Xbox 360 marketing repositioned for women
by Vladimir Cole 
{ Oct 11th 2005 at 10:29AM }
Microsoft appears to have tweaked their Xbox 360 launch strategy and are now targeting the
women who live with the men who game.
Though the New York Times appears to have missed this subtlety, Microsoft sounds like they're quoting notes cribbed from Nintendo's playbook when they include the following copy in an Xbox 360 brochure: "Here are some things you might want to tell your wife this thing does."
None of us can deny that Nintendo President Satoru Iwata delivered a killer keynote at the Tokyo Game Show last month. He made a strong case for creating products that draw people outside the hardcore demographic into gaming, but will Microsoft be able to execute on the same strategy with a launch lineup that largely caters to the hardcore gamer?
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Zo @ Dec 18th 2005 9:07PM
Hard core gamers will get the launch lift-off buzz they need. What Microsoft is doing is thinking past the launch to sustain sales. I believe they need to cater to the rabid fanboys to get the thing going, but once that group dries out, you need to find the next market. Fanboys will only make you so much money -- ask Sony about the PSP
ill trooper @ Dec 18th 2005 9:07PM
This explains the slim girlish figure the 360 has!
When it's standing upright, of course... The sagging sideways look is soooo Jennifer Aniston in an Angelina world.
BenR @ Dec 18th 2005 9:07PM
"Here are some things you might want to tell your wife this thing does."
Yeah, that's really targetting the female audience. Microsoft don't really understand "subtle", do they?
I think Nintendo is doing this much better with the DS. Certainly helped me out, anyway, when I bought a DS instead of the new dining room chairs :-) . Now if I could just get my girlfriend to stop playing Nintendogs for five minutes...
pspimp @ Dec 18th 2005 9:07PM
My kingdom for a full body shot.
What is the article about?
Sloopydrew @ Dec 18th 2005 9:07PM
Microsoft has no shame.
jc @ Dec 18th 2005 9:07PM
wife: you want to buy what?
-Xbox360...
wife: what is special about this that our current system can't do?
-well we can watch DVD's on it, but once the 'real' hidef version comes out we will need to buy another, more expensive X360 and a more expensive TV that supports hidef.
-umm we can play more expensive games on it
-those baldurs gate games you like probably won't work on it, but hey... look at those realistic jiggly boobs in DOA4
Personally I find that people market features into products, usually after the engineers/designers can't.
soco @ Dec 18th 2005 9:07PM
the best way to pull in a new audience, especially for women, is something Microsoft has already done. it's called Xbox live arcade, in the style of the free HDD bundled game, Hexic. even my granmdma plays theses cheap puzzle games, and Microsoft was actually implementing these things quietly, while Nintendo had just started talking.
this isn't some big secret that no one has thought about. Nokia got into the market to bring in a whole new group of people, and Microsoft and Yahoo offer freely playable games on the web.
Nintendo deserves credit for attempting to innovate in new ways, but you should also recognize the attempts of the other companies.
Not Impressed (Dmitri) @ Dec 18th 2005 9:07PM
Where are CrAzY American and Arch-360 to turn this into a console war?
Jay @ Dec 18th 2005 9:07PM
madness. so Microsoft have copied Nintendo and are now aiming to jump on their non-gamers bandwagon? hm. its hilarious that M$ try crap like this. its like XP. i was teaching my neighbour how to use his new Windows XP machine... only 6 months down the line and he was still calling me there to fix it. he decided to ditch it and go for an iMac G5 and yup... didn't take 2 weeks.
So M$ want to go for the non-gamer with all this spec nonsense and added hundred and 1 features? somebody should tell them that it takes the simple design route to get in the non-techies/gamers. iPod... GBA... non-feature filled phones (N-Gage anyone)...
so whats next on the copy list? yet another Zelda clone?
Not Impressed (Dmitri) @ Dec 18th 2005 9:07PM
Jay - A Zelda clone has already been made - It's called Kameo
Sanitarium @ Dec 18th 2005 9:07PM
IDK, how many of us can honestly say we're married to Velocity Girl?
In conclusion, M$ is the giant fucking retarded jackass dumb douchebag of marketing. Seriously, Velocity Girl, Striker, Custom Bob (whatever the hell that guy's name was who they were targeting with the interchangeable faceplates), and 360, what the hell were they thinking? What's the next xbox gonna be called? Xbox Super Neato? And who would play it? Tyrannosaurus Rex Josh?
funkonaut @ Dec 18th 2005 9:07PM
I can testify that my non-gaming wife is in no way interested in the 360 (or the PS2, PS3, GCN, GBA, Xbox, etc), because she doesn't like the controllers. She feels she doesn't have the dexterity needed to operate analog sticks, 10+ buttons, and a d-pad.
She is, however, looking forward to the Revolution because she wants to play games using its new controller. She also enjoys the DS and Nintendogs.
SickNic @ Dec 18th 2005 9:07PM
Why would they want to markt this to women? Shouldn't they be too busy in the kitchen to play games?
just this guy @ Dec 18th 2005 9:07PM
That's what I'm sayin'.
