Microsoft`s Xbox launched in Europe and Australia last week. You may have missed the news, but then again, is it possible to miss the unmistakeable mark of millions of marketing euros spent in the gaming industry equivalent of Shrek`s Donkey leaping up and down, shouting, "Ooh! Ooh! Pick me!"
Everything being equal, the Xbox is a good console - the best of its kind at the moment.
Basheera Khan, London contributor, ITWeb
The televised coverage of the Malaysian Grand Prix on 17 March must have cost Microsoft a packet - not in terms of racing team sponsorship - but more because of the extensive coverage given to its racing game Project Gotham Racing. That is a pretty logical advertising decision, and compared to the other mainstream television ad currently running, one has to wonder if the two very different ads were signed off by the same advertising executive.
I say this because the mainstream Xbox ad flighted across UK screens this past week has done absolutely nothing to endear me to the product. It depicts the story of mosquitoes, as told by a distinctly West Indian sounding mosquito. It shows cunningly crafted sequences of wildlife and nature, all humming and buzzing to a melody and beat provided by the mosquitoes, and until that point, it`s cleverly amusing.
After that, things get very weird indeed. The mosquitoes, responding to a voice of authority instructing them to 'get a job`, become the annoying bloodsuckers they are today. This bit of the tale is accompanied by visuals no doubt intended to be powerfully motivating - but I struggle to associate positive messages with scenes of mosquito infestations crawling over limbs and blood bags, over an exposed heart, next to a toddler playing on the floor, in the bath with an attractive young woman - these and others flash vividly on screen while the West Indian mosquito narrator exhorts viewers to play on - cut to the Xbox logo.
If anything, the only association I can make from the ad is this: the Xbox sucks.
But of course, there are many who would disagree with me, and a fair percentage of these people found it in themselves to queue for as long as eight-and-a-half hours for the new console. Which, when it comes to examples of people responding en masse to the hype engineered by marketers and PR types, was not very impressive at all, comparatively speaking, but it made it onto that evening`s news bulletins nevertheless.
Everything being equal, the Xbox is a good console - the best of its kind at the moment. But I`m not certain as to whether it can really rival Sony`s products, which time and again have nailed its target markets with impressive accuracy. The PlayStation 1 provided a gaming platform for those who couldn`t afford or didn`t want a gaming PC. Ditto the PlayStation 2, except it catered for early adopters of DVD as well, providing just the right amount of functionality at just the right price.
Time will tell, as they say, but for the moment, I`m finding it really easy to resist the ₤300+ temptation.
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