Microsoft to spend 'tens of millions' promoting 360

..in the run-up to Christmas.

http://www.mcvuk.com/news/31825/Xbox-spending-tens-of-millions-on-Xmas

As I was driving into the big local shopping complex this morning there was a big sign right on the entrance to the car park, before you even got in, saying simply Xbox 360 £129.99. Me thinks there might be more than a few units leaving shelves this Xmas.

Microsoft throwing around millions for advertising? No way, how can this be true?

In other news because Nintendo is not able to keep up with the demand for the Wii. They have sifted most of their Wii advertising over to the DS.

M$ give 10 000 xbox 360 with some games for the orphans around the world... Now that would have been some well spent publicity money. Instead you will see geow 2 publicity every 5 min on fox

How come microsoft isnt putting 10s of millions into developing some first party exclusives? woobabooba

Typical Microsoft. Gloat about blowing wads of cash, where as all the other companies are spending similar amounts of money, and remaining reserved and respectful.

Go America! Go Capitalism! Woooo... .. oo.. yeah.

*facepalm*
0rin

I live in Europe and im not a big fan of American Capitalism...But whats the bad thing on MS advertising its system? Its part of the business and thats nice for us as gamers. More systems sold, more companies making games for it, etc

Typical Microsoft. Gloat about blowing wads of cash, where as all the other companies are spending similar amounts of money, and remaining reserved and respectful.

Go America! Go Capitalism! Woooo... .. oo.. yeah.

*facepalm*
0rin

Yeah. according to this, Sony likes to gloat about spending big wads of cash as well.

But of course, Microsoft is the only one that gets ragged on for it. That's certainly fair.

[QUOTE="0rin"]Typical Microsoft. Gloat about blowing wads of cash, where as all the other companies are spending similar amounts of money, and remaining reserved and respectful.

Go America! Go Capitalism! Woooo... .. oo.. yeah.

*facepalm*
The_Game21x

Yeah. according to this, Sony likes to gloat about spending big wads of cash as well.

But of course, Microsoft is the only one that gets ragged on for it. That's certainly fair.

FYI for anyone who doesn't know me... it's sarcasm. ;)

Typical Microsoft. Gloat about blowing wads of cash, where as all the other companies are spending similar amounts of money, and remaining reserved and respectful.

Go America! Go Capitalism! Woooo... .. oo.. yeah.

*facepalm*
0rin

um that quote is from the UK headquarters, not america....

M$ give 10 000 xbox 360 with some games for the orphans around the world... Now that would have been some well spent publicity money. Instead you will see geow 2 publicity every 5 min on fox

Franko_3

And LBP....

[QUOTE="woobabooba"]How come microsoft isnt putting 10s of millions into developing some first party exclusives? Locke562

Totally i mean:

http://www.metacritic.com/games/bests/2006.shtml

Darn look how bad it is. All that advertising clearly bought it high scores.

Or hey this:

http://www.metacritic.com/games/bests/2006.shtml

Darn look, 10 perfects. All bribed no doubt. Anything below that is purely cause of adveritsing and..yeah you know what, I can't even make this up anymore i just feel like a Tool for it, I'll leave it to you.

This is great newsFFXIII360

[QUOTE="0rin"]Typical Microsoft. Gloat about blowing wads of cash, where as all the other companies are spending similar amounts of money, and remaining reserved and respectful.

Go America! Go Capitalism! Woooo... .. oo.. yeah.

*facepalm*
The_Game21x

Yeah. according to this, Sony likes to gloat about spending big wads of cash as well.

But of course, Microsoft is the only one that gets ragged on for it. That's certainly fair.

If they give me a free 360 and 10 free games of my choice I'll promote them :D

Sadly I can't afford a 360 this holiday season, to many games to buy for the PS3

Nothing bad with advertisement, this is business

[QUOTE="The_Game21x"]

[QUOTE="0rin"]Typical Microsoft. Gloat about blowing wads of cash, where as all the other companies are spending similar amounts of money, and remaining reserved and respectful.

Go America! Go Capitalism! Woooo... .. oo.. yeah.

*facepalm*
0rin

Yeah. according to this, Sony likes to gloat about spending big wads of cash as well.

But of course, Microsoft is the only one that gets ragged on for it. That's certainly fair.

MS is doing business my friend. Nowhere are they saying they are SPENDING millions so you WILL BUY the product. They are SPENDING millions to PROMOTE their product in HOPES that you will BUY it. See... that's very different than "WILL BUY" right? Yes, it is. Thank you.

Now every company is guilty of throwing around sales figures to make themselves look like they are doing good. Whether it's MS with it's high 3rd party software sales, Sony using the PS3 as a multi media device and spinning the PS3's sales in "We beat the 360 in X months and have won the format wars thanks to PS3" or Nintendo and "Wii sells, we are rich bastards! Low cost dev games with full price pay is win!" (yes I realize these are no actual sayings but you get the gist ;) )

How is MS any different? How are they any worse or not so worse? Frankly MS is doing their business, and I see nothing snoddy about them. Whether it's using their "awesome and rich" money to secure third party exclusives, or to gain time exclusives or content, or if it's to use to promote heavily on products and make the consumer aware, what is it that they are not doing that's "for the good of their company" again?

