YouTuber Breaks Down Xbox's 'Almost Perfect' New Ad Campaign

New marketing campaign convincing people to not actually buy Xboxes is "genius".

Okay, buddy.

Good for casuals i guess but not so good for the actual Xbox. To quote one of my favourite films "if everything is an Xbox then nothing is".

I think what Microsoft is doing is great for Xbox and potentially the future of gaming. Xbox is now an ecosystem that just so happens to have a console.

I always find it funny when I’m on my Xbox One watching YouTube and the ad pops up to tell me that I’m watching this video on an Xbox.

Sony will follow like they did with the ports. There will be Xbox and PS consoles as long as there is a console market, but Microsoft and Sony's games are available elsewhere already. Microsoft is just ahead of the competition in that sense and because of that raises eyebrows, especially here on dedicated gaming sites popular with traditional gamers, that are less than 1% of the console gamers.

There's nothing that Steam Deck does that other devices can't do, but still 10% of the massive Steam user base play on Steam Deck. The future is not for restrictive consoles, except for Nintendo if they're always as lucky as with Switch, that I doubt.

I stated when this ad first came out that I thought it was strengthening the 'Xbox' brand - which is Microsoft's 'Brand' for the whole of their Gaming side - not 'just' the Console. It's reiterating that Xbox is everywhere, everything is (or has the potential) to be 'Xbox'.

The fact that 'everything' is XBOX is reinforcing that Brand. If you 'want' to game on Console, then yes Microsoft has an 'Xbox' Hardware and is still releasing games 'exclusively' on their own Console - even if they 'choose' to release some games later on PS. Some may also release Day 1 on PS too, but you can't play them 'free' on Game Pass, can't Stream them to ANY device etc. Also won't be sold as 'Play Anywhere' so you get the PC version as well.

Xbox is not just the Console - it maybe your primary hardware choice for gaming, but if you also game on PC (inc Handhelds like the RoG Ally), Mobiles, tablets etc, then your options to play your Xbox games is expanded. If you Prefer to game on PC, you don't need an Xbox console - why spend money on hardware to play Xbox games when they already have Hardware to play those games.

Xbox Hardware has been more of a Consumer choice - its not 'necessary' - but it is still the only Console Hardware to offer Certain games and Game Pass. Indy may release on PS, but Xbox is the ONLY console this Christmas you can play it on - and its a lot cheaper to buy a Console than an equivalent spec PC.

Streaming isn't 'great', but it maybe good enough for the mobile/tablet gamers that maybe wouldn't or can't justify buying Consoles. Just because they didn't buy/upgrade to a Series S/X doesn't mean they aren't playing on 'virtual' Xbox hardware in the Cloud and therefore are part of the Xbox ecosystem...

If it’s ALMOST perfect there will be numbers to back it up. How many people are jumping on board? Are Gamepass subs rising? Are people being fooled into thinking an iPhone is an Xbox?

I have no doubts it’s good for business, that doesn’t necessarily mean it’s good for the Xbox brand, a smart tv or a phone definitely are not Xbox’s.

Microsoft has made it clear that Playstation is also an Xbox now and with that in mind when it comes time to decide which console to get when the next generation starts, the Playstation 6 is the obvious choice to me. Playstation & Xbox games all on one console.

I’ve seen like 10 videos tearing the campaign to shreds but glad you found a positive one I guess.

Web browser - check
TV apps: iPlayer, ITVX ALL4 etc - check
YouTube - check
Games Console - double check...Yep no worries from me 🙂

Meanwhile this video makes it perfectly clear why it’s such a dumb marketing move, at least for now where none of those devices can actually play 90% of Xbox games:

https://youtu.be/BmVoVgN1Oes?si=gzViD0JpyTsgIvut

Well Microsoft aren't a charity if the next Xbox sells horribly but streaming games becomes more popular and earns them more money then why would they bother with a console? They would drop it like a sack of spuds if it's not profitable.

The adverts are clever. It’s the product that is the problem. In theory, it’s great being able to access gamepass via the cloud on all my devices….in practice it is a laggy unplayable mess for every game I have tried. Yes this is not going to be the case for everyone but I have seen enough comments from people who have a similar experience to me to know that it is still a widespread issue.

