Microsoft recently aired an advertisement for Xbox One S which has garnered a fair share of controversy. However it has since been after facing severe criticism from the gaming community in general. The ad features a guy playing Madden NFL with his grandmother while continuously repeating “the new Xbox One S has 4K Ultra HD resolution.”
What this implies is that the new machine has 4K resolution for gaming, and this is problematic due to the fact that this might lead a newbie into believing that the Xbox One S has true 4K capabilities. The issue here is the fact that the ad heavily implies that this is indeed the case, and in all honesty Microsoft should not be airing advertisements which stretch the truth . And no upscaling regular Xbox One games does not count as 4K either.
As expected Microsoft’s YouTube channel was flooded with comments with some calling it a desperate attempt to counter the PS4’s resurgence, amongst other things.
Microsoft is having a tough time marketing HDR and 4K due to viewers not streaming advertisements in HDR and 4K. Furthermore not everyone owns a 4K TV and hence running advertisements for such a target market is indeed a difficult task.However the ad in question is exactly reminiscent of what Microsoft Executive Albert Penello said recently on Major Nelson (Larry Hryb’s) podcast.
How do we market that and be honest. You have to fudge things a little bit to show the differences, but you want to do it in a way that’s honest. So even telling customers what it looks like, we have to go through that journey”
Yeah you fudged a bit too much this time around Albert, a bit too much if I must say.
It seems as if Sony’s PS4 resurgence has really left Microsoft in a muddle, and they will really have to re-evaluate their strategy moving forward.
For those of you who saw the ad , let us know what you thought about it by commenting in the comments section below.
Edit: The Ad seems to be back up
