Xbox 360 Welcomes PS3 to the Next-Generation

On March 23, the much talked-about Sony Playstation 3 hits shelves in Europe (and Australia). The well-publicized production delays caused Sony to initially limit the PS3 release to the US and Japan, forcing European gamers to wait until production scaled up to allow acceptable release unit availability. Already a year behind Microsoft's XBox 360 console in the US, the PS3 has an even greater gap to contend with in Europe now. Add that to the raised cost of the European PS3 (compared to its lower-priced US counterpart - apparently Sony is willing to subsidize European gamers quite as much), and Sony has quite an obstacle to overcome to catch up to Microsoft. Enter EU launch night, a hallowed event for gamers (and techies in general) everywhere, when prospective purchasers will camp outside of stores, waiting for the clock to strike midnight, to become one of the first to own the dazzling new system. Video game console companies use this as a way to drum up excitement, sometimes offering additional incentives to launch night buyers or throwing parties at select mega-stores. Following this vein (and possibly also in an effort to appease the jilted European gamers who were forced to wait extra long for their PS3), Sony threw such events at large stores in London, Paris, and other large cities. Some were given free 46" plasma HDTV's and a cab ride home (to prevent console-related violence), and others were treated to a retail "party" aboard a boat moored near the Eiffel tour (serving as a temporary electronics store). Obviously, Sony expected such perks and their resulting press coverage (read: free advertising) to help bolster PS3 sales, but what they didn't expect was a little competition at their own launch.



It might not surprise some that Microsoft, the Stalin of technology competitiveness, did not sit by idly and let Sony steal the spotlight. In a console launch season that has seen plenty of advertising controversy, from Sony's super creepy floating baby commercial to Nintendo's almost complete lack of advertising, it seems that nothing was off-limits, even sabotage. In an attempt to sway gamers and cash in on some free advertising of its own, Microsoft funded various pranks around some of Sony's higher profile events. In response to Sony's floating gala in Paris, Microsoft hired a boat and painted it with Xbox themes, including a large message in almost international wording: "XBOX 360 [HEART] YOU." This boat drove up and down the Seine River, circling Sony's boat to the accompaniment of overpowering whistles from the deck and nearby rooftops, drowning out Sony's own PR messaging. Microsoft also sent text messages to journalists across France, wishing them a good evening (of waiting around for nothing, presumably), courtesy of XBox 360.



In London, gamers waited as long as 36 hours in the notoriously miserable and cold London weather for their consoles, but Microsoft had something to say about this as well. Microsoft "good samaritans" wandered the crowd passing out free chairs with www.shkyw.org printed on them. While the ardent PS3 fans initially greeted these chairs with enthusiasm, mobile internet users in the crowd soon discovered their true meaning: Shouldn't Have Kept You Waiting, courtesy of Xbox 360. The URL sent users to a splash page sarcastically welcoming late-comer PS3 to the next-generation.

More hijinks were held elsewhere, including Microsoft sending a premier English video game news site £146 worth of Foster's beer - the price difference between the Xbox and PS3 - with a note saying "What would you purchase for £146...? Signed, Xbox 360." Such guerilla marketing techniques, while humorous, are also interesting because of their nature of direct attacks on competitor's products. Citing higher costs and longer waits, Microsoft hoped to steal Sony's launch thunder and garner its own free publicity (a move that is highly-yet-understandably anticompetitive from Microsoft). Additionally, rarely does one see such targeted ads, reaching out directly to consumers who are in the process of buying a competitors product. Wouldn't it be strange if you reached for a tube of Crest toothpaste and representatives from Colgate suddenly showed up to try to get you to second guess your purchase (or if the adjacent Colgate tube itself somehow tried to communicate to you!)? This level of advertising prank is usually not pulled off by large corporations, rather being more commonly relegated to college fraternities or media conglomerates, but in the current age where companies pay dearly to get you to notice them, maybe this will become more common. Microsoft obviously thought it was worth the expense to pull off these pranks, just as Sony must have thought it was worthwhile to fund their launch events, spending an estimated £250,000 on the TV/cab ride promotion alone (or maybe they were stuck in a prisoner's dilemma, both spending vast sums of money* with no sway of sales levels either way). Given how large the multi-billion-dollar video game industry has become, and seeing how opulent all events gaming are becoming, it seems that such strongly competitive advertising is only going to become more commonplace.

*It should be noted that Sony is somewhat of a groundbreaker in the expensive and innovative advertising field, with such cool campaigns as paying graffiti artists to create large murals for its Playstation Portable device in public hot spots. It seems that the more money is at stake, the more companies are willing to spend to innovate and get their brand our there.

Source (one of many possible): http://www.inform.kz/showarticle.php?lang=eng&id=149589

--Risto, Cheryl, Joe