Barefoot, pregn'nt, and offen my controller!
jc @ Dec 18th 2005 9:07PM
SickNic, if you feel the need to degrade yourself to making sexist jokes... please do us the favor of at least making them original or at the very least, funny.
moomer @ Dec 18th 2005 9:07PM
Soco:
Hate to say this, but how is giving away free games on a loss making system to non gamers good for the industry in any way? Doesn't that simply encourage people to buy a system at a loss to Microsoft, and then not pay any games-makers for games. Free stuff is nice for sure, especially on the internet, but nobody actually makes money off of it. - Except advertisers, and there's no way in Hell i want to see in game pop up advertising on a very expensive 360, even if it is for free. Heck, why the hell would they want to play marble games on their husband's 360 when they can already play it on their own Mac.
Sure there's the possibility that experiencing free games might encourage non-gamers to buy a full game, but only if it's more significant than the free ones, and different to the current crop.
Compare this to Nintendo's strategy with retro games. Not only do retro games already sell well, but many of the SNES and NES classics are games that many of our wives and sisters etc. did play before SEGA and Sony put them off with their violent adult sexist themes. And at (hopefully) $1 a pop, they might actually pull something in, as compared to Microsoft's strategy of paying $1 for a new thread bikini for Kasumi. Finally, retro games don't cost anything to make having been made years ago, while, even though simple, a next gen marble game (or a next gen bikini) does.
kuroshi @ Dec 18th 2005 9:07PM
Ya missed the point. It says that the decision to buy a console is often in the hands of the wife. They are not necessarily trying to get her to play games. They are trying to get her to allow the gamer to have a 360. The main question I get from moms (none gamer decision maker) is "why does he need this Xbox"? MS can make the gamer want it all they can, but if the decision maker say no then it's a no sale. It's not about getting a non gamer to play games. It is about getting a non gamer to agree to letting the gamer have the machine. A machine FOR non gamers is the stupidest idea ever. My wife doesn't play games. She is not interested in the next gen consoles, any of them. I showed her the rev controller. Her comment was "that's cute". She will not spend $199 for a machine that plays games, because she does not want to play games. Believe it or not, it's not the controller. Non gamers actually don't really want to play games. Kudos to MS for realizing that gamers often need to justify their purchase to people who have no interest in them.
kuroshi @ Dec 18th 2005 9:07PM
The retro games on the GBA didn't sell well at all. Why pay for them at all when you can get them for free on emulators for the PC. No sell, and my wifes still not interested in playing video games. She did like the video chatting on the XBOX when we were in Japan, So she is interested in that for the 360 so she can chat with her mom. I personaly think that SUCKs and is a feature that should be dropped from the 360. I don't want her on my machines, especially the 360. She can touch the Colecovision or maybe the dreamcast, but not the black sega one.
funkonaut @ Dec 18th 2005 9:07PM
If someone needs to get their wife's permission to buy a video game console then they're whipped beyond belief, especially since women buy clothes like there's no tomorrow.
b @ Dec 18th 2005 9:07PM
My god, read the article:
"In the game wars, Playstation 2 has sold 30 million; Gamecube has sold 10 million; and the Xbox has sold 13 million IN AMERICA."
Anyone that knows nothing about the actual numbers would be easily mislead. But anyway, analysts keep talking with idiocy. Is any analyst a gamer? I bet not.
Analysts say: "DVD features don't sell consoles"
I guess they forgot one of the most important PS2's selling points. But they do have a point though, DVD doesn't sell consoles anymore, blu-ray will. HD-DVD would have sold consoles. Oh well.
Kameo to appeal to girls? Holy shit, like they care? They don't even like console controllers, for fuck's sake. Girls are too busy thinking which color is their next purse/pair of shoes/coat going to be. Or playing solitaire, hexic, on their computers/cellphones/PDAs. Only geeky girls buy consoles. If they wanna watch movies, they don't even know what blu-ray is, and by the time they will know, a blu-ray player will be cheaper than a PS3. Girls will mostly keep playing puzzle games or games that resemble soap operas, like "The Sims", but then again, it's not like they'll spend much time on it. They like to be treated well, they don't want to be the directors, much less beating the shit out of anything in Kameo, they just want to enjoy the show.
Nintendo will get most of the women this time, but still it won't appeal to most of the mainstream women.
Kuyu @ Dec 18th 2005 9:07PM
Girls think the controls are intimidating, until they actually sit down and play a few games. 90% of all games in a genre are controlled the exact same way.
I know 3 girls who'd never played anything post-SNES, and are now able to compete in Halo. (Wait until a blond in a mini-skirt and high-heels kicks your ass in a FPS. Humbling to say the least). Not dorky chicks either. You'd never suspect that these girls would even know the difference between a PS2 and an xbox.
These chicks are playing games like Burnout, Halo, and LOTR in droves. Most girls just hate sports and sci-fi games. They're willing to play the rest, even the "hardcore" ones. (what does that mean anyway?)
b @ Dec 18th 2005 9:07PM
Kuyu, yet games will never reach a 50-50 women-men ratio, nor get close. The only game that actually gets close to that is the Sims, but no other game has more women let alone the same amount of women than men.
