If you're a Nine Inch Nails fan, there's a chance you've spotted their new song LESS THAN, and the video for this single, released yesterday, contains an appearance from a customised version of PS4 game Polybius.
The game's developer Jeff "Llamasoft" Minter told Ars Technica that this came about after a message from Nine Inch Nails' Trent Reznor, who "mentioned that he'd enjoyed Llamasoft's stuff and he had an idea to discuss. Of course I was super chuffed to hear he'd liked our work, as I've enjoyed his a lot over the years too!"
Since the game's a PlayStation 4 exclusive, this complicated matters, as Reznor wanted to show the game as it plays, but merge song lyrics and visual effects with the beat of the song. Minter had an idea, though, as he provided Reznor with one of the few versions of the game on PC, customised code for which Minter said was "simple stuff, really."
"Of course I was a bit anxious, since when you're doing your own creative work and it needs to mesh with the work of an artist, it's not entirely a given that your work will agree with what he had in mind," Minter said about the collaboration. "I just did stuff that I felt went well with the energy of the music, and I was really pleased when Trent liked what we'd done."
Does Polybius make the video that bit better?