Would be amusing but I could see Sony possibly restricting theaters from being able to do that.
When I started this thread I was looking for a video that could explain the point of how PlayStation marketed their first console and how they positioned it. The bedroom to billions documentary explained it well also but that’s a massive film.
I saw this yesterday & I thought it’s a decent explanation of where & how they were trying to position PlayStation
So I go back to the original question at the very start of the thread, what is Xbox’s marketing strategy & where do they try to position it in the market.
I still don’t see a clear marketing strategy
Around 8 minutes they begin discussing ps 1’s marketing
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I’ve been meaning to watch that for a while now, I’ll try to watch it in the next week.
You’ll also find good insight in the Peter Moore interview with the Iron Lords Podcast. Covers marketing among all the big players but also with Sega and Microsoft under Moore.
While a lot of the specifics of marketing occurs with marketing agencies a lot of the direction comes from the top and Moore had a really good grasp on the positioning of Sega and Microsoft and how they had to market their brands with this in mind. Nevermind being an underdog in both cases, which is one perception that you have to deal with when it comes to gamer and media bias, but Sega was seen as an aging and irrelevant company after their exit from the 32bit era and Microsoft was seen as a boring tech giant.
I would say that the whole “Jump In” era was probably the best and most cohesive marketing angle that Microsoft has had so far, and I believe that was under his tenure.
When you think about it, much of that was shaped by the competitive advantage that Xbox Live offered. Moore reminds us that nothing like this even existed on PC games, with a cohesive and singular friends list across games, with a party mode, trivially easy joining of games, and voice chat as a standard.
As you stayed in your OP, things should be centered around Gamepass and they could do something similar. There’s nothing else like GP because it offers new games on day one. “Find your next favorite game” is good but it’s not as short and punchy as “Jump In”.
If I had to brainstorm I would think about how Gamepass has affected me and how my relationship to games has changed because of it. I also think about how many Xbox exclusives excel in online social experiences.
“Never. Stop. Playing.”
“Have It All”
“Let’s Go”
These are things that come to mind and I’m not saying they’re good or better but rather they are short and sweet and describe what Gamepass means to me. I’d like to see something like that from them.
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The best I can come up with (and really would be better for xCloud specifically) would be something like
“Play it now” Or even “Play where you are”
It does look like they still had a trademark on “Jump in” as of the end of 2021, but not really using it.
Hm, maybe “Game your way,” but it looks like that was a Blockbuster trademark at one point.
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Interviews and coverage by TV News:
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Basketball really is a good tie in for the Jump In trademark (more so than soccer / football). Also random, but I hate the use of the word activation when it comes to marketing. I know marketers use it but I’ve always thought it was dumb.
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Lots of cross-promomotion on social media:
https://x.com/undeadlabs/status/1699601204899447106
https://twitter.com/Obsidian/status/1699477586823504272
https://twitter.com/hifiRush/status/1699422220076916845
https://twitter.com/Halo/status/1699538462444343775
https://twitter.com/DOOM/status/1699435003409494081
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Hype build up to the launch and launch day events:
https://twitter.com/StarfieldGame/status/1696543447761432748
https://twitter.com/StarfieldNews/status/1696546328531124293
https://twitter.com/StarfieldNews/status/1696546655334506617
https://x.com/klobrille/status/1693995274837123178
Countries where they’re doing this:
- Netherlands
- Australia
- New Zealand
- Germany
- Nordics
- Spain
- Middle East
- Italy
- Brazil
- Belgium
- Poland
- South Africa
- United Kingdom
https://twitter.com/LHP64D/status/1696489287796347360
https://twitter.com/StarfieldGame/status/1696588094059745326
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More marketing:
https://twitter.com/HazzadorGamin/status/1695174277652435198
https://twitter.com/diegotuits/status/1695174130142957933
https://twitter.com/VaultOfDaedalus/status/1696852802717262215
https://x.com/klobrille/status/1696994590606110951
https://twitter.com/elitist_momo/status/1695650171122589912
https://twitter.com/neotonysoprano/status/1695814922356051989
Cross promotion inside FH5:
https://twitter.com/SEFx/status/1695539828345962744
Reaching out to the community on social media:
https://www.reddit.com/r/Starfield/comments/165kcki/from_all_of_us_here_thank_you/
https://twitter.com/BethesdaStudios/status/1697272049977180393
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It’s good to see Xbox putting marketing behind the game & want to see more of it,
But again who are they aiming the Xbox at and what is the marketing strategy for the actual platform & console.
The closest replies are the leading with game pass. He and having it really hit home what is making gamepass a proper mainstream term
That Forza Horizon livery is from a fan but it’s something that Xbox should really consider for all of their games. Creating car liveries and giving them out for free to bump awareness.
It would be cool to see an official one for Forza Motorsport when it comes out in October.
I actually have a question for all of you here: does anyone know why we don’t see any video game ads before movies? A Starfield one would be pretty epic in the theater.
I think a Forza Horizon and a Flight Sim ad would actually entice a lot of non-gamers into checking out those titles.
Hellblade 2 will have some excellent cutscenes with a ton of emotion and a great performance and it would be awesome to see something like that in the theater. I think it would intrigue people that are going to the movies to see a great story.
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There is a Starfield ad playing in UK cinemas. It was posted somewhere. You get loads of game ads here before films. Loads.
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That’s awesome. Needs to happen here in Canada.
What would be the next game they need to push like Starfield? Next year Hellblade 2 and Avowed will release but I’m not sure if they will have this insane marketing campaign…what do you guys think?
I don’t think either of those games will come close to the marketing spend that a Bethesda title does (also for some reason I think Avowed will have more players than Hellblade 2, partly because it seems like Obsidian has more fans). I think the next title they might spend as much marketing is something from Activision (either the next call of duty or whatever that other thing they’re working on is) and nothing from an Xbox studio at the moment warrants the same spending with the possible (and still unlikely) exception of Perfect Dark. The last big campaign along these lines was Diablo and that was similar in that it’s a big marquee title that doesn’t come out often. I think last year’s CoD had a pretty big spend but this year I don’t think it was.
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Im not sure where this fits best, but its kind of marketing. Regarding the strategy for game reviews in the future, Xbox should explicitly prevent access to all biased gaming outlets in areas where they have the most influence in a region like the UK. Instead, choose smaller outlets in those regions and give all the access those outlets could dream of. Work to prop up these outlets by advantaging them while cutting access to biased outlets. Hurt their bottom line by hurting their access to information and content while enabling/fostering their competition.
Extend this beyond just reviews. When Microsoft and Xbox have news, give it to these smaller outlets. Let them get it out there first.
You could even let them look silly by constantly forcing them to correct inaccuracies in their reviews and articles.
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