Xbox has been getting a lot of hate lately. From the “Everything is an Xbox” strategy to the Game Pass price hike, it seems like the company just doesn't understand its own audience. While all fans want is a console that can match up to the PS5, along with some decent exclusives, Phil Spencer and crew keep finding ways to shoot themselves in the foot.
It doesn't look like they've learned anything yet, as can be seen in a new ad. In an effort to promote Xbox Game Pass, the marketing team thought it would be a good idea to poke fun at physical game copies. If you've been paying attention to industry discourse, everyone prefers physical copies over digital games. But that's still not the worst part of the ad.
Xbox's latest ad doesn't even feature an Xbox
The ad tries to follow a before-and-after format to show that Game Pass is the modern way to collect and play games. It starts with some guy sitting Inside the returns box to a games store like a gremlin, gets excited that someone dropped off a copy of Gears of War. We then switch to the modern era, where the same guy (with his hair now combed) sits in front of a PC with Game Pass and fires up Gears of War Reloaded. “This is how we play now” reads the last card in the ad.
It really looks like Xbox was just making fun of their own fans, almost like you're an idiot if you want physical games instead of an Xbox Game Pass subscription, where games can be taken off at any time, and it now costs twice as much. Perhaps the most striking thing about the ad is that it doesn't even feature an Xbox console, further pushing the company's policy of being a publisher rather than a platform.
The comments on YouTube didn't hold back, with some saying Xbox is making them switch to a PS5 with every new business decision or marketing push. “The respect and dismissal of Physical Games speaks volumes,” said another comment. Perhaps it would have made more of an impact if Xbox hadn't recently doubled the price of Game Pass.
- Stamp
-
Microsoft
- Original release date
-
November 10, 2020
- Original MSRP (USD)
-
$499 USD
- Operating system
-
Proprietary (Windows based)
- Processor
-
Custom AMD 8-core Zen 2 3.8 GHz
- Resolution
-
720p – 4K UHD
