Support NeoGAF

[Sneakysnake]

As an unapologetic Xbox Stan, I am so damn tired of watching Xbox miss the easy shots. This is a god damn layup to capture the casuals and get them into the ecosystem.

You run a holiday price promo, ACTUALLY ADVERTISE IT! You have COD marketing rights. Pull a Sony and jam those ads down ppl's throats and make them assume it's an Xbox exclusive now. Just make a call of duty themed cardboard box and put the little white Xbox in there. Put "includes one month of Game Pass Ultimate" on the box for $199.99

The average casual, or their mom, or their uncle and gunna see this shit and be like "oh I guess cod is an Xbox game now, guess I have to buy an Xbox". Even if they know it's on PS they cheapest you're gunna get a PS5 with Cod for is $470.

Sure some ppl will not renew gamepass after that month but Xbox...homies...Phil...my dog...if you're REALLY going to go forward with GP then you need to bet on it and with the stacked lineup at the end of this year, THIS is the time to get users into your ecosystem for dirt cheap. This would sell like hotcakes and would get ppl hooked on GPU for a low buy in.

 

[Skifi28]

I hope it also includes an autograph from Phil saying "we hear you" for the full package.

 

[Ass of Can Whooping]

Let Aaron know. He'll show you all the marketing he's doing that we'll never see.

 

[vaibhavpisal]

It will just take away customers from buying PS5.

A weak Sony is not what MS is looking for.

Imagine if Sony didn’t had had cash to make new God of War. They will sell company to Google/ Amazon.

Will become a true headache for MS.

 

[midnightAI]

Jeez, how quickly do you want to kill XBox?

 

[Darkness_Arises]

As an unapologetic Xbox Stan, I am so damn tired of watching Xbox miss the easy shots. This is a god damn layup to capture the casuals and get them into the ecosystem.

You run a holiday price promo, ACTUALLY ADVERTISE IT! You have COD marketing rights. Pull a Sony and jam those ads down ppl's throats and make them assume it's an Xbox exclusive now. Just make a call of duty themed cardboard box and put the little white Xbox in there. Put "includes one month of Game Pass Ultimate" on the box for $199.99

The average casual, or their mom, or their uncle and gunna see this shit and be like "oh I guess cod is an Xbox game now, guess I have to buy an Xbox". Even if they know it's on PS they cheapest you're gunna get a PS5 with Cod for is $470.

Sure some ppl will not renew gamepass after that month but Xbox...homies...Phil...my dog...if you're REALLY going to go forward with GP then you need to bet on it and with the stacked lineup at the end of this year, THIS is the time to get users into your ecosystem for dirt cheap. This would sell like hotcakes and would get ppl hooked on GPU for a low buy in.

I have a bridge to sell to any person who believes that the Series S is a desirable product. If they sold a discless X for 250 with the same offer, I might actually bite.

 

[LordCBH]

Given how big COD games are now, you’d have to include a storage expansion card for users of that bundle since COD will take up almost all of that 500GB SSD

 

[hybrid_birth]

Jeez, how quickly do you want to kill XBox?

Well to be fair there was an X on their back from the very beginning.

 

[feynoob]

Real men sink with their boats.

 

[LiquidMetal14]

Garbae tier waste of money but if that's your cup of tea then so be it.

 

[Arsic]

Ehkbawx Sssss with Callah Dootie mom, pleeeeeeaasssseee.

 

[Banjo64]

These have been as low as £169 on Black Friday in the UK. There’s nothing they can do to drum up interest. Even if they give them away at this price, people won’t invest in the ecosystem.

 

[jm89]

As an unapologetic Xbox Stan, I am so damn tired of watching Xbox miss the easy shots. This is a god damn layup to capture the casuals and get them into the ecosystem.

You run a holiday price promo, ACTUALLY ADVERTISE IT! You have COD marketing rights. Pull a Sony and jam those ads down ppl's throats and make them assume it's an Xbox exclusive now. Just make a call of duty themed cardboard box and put the little white Xbox in there. Put "includes one month of Game Pass Ultimate" on the box for $199.99

The average casual, or their mom, or their uncle and gunna see this shit and be like "oh I guess cod is an Xbox game now, guess I have to buy an Xbox". Even if they know it's on PS they cheapest you're gunna get a PS5 with Cod for is $470.

