High On Life is not an Xbox game, it’s just a Game Pass game from an independent studio. It’s also in the top 5 most played on Game Pass, so…
Current marketing is Gamepass Day 1 and being cheaper than to pay 70+
The games will come… Most of the Xbox 1st party upcoming games are really ambitious, meaning they are huge and are meant to be played for a long time.
Example let’s take Avowed or Fable, them are classic RPG’S with choices and consequences, they are meant to be played for maybe 100 plus hours with so many things to keep on discovering. Xbox are making these types of games, wile the competitor keep making 10-20 hours cinematic games that are one and done, meaning you beat it once and never touch again.
In My opinion one and done linear/action/cinematic games are faster to make, but also way shorter and has like zero replay value once you beat it.
I hope Xbox never copy that… Sure have a couple of Cinematic games here and there like Hellblade 2 etc… but please do not follow Sony and make almost every damn game a cinematic action game.
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But where is this marketing game pass day 1 to casual audience exactly?
It’s ok for the hardcore to know that the game is day 1
But exactly how does the casual know this. That’s the point
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They put out a Gamepass sizzle reel a lot. You see that at almost every game showcase now.
What are you asking for? TV ads? Billboards? Ads on buses? That stuff is expensive and if Xbox thought it would be effective, they would do it.
You do TV ads when you have the big AAA bangers to back it up. There will be TV ads for Starfield. But it would be inappropriate to do TV ads for Pentiment or Grounded (and clearly they don’t need to because Grounded just hit 15 MILLION PLAYERS!).
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What is the purpose and end goal of marketing?
Maybe we need to define that first before we can take a quantitative look at how Microsoft’s Marketing is doing compared to the competition’s. Without having a means of measuring something, this will only ever be going around in circles with subjective opinions.
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We know what Xbox’s primary goals are, player numbers and Game Pass numbers (because it’s what they report).
We know by those metrics they are doing extremely well and overall Xbox revenue is higher than ever.
Whatver they are doing, it’s working.
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Players think marketing is meant for them to get hyped while businesses just want money and players which Xbox is accomplishing.
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Easy thing to look at is engagement on Twitter, YouTube , and google searches. I think Microsoft falls far behind Sony and Nintendo in that regard. Also , have to look at simple things like tweets about games releasing soon and having YouTube video up.
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Why not engagement on the actual games platform, meaning actual number of players?
Why is engagement on social media more important in your view?
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Fair question, but I feel engagement is a good metric to yaw for the power of word of mouth purchases. For example, a game like va pure survivor didn’t seem to be that big of a hit until it hit gamepass and the positive reaction on social media got people to try it. Also feel negative engagement hurts games because narratives can change based on social media reaction. Anyways, I feel games with high engagement on social media usually perform well unless the game is the butt of all jokes
I haven’t checked the numbers, but here’s a gut check on that going off last impressions.
I’m pretty sure that Sony first party games have higher social media engagement numbers than Xbox. I don’t think anyone would argue with that. Yet when player metrics are checked, it’s the Xbox titles that have far higher player counts.
Maybe it’s time we re-examine the accepted conventional wisdom.
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Unsure about player count check ls since Sony got a larger install base. However it wouldn’t shock me if attach rate is higher on Xbox
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https://mobile.twitter.com/geoffkeighley/status/1603798091001659394
This would’ve been a good show to have a bit more Xbox presence at 
At least Redfall’s release date.
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5,000 Xbox Wire clicks and 20k views launch trailer is enough. Trust me they know what they’re doing.
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Current strategy is look weak, get Activision approved 
I have been always wondering how does Geoff calculates viewership numbers…Like with Summer Game Fast when he was touting big numbers yet not a single stream or video was even close to Nintendo numbers for example.
To get more numbers Microsoft simply needs to broadcast their show on Netflix…
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I just don’t understand what they think they’re doing, minimal traditional marketing but also don’t use their social media accounts more effectively, they have a combined 50+ million followers on Instagram, Facebook and Twitter but that can only take you so far… Xbox simply cannot miss these huge shows and like Parris said, they revealed the Series X at TGAs, Hellblade 2 both reveal and gameplay and Perfect Dark, Xbox fans had an expectation that they would be there because for 3 years in a row they were there. I guess they were there with the Game Pass and Xcloud Samsung ads 
Oh man you’d thunk their marketing would be wild these days with all the money they get from Microsoft but nope… they need to hire other people because Xbox marketing is just straight up pathetic at this point in time.
Great idea, maybe even a partnership to stream Xcloud through the Netflix app in the future as well.
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Yes… especially considering many responses to previous complaints about the lack of shows have been "but they have TGA!"
…
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Eventually they need to build their own brand and not rely on third party shows
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