How can next Xbox consoles improve sales? Share your ideas

What adults. The gaming audience are literate enough to understand streaming commercials. Not saying tv is bad just that the audience they’re looking for are mostly on some online media. let’s not also forget that Xbox used to work with Spike TV and that didn’t go anywhere. They certainly could have sports commercials but a lot that is not just regular TV but also online.

COD is also marketed online, on billboards. train stations, airports same goes for Apple, Google and Samsung. Also, content is what is being marketed and not the console. Xbox will market when they have the content, they did for Halo and Starfield even for the Persona series, they even had the Partner preview at Time Square.

1 Like

I think you market to the consumers you aim for and on the devices, you want to be on. The 3 billion gamers that Xbox keeps mentioning are mostly on Mobile and PC. TV ads are nice, but I don’t think they are far reaching or global in perspective. What you’re watching on TV is limited most probably to your country while online can be global. GTA can see over 200 million views on YouTube alone that has about 2.5 billion viewers even twitter and all this other social media have hundreds of millions to billions of viewers. TV is good and has its place, but I don’t think it’s what many think. I remember Quantum break had a tv showing and that didn’t do much.

They could try dropping the defeatist loser attitude.

1 Like

Sea of thieves easily sold over a million copies in PS5. Those folks were never gonna buy an Xbox or a PC version of the game. Sometimes you just gotta face the facts that people are not leaving their ecosystem no matter how good you make yours. :person_shrugging:t6:

A six (!) year old game available across two console generations lol.

1 Like

I think this is they way to go. Next Xbox is a Xbox that can also play PC games.

  1. Keeps a foot in the console market.

  2. Empowers PC: that is MS pedigree and also a growing area in gaming.

  3. Sweetens the transition to the death of consoles, in this case Xbox ones.

No clue about the execution though.

1 Like

Yeah and with all that they still feel the need to promote the game on TV.

Let’s be real here, all major corporations promote their products on social media and via billboards, but also still promote their products on the TV to most expect Xbox that is

It’s holding back the brand and most future gamers will see a SONY or Nintendo promotion on TV and go with them

If TV promotion didn’t work and was an old hat for today’s modern world the likes of Google or Apple, wouldn’t be using it at all. Companies like Apple don’t just piss money down the drain

Apple got brand recognition most corporations could only dream of. When Apple have a new model to release, Apple will also push it on the TV as well as social media Ect, etc

2 Likes

It’s not as straightforward as even this fairly simple message seems, and at the end of the day, Xbox has way more info on how many people they reach in various ways with different messages. If they can include an Xbox play day one on Game Pass message in the last two seconds of a call of duty ad on TV, it’s probably worth it (and there seem to be reasons they’re not doing that yet). Also, a specific game is probably more worth advertising on TV than for an Xbox console, but slipping in a message at the end of play anywhere on Xbox and day one on Game Pass, can achieve both.

Apple is not a good comparison to Xbox at the end of the day, they have way more revenue to use for ads and it’s not for a single product. Google also is a company that prints money in a way Xbox won’t ever match. And looking at profit margins, I’d not necessarily trust Sonys method for advertising PS as a reason to go all in on TV ads.

Not saying a blanket “Xbox should never advertise on TV” so much as a “they know what they’re targeting better than we do”

Yes young people watch shows, but their time in front of a TV is less than in front of other screens. They’ll ask their parents for stuff they see and want, so getting in front of them will help grow a bigger audience. Also making it possible to play games without buying a device, or having something to take with you, or some multi purpose thing, makes it much easier to start using the ecosystem, which seems to be what Xbox is focusing a lot of effort on.

Sorry if this is a run on mess, was trying to real quick get some thoughts together between calls.

1 Like

Sponsorship should be used as well. If they could I’d be trying to get sponsorship with the premier league or at the very least putting commercials on at half time. It’s the most watched league in the world it’s massive in Asia get the brand shown on a weekly basis in around that way

How many viewers does the Premier League have?

4.7 billion people

The Premier League is the most-watched sports league in the world, broadcast in 212 territories to 643 million homes, with a potential TV audience of 4.7 billion people.

If you want to hit kids watching the football and their parents at the same time

Be agreesive in this manner

1 Like

It’s definitely one of the best product placements Sony has and I am indeed inclined to say it most likely has a massive impact with the masses in terms of mindshare.

3 Likes

But would it make a difference if Xbox dude it now, or have they already become Coke and Xbox Pepsi (at best). The mindshare is where it is now.

The question Xbox has to ask is how much money do we need to spend to acquire new users, and there is a good chance the data in many markets shows it’s not worth it.

2 Likes

The impact isn’t necessarily in the sale of any product but rather remaining in the public Zeitgeist.

Right now Xbox isn’t even a thing in people’s minds. I saw an ad for a Toyota truck and I won’t be buying one anytime soon but if I know someone looking for one I know it’s a possible option. If someone asked me if they should get a Audi truck, I’d be like “I don’t know. Do they even make trucks?”. These mass market ads go a long way in educating us about products.

