First Xbox One TV Spot Forgets About Games

[ThunderCavalier]

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.

Dude, there are, like, 30 different kinds of phones out.

There are a total of three major gaming consoles coming out for this generation, six if you count the last gen stuff, seven if you count PCs, and nine if you count the 3DS and Vita. All of them tend to have very different gaming experiences. You can't exactly "enhance" a phone call beyond "it's a phone."

This, however, doesn't focus on gaming, which by and large is why most people even know the Xbox One exists. Not to mention what it's advertising is essentially a toned down Smart TV/PC hybrid where half its features don't even work outside of the states.

 

[Olas]

Can't we already watch football on our TVs now? What is the Xbox one for?

 

[gyroscopeboy]

It certainly caters to their target market: Rich 20-30 year olds with HUGE living rooms and blazing fast internet.

 

[emeraldrafael]

I feel like you could have still maybe done something with the madden series at least. Like say after watching the game how about playing it withy our friends and paired it all together. I can understand the reason this commercial was made this way for those alrady stated in the OP, but it does seem weird that you're trying to convince your key demographic (gamers) after how poorly your initial reception was and not mention games at all.

 

[Asuka Soryu]

Microsoft's trying to cling onto the TV crowd, the ones who'll spend money to have this crap glued together so they can watch TV like a religion, maybe it's because they're having trouble with the gaming crowd as of late, but the casual crowd won't see any problem with XBox One as long as it has the fewtballz.

 

[misg]

I got to say this focus on sports is concerning, it reminds me of an old saying. It's all fun and games til someone loses an eye... then it's a sport! I fear for the sight of xbox1 future owners...

 

[Strazdas]

The ad is confusing. it feels like it was made for ADHD victims. the person turns on his tv and his room transforms then he calls on skype to somoen who is outside on a bench watching a huge TV (still outside) and when he answers it suddenly becomes inside spaciuos villa home, which then trasnforms into yet another room. ALL THAT in a matter of 30 seconds with a bunch of other people walking around making noise.

Now what we actually saw: Kinect turnining on TV and Kinect making skype phone call. That is all. This is not an Xbox commercial, this is a "TV with micrphone". epescially sicne it didnt even have the Xbox in it to begin with.

Its a non issue, we know it has games for it. Duh.

Do you decide to buy gaming machines based on the advertisement on TV? No? Then maybe this ad wasnt meant for you, or people like you. So yes, this is an issue.

The Xbox brand is recognizable enough that people know it's going to have games.

Therefore they decide to start off by showing off it's other features.

SUrely you meant shortcommings. like - utter confusion, NHL support....

They would probably be interested in some sports-games as well, even if they're just an afterthought in the ad.
I mean, looking at that I'd think they're selling the tv. Do they even show the box?

Yes, if i didnt knew this was Xbox advertisement i would have though this is a (poor) TV ad.

To me this ad represents one of the main problems that gamers had with the console when it was first announced: no one was really interested in all the bells and whistles tacked onto the console. One of the marketing points for the XBone is that it isn't just for gamers, but rather it has so many uses that people completely uninterested in gaming could be interested in with this all-in-one device. The problem is that $500 is one hell of a steep "convenience charge" just to have all these things rolled into one device considering the fact that most non-gamers already have completely free access to all the extra features of the XBone, as such they're likely not going to be wanting to drop that kind of cash just to get something that does all of those things. All someone needs is a laptop and a TV (things that are quite common these days) and they've essentially already essentially got an XBone.

ITs worse than that. A non-gamer has two choices: he can buy a new smart TV for 500 dollars that does everything shown here, for free.
OR
A non-gamer can buy Xbone for 500 dollars, buy a cheaper non-smart TV (lets say 300 dollars) and pay xbox live gold subscription charges.

WHich one do you think is a better deal?

The only people profiting this are those who already have a non-smart HUGE TV that is so expensive Xbox and subscription is cheaper than getting new similar sized smart tv. however, if we count in the "Sell current one to cover half the cost" one needs to have 3 meters TV or something for this to be economically feasible.

 

[Lil devils x_v1legacy]

The ad is confusing. snip

The people who buy consoles at launch ALREADY have at least one smart TV. LOL
everyone else is going to either:
1) hook up a computer to the TV and have a smart TV
2) buy a smart TV while they are waiting for prices to drop on the newer consoles.
3) already bought an adapter/ box to turn their TV into a smart TV, or will be buying one because that is much less expensive to do.

The big sellers for consoles are kids putting them on their Christmas lists, and kids don't put consoles on their Christmas lists for fantasy football, Skype or TV features, they put them on their Christmas lists for games. You would have thought Microsoft realized that by now. You start putting out commercials of Mom and Dad playing consoles, and kids are suddenly not going to want it anymore because you killed the " cool" factor. LMAO!
Kids will want the console all their friends want and the one that is really "cool" for games. Nothing else matters in the console wars as much as kids asking for them for Christmas. I think Microsoft is trying really hard to kill their "cool" factor atm.