No one is a victim here, I don't get why company X is somehow making YOUR life hard though, (not yours exactly) but the way people bash MS or someone for doing business and being "disgusted" by it in some form even if it has no actual relevance to their life, is just baffling... :|

[QUOTE="The_Game21x"]

[QUOTE="0rin"]Typical Microsoft. Gloat about blowing wads of cash, where as all the other companies are spending similar amounts of money, and remaining reserved and respectful.

Go America! Go Capitalism! Woooo... .. oo.. yeah.

*facepalm*
0rin

Yeah. according to this, Sony likes to gloat about spending big wads of cash as well.

But of course, Microsoft is the only one that gets ragged on for it. That's certainly fair.

[QUOTE="The_Game21x"]

[QUOTE="0rin"]Typical Microsoft. Gloat about blowing wads of cash, where as all the other companies are spending similar amounts of money, and remaining reserved and respectful.

Go America! Go Capitalism! Woooo... .. oo.. yeah.

*facepalm*
0rin

Yeah. according to this, Sony likes to gloat about spending big wads of cash as well.

But of course, Microsoft is the only one that gets ragged on for it. That's certainly fair.

They said they are spending 20 million to MARKET their product, not advertise. Now I know most people on SW probably don't know the difference, but marketing has to do with product placement, product ordering, training, product quality, product serive and yes advertising. In reality 20 million is not that big of a number for marketing on a year to year basis (for international companies) but on a single holiday it is somewhat significant. Companies like Proctor & Gamble spend even more then that as do large airlines...

[QUOTE="The_Game21x"]

[QUOTE="0rin"]Typical Microsoft. Gloat about blowing wads of cash, where as all the other companies are spending similar amounts of money, and remaining reserved and respectful.

Go America! Go Capitalism! Woooo... .. oo.. yeah.

*facepalm*
0rin

Yeah. according to this, Sony likes to gloat about spending big wads of cash as well.

But of course, Microsoft is the only one that gets ragged on for it. That's certainly fair.

Jack Tretton confirmed that there were in excess of 15,000 kiosks for people to play. These kiosks cost money, to the tune of 30 million. No, they didn't outright say "we're spending this much money so you'll buy our products" but the kiosks speak for themselves. What are demo kiosks if they aren't playable advertisements? They want you to spend, so they give you a nice, big, interactive reason to do so.

Microsoft's level of arrogance doesn't come close to matching Sony's as they were at the start of this generation. Hell, they've even conceeded that, odds are, they're not going to beat the Wii. The only reason Sony hasn't been as arrogant as they were in the past is because they can't afford to be. This generation, they thought they could sit back and relax as the PS3 continued the PS2's dominance but they were wrong. Both Microsoft and Nintendo gave them a swift kick to the head in that regard.

I'm not victimizing Microsoft. The tone of your earlier argument made them out to be the bad guys while everyone else was a damn saint in your eyes. I'm just putting things in perspective.

"where as all the other companies are spending similar amounts of money, and remaining reserved and respectful."

You did say that, did you not?

This is great newsFFXIII360

Typical Microsoft. Gloat about blowing wads of cash, where as all the other companies are spending similar amounts of money, and remaining reserved and respectful.

Go America! Go Capitalism! Woooo... .. oo.. yeah.

*facepalm*
0rin

is just some way to bash America? because microsoft has a business strategy?

We are arging two different things here. You guys are arguing that its just marketing. Which truely is fine.

I'm not arguging about them marketing. I'm arguing about them gloating about how much they are spending openly to websites, like this.

It just seems arrogant to me. thats is all.
0rin

It's also meant to make the platform more appealing to developers to help draw their titles to the platform.

[QUOTE="0rin"]Typical Microsoft. Gloat about blowing wads of cash, where as all the other companies are spending similar amounts of money, and remaining reserved and respectful.

Go America! Go Capitalism! Woooo... .. oo.. yeah.

*facepalm*
shoeman12

is just some way to bash America? because microsoft has a business strategy?

We are arging two different things here. You guys are arguing that its just marketing. Which truely is fine.

I'm not arguging about them marketing. I'm arguing about them gloating about how much they are spending openly to websites, like this.

It just seems arrogant to me. thats is all.
0rin

[QUOTE="0rin"]Typical Microsoft. Gloat about blowing wads of cash, where as all the other companies are spending similar amounts of money, and remaining reserved and respectful.

Go America! Go Capitalism! Woooo... .. oo.. yeah.

*facepalm*
shoeman12

is just some way to bash America? because microsoft has a business strategy?

[QUOTE="shoeman12"]

[QUOTE="0rin"]Typical Microsoft. Gloat about blowing wads of cash, where as all the other companies are spending similar amounts of money, and remaining reserved and respectful.

Go America! Go Capitalism! Woooo... .. oo.. yeah.

*facepalm*
0rin

is just some way to bash America? because microsoft has a business strategy?

I do. I own some of their stock :)

..in the run-up to Christmas.

http://www.mcvuk.com/news/31825/Xbox-spending-tens-of-millions-on-Xmas

As I was driving into the big local shopping complex this morning there was a big sign right on the entrance to the car park, before you even got in, saying simply Xbox 360 £129.99. Me thinks there might be more than a few units leaving shelves this Xmas.

speedsix

Well, Microsoft needs to hype their system and the games for the holidays. They just did a price drop in Europe, so why not annouce it to the public. XBox 360 haven't been selling that great in Europe, so they really need to do something about it. I think M$ is doing a decent job promoting their system and hyping their big name games. They really just need to bring more JRPG's to Japan and create at least 50% more exclusive games for the 360. Hopefully we'll get that come Sept 25th.