14 DAY TRIAL // The development team at Sony in charge of the PlayStation 4 home console are announcing a new major program called PlayStation Heroes, which is designed to allow all interested gamers to take part in events involving real world celebrities and at the same time give money for a variety of charity causes.
A new dedicated app will be introduced for the device, allowing players to purchase and download a number of digital themes and other items, with each dollar they spend enabling them to enter a sweepstakes for a celebrity gaming session.
The PlayStation 4 Heroes initiative will go live on February 24 and the first big event will be built around Destiny, the social shooter from Bungie and Activision, and around Shaun White, best known for his moves on a snowboard.
The announcement explains that "Ninety percent of the purchase price of those items will help aid some amazing charitable organizations including Make-A-Wish, The USO and The V Foundation for Cancer Research. To celebrate PlayStation HEROES and kick start our support for these incredible causes, we’re donating $100,000 to each charity."
Sony says users of the special Heroes app for the PS4 will be able to spend their money individually on themes or get a bundle for all four themes counting as 31 entries.
The company is also open to suggestions regarding the celebrities that will be involved with PlayStation Heroes, although it seems that Snoop Dogg has already been recruited for a future installment.
The initiative might make the PlayStation 4 a bigger seller
The introduction of the PlayStation Heroes initiative is a way for Sony to differentiate the PlayStation 4 and infuse the home console with an aura of positivity.
It's possible that the app and the charity donations that it generates will make the platform more attractive to users in the long term.
At the moment, the PlayStation 4 is ahead of the rival Xbox One from Microsoft when it comes to overall worldwide sales, and it has recently taken the number one position in the hardware chart for January in the United States.
Sony has claimed that it has no plans to drop the price in the coming months, which means it will have to add more value to the platform to keep it attractive, and the Heroes app is a good way of doing that while also donating money to a number of good causes.
