Next-Gen Advertisements: The Good, The Bad, & The Ugly

The slagging matches began in the summer of this year with the announcements of the PS4 and the Xbox One. With days away from release which company is winning the advert race for Christmas? Well we take a look today to find out.


Microsft recently has recruited Star Trek actor Zachary Quinto for the global advertising campaign for its new Xbox One console, which launches late this month with Sony releasing many teaser ads since its announcement earlier this year. The media bout between Sony and Microsoft is likely to be worth several hundred million dollars the companies really need to get it right otherwise the balance could shift immensely, as seen with the PS3 and the Xbox 360. Microsoft has declined to comment on the cost of the Xbox One media campaign, the largest ever undertaken for its flagship games console brand. However, the cost of such a global marketing blitz including TV advertising is likely to be at least $100m according to industry sources who have worked on such campaigns. The two companies really need to chuck their money at adverts this year as this is one of the hottest console battles since the N64/PS1 so check out below to see who I feel is leading the race.

Microsoft's ad campaign features Quinto in character as Star Trek's Spock among other stars like England Soccer captain Steven Gerrard, along with characters from games titles like Dead Rising 3, Ryse, and Titanfall. Microsoft's Xbox One campaign will launch online on Friday November 8th and the campaign breaks in the US on Sunday, and in the UK next week, prior to the Xbox One going on sale on 22 November. Sony's PS4 launches in the US next week on the 15th of November and in the UK on November 29th and the Japanese electronics giant has already put out teaser ads for its PS4 launch in the form of a trip down memory lane in a nostalgic looking back over the PlayStation console's 18-year history. I really enjoyed this video and its really pulled on the heart strings bringing back some nostalgic memories from my childhood like battling through Metal Gear Solid and Resident Evil to venturing through to the last boss in Final Fantasy 7 then onto the PS2 which had Final Fantasy 10 among other amazing games. The Xbox didn't have any competition until the PS2 era so this nostalgic video really shows the depth of Sony and what they have achieved in the gaming world. The ad is finished by the tag line "for the players" which again shows Sony really are honing their adverts towards its players and the community which I think is a great move. The ad definitely evoked some nostalgia with me and I'm sure millions of others.

Microsoft's campaign invites fans to have a go at Xbox One games and will include cinema, radio, digital, social and retail marketing, as well as big scale promotions with global brands such as Doritos and Mountain Dew. The Xbox One is being touted as the all around media device bringing television/radio/social/web into one device whilst playing high def videos and having twitch stream integration whcih is something their Windows OS on PC's have been doing the past 5 years right? The Xbox One is Microsoft's first new console since the Xbox 360 was released in 2005. Microsoft said it was launching a "fan-centric" campaign that aims to position the console as the "only all-in-one entertainment system that brings together content loved by gamers, movie buffs, sports fans, and TV lovers, all in one place" Xbox One is enormously important to Microsoft and represents the company's core strategy for engaging the consumer in the living room," he said. "Microsoft aims to spread its gaming and entertainment wings on to new Windows platforms and third-party devices to maintain direct engagement with consumers across multiple screens." I don't feel that Microsoft are coming from the right angle unlike Sony. It's great they have thier logo spalshed across products but is there really any emotion behind that? I love that nostalgic feeling and nothing Microsoft is doing has any emotion, it's just blatant corperate advertising. 

If the Playstation 4’s ad could be described as nostalgic then the Xbox One’s is comparatively futuristic and focuses on the things that will likely attract the future gamer like the TV and video features highlights the features that many customers think get in the way. Both Sony and Microsoft will be pulling out all the stops in order to convince the next generation of gamers that their console is the way to go. The battles will continue all the way up to Christmas and beyond. Only time will tell which company will win the final round.