Xbox has been doing some marketing (something Microsoft’s gaming division has often been accused of barely doing, especially around new game releases), and it’s released an absolute clanger of an advert to promote Xbox Game Pass. Initially I thought it was OK, a little odd for sure, but fine. Centred on a comparison between renting games from a store in the past and having access to games on Games Pass today.
But the more I watched it, the more I found the very fabric of reality slipping away, the ad playing before my eyes, hovering in the centre of a pitch black room, my brain unable to figure out what any of it was for. The concepts are strung together in a way that made my brain assume everything was fine, but as it played and played, over and over, it was like an Escher sentence. Which begs the question: What is this new Xbox Game Pass advert trying to say?
Let’s walk through it. A sad man appears in a darkened room, surrounded by boxes of physical Xbox 360 games. He is hot, tired, perhaps starving. You might assume he’s eager for food and water, but no… cut to a view out through a slot in the darkened room and someone is posting an Xbox 360 game into the small room. It’s Gears of War and the man is inside a video store returns box. The man grabs the box, as someone lost in the wilderness might if presented with a cheese sandwich. He shakes it, he kisses it. “THAT WAS THEN” pops up onto the screen before we cut to a glossy look at a modern gaming setup.
I’m all for absurdity, some of my favourite entertainment leans into that (hell, I made a whole video series that imagined a games media team as if told via a trashy daytime soap opera), but this just doesn’t make any sense, does it? More people have been to Berlin than I have.
If the man is starved of new games, why is the returns box stacked with games? There are loads in there, but he acts as if the delivery of Gears of War is the first he’s seen in weeks. I worked in a video rental store, and we’d empty out returns multiple times each shift. By that metric, assuming this view of the return box is between empties, this guy would be expecting over a hundred games returned per day. What’s his problem? Is 100 games a day not enough?
That’s not even the most egregious issue I have with this ad, an ad I had given a pass on first viewing. Like I said, the more I watched it, the more it just didn’t work on any level. The man in the past isn’t even the consumer in this ad. So what comparison is being made when we switch to the modern day? In the past this guy didn’t think enough video games were returned to the video store he worked out (or hid in), and now he plays loads of games via Game Pass? That isn’t a basis to make an ad from – it’s two different things that are linked via video games.
You could look at Game Pass as a rental service of sorts, which I’m sure is why this ad came to exist, but there the comparison also falls apart when you think about it for more than five seconds. In the old days you could pretty much rent all new releases. Sure, sometimes they were out of stock, but it was possible. My store let people rent out up to three at once for five days (if I remember correctly – this was over 20 years ago and I was usually busy watching 2 Fast 2 Furious on repeat and looking at the N-Gage we had in the store room), and it was a pretty good deal. Game Pass offers plenty of games, but you can’t pick from all the new releases and you can’t “borrow” games for a set fee for a handful of nights. The comparison does not work.
There was also something wonderful about visiting a rental store, browsing the shelves with your friends, and walking away with something new to play for the weekend. It was part of the entertainment experience – maybe grab some sweets and crisps while you’re there. I loved it, and I’d argue a big portion of the Xbox audience loved it too. I’m not offended by the depiction of the olden times here, but it just feels rather out of touch with an increasing nostalgia of physical media and all that came with it.
“Now, new games are added all the time,” reads the advert guff that follows, the same man from the video return box seemingly having found perfect peace and harmony in his current dimly lit life thanks to his Xbox Game Pass subscription. A life which immediately looks far less appealing than the bright video store full of possibilities – the one where 100 games a day seemingly wasn’t enough.
“This is how we play now” ends the ad, with odd highlighting of “how” and “now” which makes you read it as if it’s a beat poem written by a 10-year-old who watched that season of America’s Got Talent and thought it looked like a piece of cake.
“No need to hover by the return box. With Xbox Game Pass, new games are added all the time. Play what you want, when you want,” reads the blurb on the YouTube description for the ad. I’ll say it again. This makes no sense. It does not work. And this is from someone who appreciates Xbox’s place in the games market and the quality of Game Pass.
I know it’s only an advert, but it reflects Xbox’s muddled view of gaming today. For one, gamers are if anything more nostalgic for the Blockbuster days than ever. Game Pass might be more convenient for most people than driving to a store and spending 20 minutes browsing shelves, then being told by your mum that you can’t rent Robocop vs Terminator, but the vibes here could have been completely different and still made Game Pass come out on top – not that there is a battle, given rental stores are long gone and bricks and mortar stores in general are dying at an alarming rate. Game Pass could be sold as today’s rental store, but not like this.
This ad (and you could probably extend this to Xbox as a whole, depending on how unkind you’re feeling) is like one of those children’s books that lets you flip pictures to put the head of a badger on the body of a cat, and then chuck some running shoes and a pirate’s hat on for good measure. It’s a mess, and struggles to have a clear identity.
I need to get out. I’ve no clue what’s going on any more.