Sure some ppl will not renew gamepass after that month but Xbox...homies...Phil...my dog...if you're REALLY going to go forward with GP then you need to bet on it and with the stacked lineup at the end of this year, THIS is the time to get users into your ecosystem for dirt cheap. This would sell like hotcakes and would get ppl hooked on GPU for a low buy in.

 

[THE DUCK]

They should be doing something like this, but make it 12 months of xbox, and a whole bundle of old COD games, and COD custom controller.
Advertise it as basically free after all the "free" stuff.

 

[El Muerto]

They finalized the ABK acquisition back in October 2023, not enough time to run a COD campaign. They'll have a year to get the games on gamepass and then advertise Xbox as the home of Call of Duty. We're about to get Crash Bandicoot on gamepass so it takes time. Mega corporations are so damn slow at doing things.

 

[nosoynadie22]

Xbox Series S + Call of duty + 10 years of GPU for $150 do it!!

 

[Sneakysnake]

I have a bridge to sell to any person who believes that the Series S is a desirable product. If they sold a discless X for 250 with the same offer, I might actually bite.

Well not for you but you're far more educated and discerning than the average console pleb. Trust me, 12 year olds don't know the difference and don't even think about the diff between a series s and X. They play cod and Fortnite on their god damn phones for Christs sake. They have no self respect and Xbox should exploit this lol

 

[Sneakysnake]

They finalized the ABK acquisition back in October 2023, not enough time to run a COD campaign. They'll have a year to get the games on gamepass and then advertise Xbox as the home of Call of Duty. We're about to get Crash Bandicoot on gamepass so it takes time. Mega corporations are so damn slow at doing things.

But they are doing a Call of Duty direct on June 9?

 

[ChorizoPicozo]

The Xbox marketing is so massive that random people come out with genius ideas.

 

[GHG]

Just give them away for free with a bunch of $1 gamepass coupons.

That won't lead to any more studio closures, no sir.

 

[Coloress_Kafka]

Sony ran the same strategy and it totally saved their dying platform!

 

[ManaByte]

You have COD marketing rights.

They don’t have them yet.

 

[Nydius]

I appreciate your optimism S Sneakysnake but last holiday season they had significantly dropped the price of both the Series S and X across multiple retailers for almost an entire quarter and it barely moved the needle. That was the one quarter out of the last 6 or 7 where they had positive hardware revenue and it was single digit (4%, IIRC).

I think it’s safe to say that everyone who wants an Xbox already has one and there isn’t much room for growth even if they ate an even bigger loss on each unit sold.

I genuinely think their strategy, in part, was to hope people who originally bought a Series S would eventually double dip and buy a Series X when they wanted/needed 4K and an optical drive, but that hasn’t panned out the way they hoped.

 

[Unknown?]

They should be doing something like this, but make it 12 months of xbox, and a whole bundle of old COD games, and COD custom controller.
Advertise it as basically free after all the "free" stuff.

How about everything is free but the controller costs $199?

 

[adamsapple]

Just give them away for free with a bunch of $1 gamepass coupons.

That won't lead to any more studio closures, no sir.

Well not with THAT attitude.

 

[rm082e]

As an unapologetic Xbox Stan, I am so damn tired of watching Xbox miss the easy shots. This is a god damn layup to capture the casuals and get them into the ecosystem.

It isn't going to capture casuals into their ecosystem, and it's not an "easy shot" - they'd just be shoveling money into a furnace for no reason on the units sold. Xbox Series S consoles can regularly be found on the used market for below $200.

It's not a matter of making the hardware cheaper. It's that they need exciting exclusive games, and they don't have them. The only people who have been excited about the Xbox exclusives are the people who are already Xbox Stans. They aren't tempting anyone who has been on PS4/PS5 or PC.

 

[MadchesterManc]

As a One X owner the backwards compatibility would be a downgrade on Series S, so the deal would have to be much sweeter than that to entice me. A £299 cut down Series X would be somewhat interesting

 

[reinking]

Reverse pack in. Buy COD get an Xbox Series S for free.

 

[Sneakysnake]

They don’t have them yet.

Well they clearly will by June 9 since they are doing a COD direct so this doesn't effect my amazing plan

 

[lh032]

 

[Sneakysnake]

I appreciate your optimism S Sneakysnake but last holiday season they had significantly dropped the price of both the Series S and X across multiple retailers for almost an entire quarter and it barely moved the needle. That was the one quarter out of the last 6 or 7 where they had positive hardware revenue and it was single digit (4%, IIRC).

