First Xbox Series X Ad Is A Psychedelic Dreamscape (Featuring Master Chief)

Xbox Series X and Series S are launching in just over a month, and Microsoft has put out the first ad for the new hardware. The Xbox Series X and Series S ad is light on the gameplay imagery and instead sells the Xbox as a gateway to fantasia. It features Academy Award-nominated actor Daniel Kaluuya (Get Out, Black Panther).

In the ad titled "Us Dreamers," a young man comes home, puts on his headset, and is transported to a variety of locales. Those include hovering over a Viking naval battle, facing some kind of monstrous world-eater, and becoming/meeting Master Chief, who then grows larger than the planet he's standing on. This may have been in production before Halo Infinite, which was to be the Series X's big launch game, was delayed into 2021.

The accompanying tweet emphasizes the "dream" aspect, though it leans less on psychedelia and more on "blazing fast speeds" and "high visual fidelity with higher frame rates."

In an announcement, Microsoft said this is the first of its Power Your Dreams ad campaign.

"We invite you to come on this journey with us," the announcement says. "To dream of more vibrant and living gaming worlds. To dream of being instantly transported to your games at blazingly fast speeds. To dream of discovering your full gaming potential through high visual fidelity and even higher framerates, never experienced on consoles before."

This is similar to the latest PlayStation 5 ad, which also featured dream-like imagery to showcase the hardware as transporting the player to new worlds. It was slightly more grounded and focused mostly on a narrative around ships at sea. That followed the very first PS5 ad, which centered almost entirely on the DualSense controller.

For more information or to find where you can preorder, check out our Xbox Series X and Series S preorder guide.