If casuals sign up for a month of gamepass, try to stream COD through their phone and find it a blurry lag fest then they are going to lose confidence, unsubscribe and go back to their native mobile games whilst associating Xbox with a poor user experience. Cloud gaming just isn’t at the quality where it is ready to be pushed out to the masses in my opinion.

For me the advert is dumb because cloud streaming is tied to Gamepass Ultimate.

You convince someone with the campaign and they discover they need the most expensive package to play

@themightyant
Right behind you, give me a next generation Xbox home console any day.

Saying a phone is an xbox is like saying your phone is a cinema, a word processor, a PC etc. Technically it is but who uses a phone for those things? Probably a select audience. Because its an awful option versus the real thing. Same with Xbox streaming games to these sort of devices. Its just not the proper intended experience.

@themightyant
The only thing I will say and it might be just my UK location I tried streaming on my series x just for fun, 400mb/sec internet. So fast.
And I must be honest what a horrible picture and mess it was. Now for me that will put a lot off to drop that streaming technology straight away and put them off for a very long time.
So if this is the current very poor quality, why not wait until it is better then promote and release cloud streaming.

How many series x/s units have sold to date? Over 28 million? Out of that number how many right now could switch to cloud gaming and get the exact same experience considering the top played games are all FPS so need a decent connection.
Personally for me XBOX is decent because of gamepass and reward points. My last 3 years of ultimate cost about £95 and I have done a few hundred quid via rewards. Thats the only reason I chose XBOX and I would never pay full price for gamepass. Once they squeeze those dry then am gone.
The way its going absolutely no one will buy the next XBOX console why bother as a consumer if the company treats you like your irrelevant then go elsewhere.

@BAMozzy you're 100% correct with this analysis. I think it's a difficult swallow because the name "Xbox" as the brand contains the word "box" which is immediately correlated with the console itself. If they'd rebranded the service to "Microsoft Gaming" along with the company and advertised with "We are Gamers" then it'd be less genius but more accepted within the hardcore to play "Microsoft Game Pass" on other devices

The chase for the casual gamer has been a thing forever. I have seen every company try and be cool, accessible, edgy and now be 'on everything'

Unfortunately it is only ever short lived and they always return to their core base.

The only thing I can think is that when the next generation of gamers come through they will be more used to the whole streaming of games and the tech will be better by then too.

Anyone thinking sony won't follow Xbox steps will be surprised in the future.

Sony is mimicking every single Xbox step towards multiplatforms. It all started with Play Anywhere in 2016, bringing games to PC, then with cloud gaming (who sony already have too), until it finally come to games on rival consoles (MLB on Xbox, Horizon Lego on Switch).

Sony is going much slower than Xbox in that direction but they will reach there eventually, it is pretty clear.

Also, no problem for me with using 'Xbox' name in this strategy. Xbox is Microsoft brand for Games. So Microsoft Gaming = Xbox.

Xbox got bigger and is now everywhere, which gives them the highest user base among the big 3.

Think that way: To play sea of thieves on PS5 you need Xbox Live account. Minecraft on Switch? Xbox Live account. PC? Xbox Live account. Sum that to Xbox Cloud Gaming and you have xbox live everywhere.

So now Xbox has users on their own consoles, on PC, on their rival consoles. So even PS5 sales can mean Xbox customers.

They're everywhere now.

@abe_hikura For me its also the fact that the video is saying how it builds on the XBOX brand, but then he talks about Gamepass, xcloud etc. Not XBOX Gamepasss, just gamepass. In the same way we have people always hyping up micrsoft gaming, not XBOX gaming.

everyone talks about boosting the brand but everything is tied to not actually using the brand name they are wanting to boost. The biggest issue with Xbox as I said in another thread is the core brand of Xbox which is just not as well known as playstation.

@Banjo- I see this 10% comment for steam deck thrown out now and again, but as far as I knew sales were close to 5m and there are 130m active steam users. Is the figure based on like daily play or something? Not being argumentative just genuinely curious as very hard to find steam sales data haha!

Brand needs to be as simple as possible. On a computer, browsing PC and Xbox games used to be a mess and the websites used to redirect to the wrong versions. I complained about this.

They should stick to a brand and Xbox is fully associated with gaming unlike Microsoft that is probably associated with Office. Xbox is the right choice for their whole gaming business.

That said, it's sad that Microsoft names its Surface devices better than its consoles. Xbox 6 would be a better name for the next-gen console. They skipped numbers with Windows, so they can do it again. Windows and Surface use logical numeration, Xbox doesn't: Xbox One S, Xbox One X, Series S, Series X...