I think it’s safe to say that everyone who wants an Xbox already has one and there isn’t much room for growth even if they ate an even bigger loss on each unit sold.

I genuinely think their strategy, in part, was to hope people who originally bought a Series S would eventually double dip and buy a Series X when they wanted/needed 4K and an optical drive, but that hasn’t panned out the way they hoped.

I thought of that how it didn't sell last year even when it couldn't be found for 199 sometimes but I'm really banking on the stupidity of the average consumer walking into a GameStop and seeing COD on the box and just buying it haha

 

[ManaByte]

Well they clearly will by June 9 since they are doing a COD direct so this doesn't effect my amazing plan

The marketing deal lasts until the next game releases in November.

 

[Sneakysnake]

It isn't going to capture casuals into their ecosystem, and it's not an "easy shot" - they'd just be shoveling money into a furnace for no reason on the units sold. Xbox Series S consoles can regularly be found on the used market for below $200.

It's not a matter of making the hardware cheaper. It's that they need exciting exclusive games, and they don't have them. The only people who have been excited about the Xbox exclusives are the people who are already Xbox Stans. They aren't tempting anyone who has been on PS4/PS5 or PC.

I'm thinking of them trying to make sure the remaining ppl still using an Xbox one finally make the jump to a series S rather than a Ps5. These ppl obv aren't ready to shell out $500 if they are still gaming on an Xbox one and MS needs to do everything they can to make sure they don't lose these ppl

 

[Sneakysnake]

The marketing deal lasts until the next game releases in November.

Then how are they doing a call of duty direct on June 9?

 

[OmegaSupreme]

How about they pay me?

 

[Shadowstar39]

I don't know, I got a series x and 2 $50 xbox live digital codes for free just for signing up to verizon for internet last November/December and 1 mouth of gp ultimate. I thought that was pretty awesome marketing. Ok, I didn't sign up, someone else did and they gave me the xbox as a gift (I already had verizon). It is my first xbox console ever, i wasn't going to do it unless the price was right, and since sony won't release ps1-ps2-ps3 games on ps4/5 I had to do it for missing some favorites.

More deals like that and a cheaper series x (with disc) and you may get some numbers up. Series x with no disc is a no buy for most, I would hope.

 

[Sneakysnake]

I don't know, I got a series x and 2 $50 xbox live digital codes for free just for signing up to verizon for internet last November/December and 1 mouth of gp ultimate. I thought that was pretty awesome marketing. Ok, I didn't sign up, someone else did and they gave me the xbox as a gift (I already had verizon). It is my first xbox console ever, i wasn't going to do it unless the price was right, and since sony won't release ps1-ps2-ps3 games on ps4/5 I had to do it for missing some favorites.

More deals like that and a cheaper series x (with disc) and you may get some numbers up. Series x with no disc is a no buy for most, I would hope.

Nice!! If you haven't played halo infinite recently go give it another go. It blows my mind ppl are still saying "infinite" sucks because it has evolved into the best fps I've ever played at this point. Enjoy!

 

[ZehDon]

Sony ran the same strategy and it totally saved their dying platform!

Of all Sony's sins, letting the Vita die is the one that stings the most. Incredible piece of kit.

 

[S0ULZB0URNE]

Sounds desperate.

 

[feynoob]

These have been as low as £169 on Black Friday in the UK. There’s nothing they can do to drum up interest. Even if they give them away at this price, people won’t invest in the ecosystem.

It's a nice cheap device to have, if you aren't in to a candy stuff.

If I wasn't a PC guy, I would have honestly grabbed one by now.

 

[ReBurn]

It's a nice cheap device to have, if you aren't in to a candy stuff.

If I wasn't a PC guy, I would have honestly grabbed one by now.

It's not terrible device by any means, but it's definitely not an enthusiast device. I use the one GameStop sent me for free in their holiday debacle fairly often. It's clear that Microsoft's strategy was to have Series S be a cheap box as an entry point to game pass. Had game pass worked out as planned it might have been ok as a casual console. But with game pass stalling why would casual gamers want Series S in a world with Nintendo Switch?