 

[Strazdas]

The ad is confusing. snip

The people who buy consoles at launch ALREADY have at least one smart TV. LOL
everyone else is going to either:
1) hook up a computer to the TV and have a smart TV
2) buy a smart TV while they are waiting for prices to drop on the newer consoles.
3) already bought an adapter/ box to turn their TV into a smart TV, or will be buying one because that is much less expensive to do.

The big sellers for consoles are kids putting them on their Christmas lists, and kids don't put consoles on their Christmas lists for fantasy football, Skype or TV features, they put them on their Christmas lists for games. You would have thought Microsoft realized that by now. You start putting out commercials of Mom and Dad playing consoles, and kids are suddenly not going to want it anymore because you killed the " cool" factor. LMAO!
Kids will want the console all their friends want and the one that is really "cool" for games. Nothing else matters in the console wars as much as kids asking for them for Christmas. I think Microsoft is trying really hard to kill their "cool" factor atm.

If they already have smart TV then Xbox will add nothing for them (assuming they are non-gamers).
Now hooking computer to TV i intentionally left out for two reasons: 1. sadly not everyone has a PC. 2. some people have PC and TV in different rooms ( for example me! ) and dont want to deal with pain of wiring the thing jsut to bring it back after couple hours of TV watching.
Like i said, Buying a smart TV is the more economical option to begin with, so i dont see mcuh reason to go there.

And yes kids are big audience but not as big anymore. More and more people who grew up with consoles are now adults that are going to buy them (for example majority of people on this forum), and the "cool" factor wont work. these peopel either grew up to be human adults or frat boys (depicted in commercial).

Also i like your new avatar, much better.

 

[satsugaikaze]

Oh no, a company is attempting to expand its demographic by creating advertising specifically tailored to its new targeted audiences!

It's not relevant to my interests! Yet another reason why this product objectively sucks!

 

[Dragonbums]

-snip-

I've seen enough of these commercials for general living room television products to know that it's emphasizing the any family, and lifestyle kind of deal.
DirectTV does this all the time.

On that note, it didn't confuse me.
I was more concerned with the fact that people actually put their flat screen televisions outside of their houses in the open air exposed to the elements.

On that note, was there ever really a point on focusing on games?
Microsoft can give out 10 free games for early adopters and people will still hate their guts for the E3 conference. At this point, the gamers who will buy the Xbox One have already made up their minds. Might as well make a commercial to appeal to the broader audience.

 

[Lil devils x_v1legacy]

The ad is confusing. snip

The people who buy consoles at launch ALREADY have at least one smart TV. LOL
everyone else is going to either:
1) hook up a computer to the TV and have a smart TV
2) buy a smart TV while they are waiting for prices to drop on the newer consoles.
3) already bought an adapter/ box to turn their TV into a smart TV, or will be buying one because that is much less expensive to do.

The big sellers for consoles are kids putting them on their Christmas lists, and kids don't put consoles on their Christmas lists for fantasy football, Skype or TV features, they put them on their Christmas lists for games. You would have thought Microsoft realized that by now. You start putting out commercials of Mom and Dad playing consoles, and kids are suddenly not going to want it anymore because you killed the " cool" factor. LMAO!
Kids will want the console all their friends want and the one that is really "cool" for games. Nothing else matters in the console wars as much as kids asking for them for Christmas. I think Microsoft is trying really hard to kill their "cool" factor atm.

If they already have smart TV then Xbox will add nothing for them (assuming they are non-gamers).
Now hooking computer to TV i intentionally left out for two reasons: 1. sadly not everyone has a PC. 2. some people have PC and TV in different rooms ( for example me! ) and dont want to deal with pain of wiring the thing jsut to bring it back after couple hours of TV watching.
Like i said, Buying a smart TV is the more economical option to begin with, so i dont see mcuh reason to go there.

And yes kids are big audience but not as big anymore. More and more people who grew up with consoles are now adults that are going to buy them (for example majority of people on this forum), and the "cool" factor wont work. these peopel either grew up to be human adults or frat boys (depicted in commercial).

Also i like your new avatar, much better.

My friend sent me that pic, and the last one but I like this one better too.

Many people I know already bought the Google TV adapters or Roku boxes, and have no need to buy either a console or a smart TV, Everyone else already bought a smart TV, so I think Microsoft is a bit late to the show on that one.

Kids ARE the big audience for Christmas, as well as teens and college students. Adults are usually fine waiting to see how something is before they buy it, for parents it is more important to have what the kid wants under the tree in time instead of worrying about their own gifts as much.

For Teens and college students, Microsoft pretty much alienated many of them as well with their decisions this round, and they are well aware of the problems because they are more likely to read up on gaming news. Adults that aren't really all that keen on gaming news buying consoles for themselves I think would be the smallest portion of their market, and the least likely to want one for Christmas, yet they are who they appear to be targeting. Even then though, some have already caught wind of the Kinect issues due to people complaining they can't have them in break rooms at work already due to no camera policies at many companies.

