Microsoft is stepping up their ad game. Clearly, they saw Dr Disrespect's approach and liked it. Phil Spencer must've rallied the Xbox team and hit the drawing board. How would they capture the respect of fans while advertising the Xbox Game Pass for PC at the same time?
Luckily for them, they had a nice pool of streamers to choose from at Mixer. Picking up Shroud was a no-brainer, the Xbox team and FPS star partnering up to formulate an entertaining ad.
The short video begins in an action-packed setting. Shroud is hang gliding through the sky while playing Halo on a mobile setup and for some reason, a cute beaver with a lil' helmet is strapped to his chest. Then suddenly, the facade ends. The fourth wall instantly shatters as everything on the set is revealed to be a ruse – even the beaver.
The ad's professional voice actor begins to confess that "this is all fake. It's an ad." The production team is hustling about and the director is giving out orders in the background, but Shroud simply states, "can we just show the games?" The tone instantly changes when the narrator responds with "Sure thing, Shroud." Xbox boasts over one hundred "high-quality games on ...Game Pass for PC."
Marketing ploys like this can often backfire in a company's face, but this time around fans have responded well to the combination of humor and transparency. The Xbox Game Pass advertisement has a very strong like ratio on YouTube, not to mention a comment section that is filled with positive remarks. Anyone who's seen the past few YouTube rewinds know that this is hardly ever a given on the platform.
Shroud promoted the small ad on his Twitter as well, not taking things too seriously.
Lately, Shroud has been streaming a good deal of VALORANT, speculating over the potential success the upcoming shooter is capable of. He's pretty optimistic, though other streamers feel differently, namely Dr Disrespect. Either way, it seems that the Xbox Game Pass beta for PC is already off to a great start, as Microsoft transitions deeper into monthly-subscription based services.