Xbox Kicks Off Series X|S Marketing Campaign With Spectacular Trailer

I do love Daniel Kaluuya. Great actor and he was in some great stuff over here way before he went stateside.

It's pretty good. It is a little too similar to PlayStation's obscure marketing, though.

Whatever works, right?!

Outside of master cheif I wouldn't have known it was a game console commerical until last second

@Terrin Yea, I feel the same way. And if they are marketing to non-gamers, it's just some armored guy. Plus, the console is sold out everywhere so unless they have a large amount of stock hitting stores at once, they are pushing a product that people aren't able to receive. Nintendo barely pushed the NES Classic and SNES Classic, and still people were frustrated that they couldn't get one. We could see something similar with the new X-Box Series line.

Xbox and Playstation: here's our trailers to convince you to buy our consoles.

Me: cool, I'm convinced!

Xbox and Playstation: yeah we're sold out.

😑

Looks like they are teasing both Halo Infinite and Starfield.

Still no next gen gameplay, I don't care for ads like this the same way I don't care about completely CG trailers for games.

I voted ‘it’s not great’ cause it’s not.

I was a little confused by it as it seemed a bit out there for a console ad and I was unsure what I was seeing until the very end. The actor is simply donning headphones and staring ahead when he gets sucked into this strange world. I said, It's OK.

I'm sorry to say that I don't like it and I'm sure that it was expensive. It's like Sony's cryptic trailers. Something like this fan-made trailer seems more appropriate for announcing the news, that Xbox has new consoles, new games, Game Pass...

https://youtu.be/wD4st6U10aw

The best trailers I see on TV at the minute are for the Switch games.
They mainly show people playing a game and a bit of gameplay. Simple and some game play.

Yeah, I'd call myself a gamer but other than Halo and potentially Assassins Creed for the Viking ships at the beginning I'm not sure what was being shown here. Still looked pretty impressive but not sure who the advert is aimed at? Probably people who already have pre-ordered and its to keep the conversation spotlight still on Xbox as I doubt it would convince non hardcore who'll probably don't know whats going on in the trailer either. Series S is still on sale but I don't think this is aimed at that market.

Sony and Microsoft think they have to show a tiny movie and the general public have to guess, what the F was that all about 🤣🤣🤣

If a current survey in the USA is to be believed Xbox has a massive up hill battle for console sales, especially being their best selling area. Never mind the current preorder sell out, that’s simple but slightly worrying that their series s still for sale. I just hope game pass brings some serious top quality AAA games and not held back by the service cost and need to get game on the service.
Not sure why all of a sudden Microsoft of are worrying me, must be pre wedding nerves for the 10th of November 🤣

It feels like they have the same PR firm as Sony. Seriously.

I feel like a bunch of former oil executives sat around a conference room for an hour trying to figure out what an ex box is, and why it's no longer a box, and contemplated "let's just do some spaceman stuff, kids think of spaceman stuff when they think about those video machine games, right?"

It feels like the kind of ad Sony's run since PS2 that I've always felt must make a lot more sense if you've been dripping acid, because they've never made sense to me or particularly made me want to go turn on my console even when I own the console....

@StonyKL They're airing it during the NFL game so it's definitely aimed at the Series S market....or something.....

IDK Nintendo's ad showing Karen ignoring her friends at a swanky, trendy Millennial rooftop party and demonstrating her severe video game dependency addition was a much more convincing ad for who the Switch is for. It resonated deeply with me.

@Dezzy70 You joked about marrying an XBox......now I have to avoid Deviantart for months....

I think that survey is interesting, but also irrelevant. It's too early. Playstation is a household name, and XBox isn't, and most people this gen own a Playstation. The idea of "upgrading" is a default answer. Every Joe and Jane has owned a Playstation at some point in time and is familiar with it. XBox has largely been very "core gamer" focused except the 360 era. Kids, a target demographic have now grown up in 7 years where XBox more or less didn't exist and everybody owned a Playstation. I think in a pre-launch impulse survey we could have predicted a much higher representation for PS even without the survey.

MS has the right idea with messaging. It's not about selling more units this holiday. They're already guaranteed to sell out. Pumping the messaging now is about 2021-2023. If you build it up now as the big new thing you're missing out on, people will remember in 2022 it was "the big thing" they kept seeing in 2020 and are missing out on. Same for Sony. They always have these commercials the year the console comes out, maybe the year after, then you basically never see another one again. Same for their big bombastic trade shows. The pump the messaging in the beginning so the sense you're missing out on the big things "everybody else" already has been in lingers over the years when you see that black friday bundle.

I do prefer the “my way” ads for Nintendo, but hasn’t Nintendo really focused on that? How their devices make sense in your lifestyle? Even the “Wii would like to play” Showcased people “playing games”.

@mousieone "Wii would like to play" was kinda creepy though. A bunch of Yakuza-looking guys showing up at your door in an American suburb and inviting themselves inside, doesn't end well in my headcanon.

I didn't really like it and voted ok, special effects and acting was good, but feel the transformation between 'scenes' too jarring for me. Like wtf just happened?
hope it works better for the general public who it's for, maybe not for the gamers who come to these sites...

It's very similar to Playstation's ad of a guy passing through a wall of water to end up in outer space with various ships and creatures. Is it a coincidence? I don't see the logic of competing with Sony's ad.

