Australian McDonalds’ 50th birthday is this year, and they were planning to celebrate with a package deal of merchandise and events. One of the biggest draws was the custom McDonalds themed PlayStation 5 controller, which featured fries, a burger, and the iconic McDonalds red and yellow. 50 of them were created to be given away to random viewers of partnered streams (whose streamers also received the somewhat garish controllers) through the week of July 30th, 2021. However, these giveaways came to a screeching halt when it came to light that the controllers had not been authorized by Sony. The whole event, including the week of partnered streams, has been delayed because of this miscommunication, and none of the controllers will end up being given away.
McDonald’s Australia addressed the situation directly, in the message below.
Unfortunately, McDonald’s stream week has been postponed and won’t be going ahead this Sunday. We are unable to confirm a new date for the proposed event at this time. We will have some great prizing including Macca’s 50th Birthday Hoodies and 50 channel subscriptions for each streamer to give away. We will be in contact with the new timing as soon as we have it confirmed.
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. McDonald’s stream week has been postponed and Sony PlayStation controllers will not be included in the giveaway.
These controllers were never supposed to make it as far as marketing, and currently there is no official partnership between McDonalds Australia and Sony PlayStation. It is unknown if these controllers will ever be released for public consumption. There will be other merchandise for McDonald’s fans to enjoy, but unfortunately not this controversial PlayStation 5 controller. New dates for the streaming week have not been released, and there is no mention of the event on the brand’s official Twitter account.