 

[feynoob]

It's not terrible device by any means, but it's definitely not an enthusiast device. I use the one GameStop sent me for free in their holiday debacle fairly often. It's clear that Microsoft's strategy was to have Series S be a cheap box as an entry point to game pass. Had game pass worked out as planned it might have been ok as a casual console. But with game pass stalling why would casual gamers want Series S in a world with Nintendo Switch?

It's more has to do with switch being shit with 3rd party games.

Had switch had those games, then no one would have wanted this device.

 

[rm082e]

I'm thinking of them trying to make sure the remaining ppl still using an Xbox one finally make the jump to a series S rather than a Ps5. These ppl obv aren't ready to shell out $500 if they are still gaming on an Xbox one and MS needs to do everything they can to make sure they don't lose these ppl

Yeah, I just don't think the cost of the hardware is the bottleneck for those players. People who like to play games know how to problem solve when something is important to them. If they wanted a current gen console bad enough, they would find a way to get the money. I don't think they want one bad enough because Microsoft hasn't given them enough reasons.

My brother is in this camp actually. He's been Xbox only since the 360 and he's still on his XO. He hasn't had time to play (working lots of OT and has small kids), so he hasn't moved up to the Series yet. But I'll bet if they had a dozen great exclusives by now, he would have been motivated.

 

[leo-j]

Of all Sony's sins, letting the Vita die is the one that stings the most. Incredible piece of kit.

They released a ps vita slim in multiple colors, pushed ps4 compatibility, dropped some unique games on it, it just was overshadowed by the mobile market and to a lesser extent the 3ds.

 

[Portugeezer]

Bundling COD gamepass with the console.

Why did nobody think of this!

Thanks Alanah.

 

[Banjo64]

It's a nice cheap device to have, if you aren't in to a candy stuff.

If I wasn't a PC guy, I would have honestly grabbed one by now.

I’ve owned one and disagree. It’s a pointless device to be honest.

 

[IDKFA]

As an unapologetic Xbox Stan, I am so damn tired of watching Xbox miss the easy shots. This is a god damn layup to capture the casuals and get them into the ecosystem.

You run a holiday price promo, ACTUALLY ADVERTISE IT! You have COD marketing rights. Pull a Sony and jam those ads down ppl's throats and make them assume it's an Xbox exclusive now. Just make a call of duty themed cardboard box and put the little white Xbox in there. Put "includes one month of Game Pass Ultimate" on the box for $199.99

The average casual, or their mom, or their uncle and gunna see this shit and be like "oh I guess cod is an Xbox game now, guess I have to buy an Xbox". Even if they know it's on PS they cheapest you're gunna get a PS5 with Cod for is $470.

Sure some ppl will not renew gamepass after that month but Xbox...homies...Phil...my dog...if you're REALLY going to go forward with GP then you need to bet on it and with the stacked lineup at the end of this year, THIS is the time to get users into your ecosystem for dirt cheap. This would sell like hotcakes and would get ppl hooked on GPU for a low buy in.

Lol. Yes. Trying to deceive customers that COD is an Xbox exclusive to make them drop a three figure sum on a console. I can't see that backfiring at all.

It wouldn't work anyway. Microsoft would need to confirm in trailers that COD is on other platforms. There is also nothing stopping Sony confirming via social media that COD is coming to PlayStation.

 

[Cyberpunkd]

The average casual, or their mom, or their uncle and gunna see this shit and be like "oh I guess cod is an Xbox game now, guess I have to buy an Xbox".

Is there a factual study or data behind the "dur dur stupid casuals" assumption?

 

[GHound]

This episode of "Real Shower Thoughts from a Fanboy" brought to you by today's sponsor Captain Phil cereal, the only cereal that tastes like you're going third party. Next up on the NeoGAF variety show, "Dr. Moneybags or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Microtransaction." Stay tuned!

 

[Sneakysnake]

Lol. Yes. Trying to deceive customers that COD is an Xbox exclusive to make them drop a three figure sum on a console. I can't see that backfiring at all.

It wouldn't work anyway. Microsoft would need to confirm in trailers that COD is on other platforms. There is also nothing stopping Sony confirming via social media that COD is coming to PlayStation.

Microsoft needs to confirm in the trailers that it's coming to other platforms?! Where have you been? MS and especially Sony constantly promotes trailers that only feature their logo. Sony did it the entire fuckin time that they had marketing rights to cod. Where were you?! What are you talking about?? Sony did everything they could to make casuals think games like COD were playstation only. Stop.