I even had this discussion with one of my Dad's former coworkers who was visiting him at his house, he was telling me they will be replacing the 360's in the break rooms with PlayStations because they can't have cameras there either, and it isn't like people are going to buy an xbox to play fantasy football, when they already do that on their phone. I am not exactly sure who they are hoping this will appeal to, it doesn't seem very well thought out.

 

[Lil devils x_v1legacy]

-snip-

I've seen enough of these commercials for general living room television products to know that it's emphasizing the any family, and lifestyle kind of deal.
DirectTV does this all the time.

On that note, it didn't confuse me.
I was more concerned with the fact that people actually put their flat screen televisions outside of their houses in the open air exposed to the elements.

On that note, was there ever really a point on focusing on games?
Microsoft can give out 10 free games for early adopters and people will still hate their guts for the E3 conference. At this point, the gamers who will buy the Xbox One have already made up their minds. Might as well make a commercial to appeal to the broader audience.

Considering their timing for release, giving out free games would appeal more to parents of kids who will be putting them on their Christmas lists, and kids to want to put them on their Christmas lists. I would think that would be their primary target for the holiday season release, since parents are more concerned about making sure their kids have presents under the tree than buying another device to play fantasy football on when they already own phones, tablets and laptops for that.

In order to get on Kids Christmas lists you need to be the " really cool new toy" they just have to have for Christmas... This commercial didn't do that at all. In fact having adults playing it instead of teens, kills the " coolness" factor for kids.

 

[deadish]

The Xbox brand is recognizable enough that people know it's going to have games.

Therefore they decide to start off by showing off it's other features.

But when Sony did that with the PS3 ... WHERE ARE THE GAMES!!!!!!!!?!!!

 

[Dragonbums]

The Xbox brand is recognizable enough that people know it's going to have games.

Therefore they decide to start off by showing off it's other features.

But when Sony did that with the PS3 ... WHERE ARE THE GAMES!!!!!!!!?!!!

I wasn't into gaming yet when the PS3 was announced. I was simply a middlechooler so I had no idea that the PS3 had no games outside of the fact that the PS2 was outselling the thing in it's early years.

 

[Strazdas]

-snip-

Last I checked, less than a quarter of TV owners (I think it's closer to 15%) had smart TVs, and those were mostly in high-income or single-person households. Most folks prefer to just hook their computer or laptop up to their televisions instead.

Ergo, this is a perfectly feasible alternative for that crowd.

-snip-

I buy consoles all the time and I still use a relatively small "dumb" TV for my daily viewings. I see no reason to invest in a smart TV whatsoever, as I can replicate its features with my computer.

The Xbone is trying to appeal to that same crowd by essentially saying "here's a device that's basically a computer, but it's not one, and it does all those computer things you love". It'll get purchases for that alone.

Again, though, I rather doubt it will be a very successful venture long-term, as there's really no reason to bother getting this new device to handle what existing devices can already do. Not to mention most of its feature require subscriptions and that the owner live in the United States, which will hamper international sales.

And even less people have consoles, and those are mostly high income single person households or single children families. most folk are not gamers.
Also i dont see a point in buying a TV now to begin with. you can for pretty much same price get same size Monitor, with higher resolution and all same support TV has (as in plug cable and watch). Though this has lead to a lot of monitors going low resolution it seems.
In a discussion a month ago about xbox needing itnernet i looked up statistics, and even if we imagine that every console this generation sold is still alive and being used by unique people (noone bought more than one or none went broke, which is giving it way too much leeway) we still ahve 200 times more internet users than console users, and most of these people overlap. We got even more TV users than internet users.
People who do not have smart TVs are mostly people who still use their SD TVs, as pretty much all HD tvs sold now have smart TV. These people wont be able to use the new consoles anyway, remmeber the outrage of no SD support right? so their not going to buy it. or they are going to buy new TV, but that was adressed earlier.
Since this will only is a feasable alternative to non-smart HD tv, which is very small group to begin with, and can buy a 50 dollar addon that tursn your stupid TV into smart TV isntead of 500 dolalr xbox.
now if your buying it for gaming, then your buying it as a gaming console. of course it may help your stupid HD tv if you had that, but if your spending 500 on a gaming console your likely rich enough to buy smart TV to begin with.
Yes there are some small group of gamers for who this may be beneficial, but to base the advertisement on that is like advertising a washing machine and all advertisement shows is that it has less screws so mechanic can fix it easlier. sure its good news for mechanics, but thats about all its good news for.

See, you already got all those functions on PC, so why do you need smart TV? you dont, as you said yourself, so Xbox got nothing on you there.

I agree there is a lot of people with computer phobia that will buy comptuer functionality that is wrapped in another box (lets face it xbone is a computer)