First Xbox One TV Spot Forgets About Games

[-Dragmire-]

Video Games: Football and Feminism.

If only I could go back in time and warn my 5 year old self what I was getting into when I picked up that WarCraft: Orcs and Humans disc.

HOW COULD I HAVE KNOWN!?

That was never, and will ever be, a mistake.

Ah my youthful days of Warcraft and Dune 2, those were the days.

I wonder if this commercial was made before the fiasco and they didn't want to spend money on a couple edits or a reshoot.

 

[Fox12]

My guess is that they consider that those who want it for a game console already knows enough to have made up their mind and now they're trying to focus on the audience who might be more interested in the TV, sport and communication features. I guess it kinda makes sense from some point of view. Still, I am not sure if there's really an audience who doesn't want games who would buy the thing though.

Keep in mind, their harping on this because of the potential add revenue. They can also market their other products on the Xbox, so they're desperate to make their console the "water cooler of the living room" or whatever nonsense their spouting. If they can gather important marketing data through the Xbox 1, that's worth quite a lot. More than that I'm convinced that they essentially want to make games as similar to television as possible, in that they would love to interrupt gaming sessions with the occasional advertisement, just like T.V. Even Microsoft hasn't gone that far just yet, but give it time, this is what they want in the long term. The more synonymous they can make T.V. and games, the close they are to that goal.

 

[Gearhead mk2]

I don't see the big fuss. It's not false advertising. They haven't cared about games since day one.

 

[EMWISE94]

Its an... odd direction to take for an ad. I mean the only solid reason you'd want an Xbox One is for the games, i mean thats the only justification for its price tag, anybody who pays $500 (and more considering that the features mentioned in the ad require a gold membership [I could be wrong, correct me if i am]) just so they can do things that can be done at a cheaper price, is either showing off to their slightly poorer peons or using their money in all the wrong ways.

At this point in time I'm not even sure how the Xbox One is gonna do in the next gen, is it gonna pull of the perfect 10 flop into a pool of rusty nails and discarded landmines or will it somehow gain enough of a user base than it stays in the console run. We'll see.

 

[Tumedus]

As it relates to the iphone commercial, it is worth noting that actual voice to voice phone calls have become an increasingly less essential part of a smartphone purchase. Things like the screen clarity, camera quality, video recording and transfer, etc. have all become highly desired features in the purchase. And, really, not much has changed in terms of the tech that goes into the call quality.

So alluding to the feature that make your "phone" stand out isn't nearly as problematic as showcasing a device and failing to show anything that actually makes it worth picking up. You don't showcase the capability of the improved power of the system on games and you don't showcase anything that actually improves the TV watching experience.

MS seems to be continually stepping on their dicks because they keep assuming that we will include their product in our entertainment system because they want us to, not because they have provided a reason for us to want it.

I know nothing about fantasy football.
Does the Xbone offer anything that you can't do on your computer or tv already?

That's just it, I don't know and the commercial did nothing to tell me. There is nothing I can't do with both a computer and a TV but the convenience of having them all in one could be appealing. There can also be costs associated with trying to watch more than a few games. If a subscription to Gold gave you access to those without an extra cable sub, that would be something worth pointing out.

As it stands, the commercial showed me nothing I can't do with my TV already other than some menu icons that might have some features I care about.

 

[Xeorm]

iPhone TV Spot Forgets About Phone Calls


Apple's new photo-centric iPhone ad focuses on the camera and video recording but excludes phone calls.

Back when the iPhone was originally announced there were some who took issue with the fact that Apple's presentation of its new phone was somewhat light on actual calling. In the years since, the company has made some arguable moves to rectify this. That said, if the device's recent North American TV spot is any indicator, it may still have some lessons to learn. While the ad does a fine job of highlighting features like photos, video recording and sharing, phone calls aren't mentioned once during the course of its sixty second run time.

Now granted, the point of this particular ad is to highlight the iPhone's photo related functionality to capitalize on the Instagram-fueled photo sharing craze. That's perfectly understandable, especially considering the fact that Apple has spent considerable oodles of money to beef up its camera functionality. That being the case, it takes an arguable PR risk in excluding phone calls completely from ads like this. This is potentially exacerbated when you consider that many of the features boasted by the ad are things that a lot of people already have access to. Personally, I'm not going to shell out $500 for photos and video recording. The promise of a new, more powerful phone, however? That's appealing. Then again, I live in a fairly phone-centric bubble. What do you think? Did Apple mess up with this ad or did it hit the money shot?

Yeah, the original article is just as stupid.