@Coletrain There is no official data for Steam Deck sales, but the 10% comes from real statistics.

I think the online console gaming community forgets how much of a bubble we actually are, but when Sony themselves have gone from 100 million sales with the original Playstation to 120 million sales with the PS4, with a peak of 150 to 160 million with the PS2... well there's a problem. As a reminder Playstation just celebrated it's 30th anniversary.

Consoles have GREATLY struggled to expand to new gamers. Nowadays brand new gamers enter gaming through mobile or PC if they want high end games. Consoles were meant to be the accessible gateway into gaming, and they've largely failed. Rather, as a market they're the smallest out of the bunch (not counting cloud), especially if you consider each platform individual.

With this understanding, Xbox expanding their gaming ecosystem to more platforms and trying to reach new gamers certainly makes sense. I've never seen this as a campaign trying to give up on consoles. I saw this as a basic realization that the best selling console to date is hitting sub 160 million gamers (and that's assuming every individual hardware sale is a new person). Meanwhile there's over a billion gamers on PC and far more users on PC with access to the internet, and on mobile there's over 3 billion gamers. The vast, VAST majority of existing gamers are never going to buy a console, and there aren't really that many people who are looking to get into gsming for the first time that want to do so through consoles.

Making a campaign toward these people who were never going to pick up any console, and explaining that Xbox is more than just a box, isn't a bad idea. In fact it's a very good one for Xbox which presents this idea of expanding its gaming ecosystem to gaming markets they weren't in before. It seems silly to me how much people who clearly already own an Xbox are complaining... like did they really want Xbox to do an ad aimed at them buying another current gen Xbox? I think perspective is a good word, because I don't think many people are thinking outside their own.

Now all of that said: if I'm being honest, this marketing campaign is ridiculously premature. As a marketing campaign, I appreciate it. After years of promising their new strategy of "playing your games everywhere", this is the first time they are actually flaunting it. There's literally nothing new in this campaign. They've made their strategy clear for a long time. But this is the first big splash of it we see... but then the question is, what do we splash onto? The Xbox Mobile store is delayed indefinitely (as is native cloud gaming in app and purchasing games at all in app) with Xbox at the mercy of the court's response to Google and Google and Apple themselves. The Xbox PC app has certainly improved but still far behind, and battle net hasn't been integrated much at all. No cloud saves or play anywhere cross buy. The cloud experience is pretty good if you have nice internet, but still sub par even then. It's still officially in beta so to even use it you'd need to pay for Ultimate which comes with literally everything else and treats cloud as a bonus perk. No enhanced bit rate and still waiting on Orion tech (if it exists) to be implemented from Bethesda. Owned games on cloud also just became a thing and it's not very many. I feel like they really, really, really wanted to have this out for the holidays, but the question is what are they even selling people? A subpar gaming launcher that comes predownloaded on Windows 11? A cloud experience that needs a lot of work and costs $20 a month to officially "try"? This really seems like something that should've been pushed back a year. Again as a marketing strategy, I applaud it. They keep saying they want to reach the 3 billion+ gamers out there (most of whom will never touch a console), and this is their first real attempt at that. Execution and timing is horrendous. None of what they're really promising exists yet.

@Banjo- so like, % of daily players as opposed to overall steam users? Coz you won't have all 130m playing daily, so maybe like 4-5m is a more likely figure.

Either way, the market for Xbox anywhere is certainly there, be good to see MS publish steam style user figures, they're a really good metric for engagement

@WildConcept6 I agree with you, just a couple of things to say about the mobile stores, the price for playing Xbox Cloud and the campaign.

The mobile stores aren't ready, but Google and Apple are being legally regulated regarding user's choices like PCs in the past. That's a bigger W for Microsoft than the ABK trial. They're waiting for that.

Microsoft is not afraid of being first regarding multiplatform plans since Xbox One, but that also means they anticipate the evolution of the market, which is good if your plans are long term like theirs. Sony is reluctantly doing the same as them, but slowly and with many more limitations like no cross-save nor cross-buy. Microsoft is ahead and completely on board.

Paying for Game Pass Ultimate just for Cloud doesn't make sense, but they're planning new tiers. That makes the campaign premature, but starts selling the brand to everyone that doesn't have an Xbox, like you said.