Microsoft’s future strategy for Xbox has been made clear through a new TV advert, which bizarrely riffs on Scream.
With Xbox Series X/S sales still coming up short, behind the PlayStation 5 and Nintendo Switch, Microsoft is already making a pivot towards the next generation.
The company has teased its next gen hardware plans on several occasions, implying it’s a handheld device similar to the Switch. Microsoft is also looking beyond Xbox consoles for success, as shown in its multiplatform shift for some first party Xbox titles.
With its subscription service Xbox Game Pass also available on PC and Amazon Fire TV sticks, it’s reasonable to ask what is the point of owning an Xbox Series X/S at all – something that is inadvertently highlighted in a new TV advert.
In the TV clip, which is a parody of 1996 horror film Scream, a woman receives a call from an unknown person ‘who wants to play Xbox’.
When she asks if you need an Xbox for that, the caller laughs, before replying: ‘You don’t need an Xbox to play Xbox.’
Leaning into the classic Scream line, the caller later asks ‘what is your favourite video game?’ before highlighting Xbox’s new compatibility with Amazon Fire TV sticks.
Despite saying she doesn’t own an Xbox beforehand, the woman for some reason has an Xbox controller lying about the house, which she uses to boot up Starfield through her TV.
You can play Xbox games through Amazon Fire sticks via the Xbox TV app, as long as you have a subscription to Game Pass Ultimate. As such, there’s no need to have an Xbox Series X/S console, as long as you’re happy playing games via the cloud.
It’s a bizarre advert pitch though, to essentially devalue any need for an Xbox console, in what’s a clear sign that Microsoft has given up on trying to sell the current generation of hardware.
The appeal of Xbox Game Pass has also been brought into question recently, after Microsoft confirmed plans to raise prices and ditch day one games for the cheapest tier. This change, which is set to start in September, comes ahead of Call Of Duty’s arrival on the service.
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