Except, there's some key differences between the two pieces of hardware. The new iphone won't advertise phone calling, because it doesn't enhance that functionality over the last iphone. The ability to make calls is largely dependent on the carrier anyway (Which is why you'll see the carriers show ads all the time showing just how much more amazing their networks, and thus call quality, are compared to their competitors). The iPhone thus needs to spend its time describing the new smartphone features it carries, including photography.

The XBone, on the other hand, will receive the majority of sales from being a games machine(unless we're all horribly mistaken and Microsoft turns out to be a huge genius) Now, we know that it plays games, every console has so far, but what we really want to know is what games will be playable, and how the new system allows for new and better games. Is it faster? Better video quality? Game exclusives? Those are what the target market will be interested in.

I can't see selling the auxiliaries before you've sold the main course to be a good idea in any fashion.

 

[Nurb]

By now anyone following gaming knows that sony and MS are going to rip you off any way they can; subs, DLC, fees, forced purchase of accessories, over-reliance on net connections, giving you less game for full price...

I think we should start saying now that anyone buying a next gen console can be blamed for making gaming worse because they know what they're getting into and they're giving the problem money

 

[idarkphoenixi]

Total amount of reasons Microsoft thinks you need to buy an Xbone as seen in the video:

- It has Skype
- It has football livestreaming

Yours now for the low, low price of only $499 (Only available with a purchase of Xbox Live Gold, NFL service not available outside of the U.S, subject to change at any time)

 

[DwRedux]

I think it's easy to forget that people who read the escapist and gaming sites in general, aren't a very big % of people who buys gaming consoles.
I am very much a gamer. but also a very big lover of NFL. I am very torn to be honest. And I think that most people looking for a new console will think as follows:
"All the big games will come for all consoles, but this one has NFL and Skype. Im getting the xbox"

 

[gamegod25]

Xbox One: Doing everything a Smart TV already does!

 

[Funyahns]

The funny thing about all this is. If you want to play fantasy, most people will do that on their smart phones. If someone watches football why turn on the xbox? Redzone channel is one of the best channels around for catching up on whats going on around the league. If you are wanting to check scores around the league it is hard to beat. Oh and if they are aiming for men who would not normally play video games but are sports fans then they have lost that market already.

 

[Meatspinner]

M$, just stick with following trends instead of establishing them.

You're terribad at it.

 

[Evonisia]

Maybe they saw the Diablo III for console advert and chose to try and not compete for "oddest video game advert".

 

[Mr. Q]

I'm surprised this hasn't been posted yet...


Sorry, Will. But the jackoffs at Microsoft needed to make room for useless tech that any other HD flat screen has to mouth-breathing dumbasses with too much money and not enough common sense.

 

[babinro]

I've got no problems with this whatsoever.
It's targeted marketing.

Not every McDonald's commercial showcases their entire lineup of burgers.
You have commercials that just promote $1.00 drinks all summer or fries, etc.

Microsoft would be foolish to make this their ONLY television spot prior to launch.

Note: I don't follow sports and so I can't speak on the effectiveness of this as a sports product commercial.
I couldn't even name one sports commercial that was memorable to stick with me.

 

[Fragglespank]

Did Sony just payed Microsofts PR team for this?

This is just hilarious bad. Really bad

Look I get it Sports is big in the USA yeah.. but really selling a gaming console without pointing out it actually does games. That sounds like Sony is paying Microsoft PR guys!

Who paid Sony's PR guys for these then?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tHCr3Np8F3c

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gqkNPcUMffU

For the record, I'm getting a PS4. I just don't know why people are making a fuss about an ad during an American football game being aimed at people who like that sort of thing. Gamers already know about both consoles because we waste our lives on the internet, arguing about them and calling each other fanboys/girls for liking the 'wrong' one.

 

[Atmos Duality]

It almost sounds like Microsoft wants it to be a glorified Netflix machine.

Bullseye.

A GROSSLY OVERPRICED Netflix machine.
Though, from the looks of things NFL superfans are used to paying through the nose for everything anyway.

That commercial suggests that Microsoft knows that gamers aren't the Prime Suckers for their machine now.

 

[BehattedWanderer]

Seriously, ffs, is anyone surprised by this? Apparently playing games is the least important part of the Xbone's identity, and we've known that since the unveil at E3.

Honestly, I'm going to laugh myself into an asphyxiation coma if this bites them in the ass the same way that it did for Nintendo when they branched out from their core demographic, to build a one time high user base. Because that would be absolutely hilarious.

 

[RJ 17]

Snip.

Well you're welcome to believe it's not a false equivalency if you want to, doesn't change the fact that it is one though. The commercials are different in both message and audience. I already explained this difference, so I really have no desire to repeat myself.