a digital appearance as “a special limited-time appearance as an in-game character portrait.”
The post adds that it is only beginning with GT7, and that it will be “looking to expand and include fans in additional PlayStation Studios titles in the near future,” which is good fodder for a bit of fun speculation. Maybe the next game up will be The Last of Us, and you’ll get scanned in as one of the people Joel and/or Ellie brutally murders along their violent journey. Or you’ll be one of the many NPCs living in Aloy’s post-apocalyptic world in Horizon, or perhaps a new character in the multiplayer spin-off.
Or, better yet, perhaps you’ll be included in an upcoming title like Marvel’s Wolverine, and get to be one of the NPCs Logan turns into a human shish kabab.
If any of that sounds incredible to you, then you’ll be able to apply for your chance to be a part of the program here. Sony and PlayStation will then review the applicants, with those who make the short list then going through a round of video interviews, after which the final group will be selected.
In each round, applicants will be asked to demonstrate their “personal connection to PlayStation Studios fandom” and your “engagement with the brand,” which includes, at least partially, how much PlayStation stuff you own. You’ll also have to demonstrate your love for Gran Turismo, partially by showing off how many hours you’ve put into the games in that series and the trophies you’ve collected.
You’ll then be “invited” to Los Angeles to a visual arts studio to be properly scanned into the game and, in another Gran Turismo-specific twist, get the chance to design your own logo and one-of-a-kind vehicle for the game. An FAQ for the program also clarifies that PlayStation will indeed cover travel and accommodation if you’re not already in the LA area and are selected.
On the surface, it’s a pretty cool opportunity for fans to, as the blog post says, get “even closer to the PlayStation experience,” but it also brings up a lot of questions. Will these ‘lucky’ fans, unprotected by the regulations that card-carrying SAG-AFTRA members fought for, be able to determine what happens to their likeness in this process? Will PlayStation be able to take all of these fans and use their likeness for whatever they want after they’ve had a ‘limited-time’ as an NPC in Gran Turismo 7?
Those details are not exactly clarified in the FAQ, but it doesn’t seem like too much of a stretch to say you won’t get those same protections. Though if you’re already on board with the idea of being scanned into a game just for the experience and the fun of it, you’re probably not too concerned with that in the first place.
About the author: David has been writing about videogames, technology, and culture since 2020, with a focus on reporting daily news across multiple publications, including GameDaily.Biz, GameSkinny, and PlayStation Universe before joining Wccftech in 2025. David started contributing as Canada/US reporter for Wccftech’s gaming section in 2025. Besides being up-to-date on the industry’s movements, he loves interviewing developers, reviewing games, and writing intricate essays about the symbolism and layered meanings to be found in rich narratives as he’s done for publications like GamesIndustry.Biz, LostInCult, and others. Outside of games he loves movies, music, theatre, his hometown, and his family, though not necessarily in that order.
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