It's an okay trailer. Cool on its own, but doesn't offer a reason to buy a console. I'm looking forward to more Series X gameplay footage later this month.

What was all that about?
Both Sony and Microsoft go cryptic with their marketing campaigns, like others have said you wouldn't have a clue what it was for until the very end.
They need some gameplay and less CGI of "Alternative Worlds", it's another advert that'll just play in the background while you're waiting for your programme.

Xbox’s #1 job right now should probably be making sure everyone knows exactly what game pass is and the value it provides. It’s a pretty new idea and the general public needs educated on it. Spending this much money on an advertisement that doesn’t include any reference to GP seems daft to me.

Pretty good, I like it alot..

@NEStalgia
Here comes the bride 👰🤣🤣

I mean it was pretty. But until you showed Chief you have no idea what it is about. Defeats the purpose of a commercial no?

On top of that it pretty much the same kind of pretentiousness Sony does with theirs which isn't a good thing.

I think there's got to be a "focus group" program that determines this is the way to go for the target consumer.

The target consumer here is the kind of person that isn't already invested in gaming devices, I suppose, and needs to be swayed to buy one. In reality that's probably a focused group that the marketeers know better than we do, because that group definitely isn't us. So how do you get someone watching football (American football for the lot of you) to take interest in your gaming console? I guess show it as this weird imagination station that can be anything and transform your mundane reality, which, considering at the time of watching consists of watching American football, is saying something) into something exotic. In that sense it makes sense. The target customer for the ad is someone that, presumably doesn't play games. Selling them on specs won't motivate them to buy. Selling them on all the games they can buy for JUST ONE DOLLAR (You read that in Larry Hryb's voice, didn't you?) isn't going to motivate them since they don't already care about the games. Selling them on individual games won't work so well because you're trying to sell the concept of playing games to people who don't. So I guess selling them the concept of exotic unimaginable surreal worlds is supposed to put the idea in their minds of what they're missing out on by not having one of these consoles.

That's my interperetation anyway. Sony has always used that type of campaign so there must be something to it reaching the target customer. Not sure this ad reaches the target any better than Sony's but I can't say it reaches them worse.

How DO you convince someone watching American football to do something interesting?

@NEStalgia umm no offense I can barely deal with my own head space much less someone else’’s.

And also yours seems violent... I’ll keep with unicorns and rainbow side of things...

@mousieone Unicorns have very pointy horns.... Just saying....

@NEStalgia well historically that was a way to prove ones purity.

Meh, the guy being transported into a virtual world, has been done to death, TBH show th games or do some crazy ***** like PS1 ads.

Stumbled across this fan made trailer that, despite only being made with video we have already(versus a marketing team with millions of dollars and can have a new clip recorded or rendered on a whim) manages to be better than the official trailer.

https://youtu.be/aWaDOQbZ490

@InterceptorAlpha Perhaps the most effective advert would just be 26 seconds of someone feeding their physical PS1, 2, and PS3 games into a paper shredder followed by their entire Vita and all the memory cards since that's now the only use for them?

@NEStalgia You must have replied to the wrong person since what you said has literally nothing to do with what I've said.

@InterceptorAlpha Oops, yeah, I was tagging @Jakovasaur . Your post must have slid under the cursor as I was hitting reply.

I have no idea what's going on. In this commercial or the ps5's. Think I'll wait til the halo bundle and the GoWII bundle.

Here is what I see happening all the time.

Xbox console is released

1) product on shelf?

Omg Xbox is sitting on shelves and it ain't moving like PS! PS is sold out every where! We knew it! MS has an uphill battle. Ps has higher demand! Oh Microsoft will fail again this Gen?

2) product sold out?

What will we do? We are sitting here with our money and we can't buy *****! Microsoft needs to ensure that the product stays on shelf or how am I suppose to buy their *****? Microsoft is failing again. Oh wait! Maybe they only made 5 products per store to generate hype and news headliners. Eh, no one wants Xbox any way.

When PS is released?

1) product on shelf?

Sony is so thoughtful. They made so many products for every one. We are so happy that they produced enough to satisfy the market. What an amazing company.

2) product sold out?

***** yeh! Sony rocks! Selling 9:1 Xbox as usual.
We knew it. Such a wonderful product. Such awesome light on controllers.

Then this other issue associated with preordering experiences.

Xbox pre order time is listed. Microsoft pre ordering exactly at the time that is listed.

"Websites crashes because of load. Every one is crying because "M$" sucks peepee and they don't know how to handle the load on their websites.

How dare they tell us the exact time the release was suppose to happen? Wtf is wrong with them. "

Ps tells time. Product is available for pre order at random time 12 hrs before the marker.

"No worries. I got my Ps reserved because itthey sent me this random email because I was so special. Or in the middle of night and when no one had a clue that product was going to be made available to pre order? No ***** worries. Their is amazing because the pre ordering was so bloody easy! I got 3 play stations because of this! Had no trouble like the kind I had when trying to get on ms website to buy an Xbox. Sony has their game right. "

I'm going to be honest. I've not watched it. I'm not going to watch it. I never watch stuff like this.

I get my hype and info from gameplay and tech focused videos.

I'm one for substance over flash.

No gameplay. You see a guy flying around in some pretty visuals. I don’t think it could have been much worse.
Show the games. Show the system. Emphasize the things that make Xbox the best choice.
Marketers are incredibly out of the loop when it comes to what people want.