As it stands, Xbox isn’t even making itself known.

Few would consider buying a product that is becoming invisible. What does it say about its long-term support and viability?

It’s looking for a car to buy and driving by dealerships and you see a dealership for a brand called “Pinnino” and your partner says “I haven’t heard of that brand” and you’re like “me too” and then both decide to pass because you’re totally unfamiliar with it.

(If pinnino is a swear in a language I swear I didn’t know)

I saw someone post on threads asking whether they should get a PlayStation or Switch and in the conversation the Xbox seemed irrelevant or not even an option. I don’t think this would be the case if Xbox had an equal amount of public appearances.

I also think about Xbox failing to realize that consoles are inherently a mass market casual device. Hardcore gamers will gravitate towards PCs and will be the ones seeing ads on streaming sites. They spent thousands on gaming and $200 for a new “gaming chair” is normal to them. It’s the person who sees an Xbox sign at a baseball field that would consider getting a console so they can play The Show on the couch.

A cinematic game like Hellblade 2 should have had extensive movie theater ad runs. And it’s not to sell copies of the game. It’s to boost the profile of the Xbox. “Only on Xbox” for a game that looks better than 99% of games out there, a statement ringing through a theater where 50% of the people watching the movie probably own PlayStations and have seen nothing like that, it’s a prestige thing. It’s Xbox “competing”.

So yeah it goes beyond individual sales. The purpose of this sort of marketing is to get into the minds of consumers and non-consumers.

I remember HTC came out with the first Android phones and I’ll be honest I don’t even know if they’re around anymore. They could be, but I just don’t know. But if I saw an ad for one during a hockey game then I’d be like yep, that’s an option the next time I get a phone.

I think we’re at the square if there was an Xbox ad during a sporting event people would ask “Xbox is still a thing?”.

5 Likes

I don’t see the Steam/PC aspect happening because it wouldn’t make any sense for Microsoft. If Steam was on Xbox consoles, third party publishers wouldn’t bother with Xbox ports as they would just say to buy the Steam version and play that on your Xbox which in turn would eliminate the 30% cut Microsoft gets from every game, dlc and mtx transaction. But we’ll see.

2 Likes

I could definitely see Epic Games Store though as they’d probably be a lot more open about making a deal with Microsoft for some sort of revenue sharing considering their position vs Steam. Having it all integrated in the Xbox app in some way (just like Apple does with the Apple TV app where they showcase stuff from outside of their own ecosystem) could probably work on Xbox. They’d of course push for their own store more as that’s where they’d get most royalties. But maybe something could be arranged, like if sale happens on EGS through Xbox, then there’d be some sort of revenue split.

I doubt we’ll get full blown PC, but I could definitely see the smaller players be willing to open up to MS. The only way I’d see Steam open up to being on Xbox is if MS buys them, although I’d be happy to be proven wrong on that one!

1 Like

While that maybe so the ads will be different for the different territories. the audience might be big. There are people in different regions of the world that don’t see that PlayStation commercials. Also, I’m quite sure a lot of people watch the premier league through streaming TV.

I think that depends. let’s say the Xbox app is reworked to work natively on any hardware with the necessary power and then the entire Xbox console platform is moved into it with all the games. That would make the platform digital with a potential audience of about 60 million having their library there. I think that would be a strong reason to release games on Xbox not to mention Xbox can also publish a number of games to promote it. I also think the ability for the platform to work as an app on any device natively and through streaming will be a big boon.

1 Like

That maybe true, but even its advertising hoardings I’d be buying the adverts on those. So it’s displaying Xbox & game pass hitting people during the game.

Just as PlayStation do with the champions league

No one’s quite sure how good his rumours are for this sort of stuff, but the source for this story often gets Game Pass and PS Plus line ups correct before anyone else.

Unsure if Xbox will actually slow down (not much reason to I guess?) but if they’ve taken note of complaints about how Indy was announced maybe they’ll change how they do that.

Also, it claims Halo and Gears are red lines, which contradicts other rumours (but most of those seemed to suggest a Gears remaster trilogy would be at the June showcase so may not be reliable either).

Overall I’m not too bothered either way, but those in this thread hoping for exclusives to make the difference may be happy:

I’m not sure I get it, hasn’t Xbox and Microsoft had partnerships like this and it didn’t do much. Xbox is now official gaming partner for the England football team - Gaming - XboxEra From what I gather different regions will tailor their ads to their audience. You have 1.87billion following the league and less than 3 percent get the PlayStation if any at all. I’m not much of a soccer guy but even when I sometimes watch I never notice these things until someone who is into them does. I think something like the Superbowl works better as many look to those commercials.

1 Like

I would imagine so the excitement has waned a big deal. In my opinion they should just make a native Xbox app for PlayStation and if Sony is interested, they will take it. That way any Xbox game on the system will be bought and launched from Xbox. The Indiana Jones announcement certainly had a negative effect due to the way it was done might have been good if done the way Doom was done.