I also may be generalizing but I don't think women's reflexes or hand-eye coordination are as good as men's.
jc @ Dec 18th 2005 9:07PM
b, yes you are generalizing
Don @ Dec 18th 2005 9:07PM
"... a launch lineup that largely caters to the hardcore gamer?"
I don't see anything "hardcore" about that launch lineup. Half of the list is sports games, and the rest is just some generic action games and FPSs, nearly all of which are sequels. I'm not sure the exact definition of what you would call a "hardcore" game, but the X360 launch titles seem to cater specifically to the average idiot.
Phong @ Dec 18th 2005 9:07PM
Way to be sexist, b
I suppose you're going to say girls aren't as smart as men now?
soco @ Dec 18th 2005 9:07PM
moomer:
what was it you hated to say? i'm not sure what you're going off on because i wasn't implying that the free game was anything other than a clever puzzle game, and that xboxlive arcade was generally these types of simpler games.
people do make money off of them, just like they make money off of web based games. xboxlive arcade is already home to retro games like mrs. pacman, pole position, and galaga.
the point, is that many people who aren't into complex games, and Microsoft has already taken an approach towards getting these gamers involved, as well as giving indie developers a place to sell their games. so now, people like my grandmother can play these simple java-like puzzle games that she loves on someone's xbox or xbox360.
Nintendo is only committing to their own library, and they'll probably get Sega's library as well, but Sega will give their library to anyone, including MS. other developers will likely open up their retrogames to all the platforms as well, so unless you want to just play a Nintendo game, you'll be able to download them all on all of the next gen systems.
the cooler part of Microsoft's approach to this, while probably more expensive at the moment, is that they're not limiting people to just Retrogames. if you read insertcredit and see some of these homebrew games, it's possible some of these may even get picked up and published, and translated, for the 360, thus bringing new and innovative games to a wider audience.
sadly, it's probably only a matter of time until we see exclusive licensing of retrogames. technically speaking, there's nothing that prevents Microsoft from allowing users to pay 10$ for a playstation emulator, and that would allow companies to offer their old PSX games for digital distribution, as broadband grows even more.
Matt @ Dec 18th 2005 9:07PM
"Jay - A Zelda clone has already been made - It's called Kameo"
Do you even know what you're talking about? No? I thought not.
Kameo is pretty much NOTHING like Zelda. Way to be a rabid moron. And besides, nothing is new anymore, get over yourself.
OTAM @ Dec 18th 2005 9:07PM
Jay,Microsoft isnt copying Nintendo by trying to bring non-gamers in man.
Have you been living under a rock when they explained the 2 SKUs?
I think the 2 SKUs will work perfectly because i've actually asked people I know who arent really into games but still like them and they said they would buy the core version. A few of them actually said "I think it's good to have a choice on what we want to buy",and isnt that the same thing J Allard said?
I think alot of you people are completely overlooking the core system because YOU won't buy it because you're the full package gamer (obviously,you're posting on a gaming blog website).
Nintendo isnt the God of videogames and I think alot of you people have a hard time coming to grips with that.
Soothsayer @ Dec 18th 2005 9:07PM
"Way to be sexist, b
"I suppose you're going to say girls aren't as smart as men now?"
Phong, don't believe all the shit that feminists toss at you. The bottom line is that men and women are fundamentally different. It is widely accepted that men are better suited to physical aspects, which include reflexes or hand-eye coordination. Obviously, one can easily finda woman who has better reflexes or coordination than most males. The point is that the statement is general (and is, in general, true). Acceptance of differences is not an accusation of inferiority.
There is one thing that's been bugging me ... if Microsoft is targeting women with "Here are some things you might want to tell your wife this thing does", then are they targeting lesbians? I might be missing something, because I didn't bother to read the nytimes article (in defiance of the blasted TimesSelect). Someone explain?
OneTopJob6 @ Dec 18th 2005 9:07PM
Soothsayer, don't be so effin' DENSE. b was not talking about "fundamental differences between men and women", he was spouting sexist stereotypes, PERIOD.
And frankly, so is this campaign. M$ are SEVERELY understating the "girl gamer" factor, small as it is already, and by typecasting women as wives and mothers instead of, say, INDIVIDUALS will only alienate further.
bob @ Dec 18th 2005 9:07PM
Soothsayer, don't be so effin' DENSE. b was not talking about "fundamental differences between men and women", he was spouting sexist stereotypes, PERIOD.
And frankly, so is this campaign. M$ are SEVERELY understating the "girl gamer" factor, small as it is already, and by typecasting women as wives and mothers instead of, say, INDIVIDUALS will only alienate further.
so wives and mothers aren't individuals then?
OneTopJob @ Dec 18th 2005 9:07PM
That's a false strawman argument. Of COURSE they're individuals. It's all about TYPECASTING: They can either be marketed towards as the individuals they are, or stereotyped into traditional gender roles. Take your pick.