|
The Xbox360 is an odd entity of success. Not to
come off as bashing the system, but with the overly expensive
controllers (having less functionality than both the
PLAYSTATION3 SIXAXIS and Wii Remote), inconveniently priced storage
devices, red rings of death and the high-priced Wi-Fi Adapter (one
that can only be purchased specifically for the Xbox360) it’s quite
puzzling to see the figures for the console race, thus far.
In North America, despite the fore-mentioned
flaws, the Xbox360 has a sizable lead over the PLAYSTATION3. It’s
nearly a 2-to-1 lead. It’s no doubt this is due to the price
facilitated toward a varying market of gaming consumers, and the
superfluous marketing tactics Microsoft has employed to sell their
latest console.
Also, Master Chief and his machismo mascot
friends, all filled to the brim with action-oriented testosterone,
can’t be discounted either. Halo, Gears of War,
Crackdown, Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon: Advanced Warfighter,
Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six Vegas and dozens of other games
geared toward the 14-year-old boys and post-pubescent man-children,
has garnered Microsoft scalable opportunities for success.
Leveraging many of the Xbox360 games with the
XboxLIVE! platform has also helped push Microsoft further
into the mainstream of movies, television and even other Massively
Multiplayer Online (MMO) games. Frequently, it’s not uncommon to
find a hunting party on an MMO standing around, chatting it up about
other games they play, usually including one of the three Halo
shooters. Many young-males in North American have either heard of
Halo, played it or own it. In fact, I’m not sure what it’s like
across the pond, but Master Chief was on soda cans, cereal boxes,
hygienic products, clothing apparel and everything else in between
right before and after the launch of Halo 3. That let’s you
know just how much the Xbox brand and its iconic mascot have
permeated mainstream consumerism.
And while Gears of War may not have
breached into the everyday American home like Halo, it
certainly left a big enough impression to grace the
 likes
of news
on
a day-to-day basis for just about every American online gaming
publication leading up to its launch. Heck, it wasn’t just the
second Gears of War game that was all about hype, the
original game was so overly-promoted by Microsoft I almost decided
to stop writing about it on the day of its release.
For the most part, though, Microsoft has gone
over and beyond to push the Xbox brand into North American
homes. It’s still more commercially advertised than the PLAYSTATION3
and Wii and it carries one of the larger sections in most retailers
for software. Microsoft’s goal of making a new console stick
certainly hasn’t failed in North America, despite the poor
performance in Japan and mediocre sales in just about every other
region worldwide.
There’s no doubt, though, that if it weren’t for
North America the Xbox360 would have been dead in the water.
Microsoft has ensured that they won over the North American market
from the PLAYSTATION brand this generation, and they did so with an
impenetrable and perpetual marketing force. |
