PlayStation has placed a giant God of War axe in the center of London

Sony has placed a giant replica of the Leviathan axe from its God of War series in London as part of its "Live from PS5" promotional campaign.

The details:

• PlayStation revealed that the massive sculpture of the axe landed next to the River Thames this week. The timeframe for the promotion is rather short and will only last until the evening of January 31. For a temporary promotion, the axe is extremely detailed and even glows like the in-game model. Sony has also set up a bogus police cordon with a news van around the axe, making for an unusual marketing strategy.
• The weapon was placed there as part of PlayStation's news-themed "Live from PS5" campaign, which marked the end of the global PS5 shortage that plagued the console's first two years of life. Sony announced that there will be an increased supply of PS5 consoles available in 2023, with anyone interested in purchasing a PS5 able to do so directly from PlayStation.
• Some speculate that the level of marketing could be part of a larger God of War-related announcement soon, as assembling a massive life-size axe in the heart of England's capital seems a little excessive to promote the fact that the PS5 is now available.

In other PlayStation news:

• The PlayStation VR2 is now available for pre-order from Sony's website. The headset reportedly received fewer pre-orders than expected, prompting Sony to reduce production numbers from 2 million to 1.5 million and re-evaluate its sales targets. The full list of games coming to the VR platform in its first month was announced earlier in January; the full list can be found here.
• PlayStation will reportedly miss E3 for the fourth year in a row. The gaming behemoth announced its absence from E3 in 2019 and has yet to return, despite the event's return to being in-person rather than online. We're likely to see a State of Play livestream this year instead, announcing which projects its studios are currently working on.