First Xbox One TV Spot Forgets About Games

[UnnDunn]

-snip-

I'm pretty sure his point was that the XBox name is pretty well known in the US for its ability to play games, thus needing to say "this game console plays games" is somewhat redundant.

But then, we live in a world where people honestly got confused as to whether or not the Wii U was a new console or just a tablet that works with the old one, even though it was clearly stated that the Wii U had hardware capabilities that surpassed the original Wii. So that may be too generous of a presumption of intelligence from the average consumer in modern times. >_>

Thank you. That is exactly the point I was trying to make. Judging by this and other threads around the interwebs however, I fear your latter point may be sadly correct.

 

[Verrik]

You know, I bet that if Microsoft keeps airing ads like this, one day someone somewhere is gonna go out to buy an Xbox One.

Then weeks later, after fiddling through the console's options and settings, they're gonna be shocked to find that this awesome "water-cooler" of a device can also... PLAY VIDEO GAMES!

"*GASP*, you mean that my awesome voice activated, NFL sports broadcasting, DVD playing, Skyping Xbox One machine can play video games too!? BONUS!!"

 

[Scorpid]

I've stopped caring about the Xbox brand in general. If they want to hedge their bets on men and their football have at it just don't bother me in my gaming verse. Don't have exclusive Xbox one games that I will want to play but can't because you will bring nothing to the table other then exclusivity which has more to do with your handshaking and fist bumping in the corporate sphere then with the capabilities of your machine.

 

[theaudioprophet]

Well y'know, nowadays everybody wanna talk like they got something to say but nothing comes out when they move their lips, just a buncha' gibberish. Motherfuckers act like they forgot about games.

So what do you say to somebody you hate? Or anyone tryina' bring trouble your way? Wanna resolve things in a bloodier way, just get that DVD of GTA!

etc etc

ah this made me laugh

kudos to you

 

[ninjaRiv]

Didn't they make this mistake already? Are they just repeating the same thing? Kind of a bad move.

 

[Ace Morologist]

Couldn't I just as easily look at my Windows tablet or Windows smartphone and keep up with this fantasy football stuff? Or my Windows laptop? I can do that to look at the Internet too. Or Netflix (I think). With the right apps, I can already do all that stuff that the Xbox One is offering, and none of those devices is going to go away if I were to get an Xbox One. So why should I bother?

That's what I'm not hearing from Microsoft in any PR event or TV ad or Internet article. That's what Microsoft should be doing its damnedest to tell people.

--Morology!

 

[masticina]

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!

 

[mysecondlife]

As much as I like to bash on Xbox as the next guy, its a football-centric commercial catered to football fans on Thursday Night Football.

That being said, $500 just to watch football and skype? I hope nobody made decision buying Xbox solely based on this commercial.

 

[Callate]

"XBox! Get rid of all that crap and let me watch the game!"

"XBox! Why am I giving you access to my cable box?!"

"XBox, did you just Skype my sister's kids live video of me swearing while I accidentally poured a bowl of hot nacho cheese dip down my pants?"

 

[The AmeriCanadian Gamer]

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.

I think you nailed it pretty well, the only thing I could add would be - Say you're not into games, and you kid wants and Xbox One, and you're trying to justify buying it, then you see this ad, it may help sway that decision.

 

[MarsProbe]

My main question regarding this ad is, who is this Derek person and why does he appear to keep his entire "home entertainment system" (including XB1 and shiny flat screen tv) outside? Seems like a hugely impractical setup. You either have to bring the thing in every night or replace your kit every day after all your gear is inevitably stolen in the middle of the night.

 

[Rainforce]

so after all this controversy, the first ad they pull is solely targeted at the US specifically AND the much smaller subgroup of people caring about the NFL?
HOW?
(I'm all out of 'what' and 'why')

 

[loa]

So it's a remote that doesn't even work that way in my country.
It's for people who watch footbal and skype (which are both gold features btw, just let that sink in) on their tv outside and don't have a remote.
Cool marketing.

 

[Erttheking]

You're kidding me right? All the backlash, all the people screaming THIS ISN'T WHAT WE WANT! and then they turn around and go back with this?

<youtube=KbWgUO-Rqcw>

You know, I haven't seen any PS4 commercials since E3. Anyone else getting the impression that Sony is just letting Microsoft do all the work for them now?

EDIT: DAMN IT! Someone beat me to it!

 

[-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.