Microsoft uses beer to illustrate Xbox 360 cost advantage
by Christopher Grant 
{ Mar 23rd 2007 at 1:15PM }
After yesterday's shenanigans, we imagine the guys at Microsoft strutting around their various international offices as if they were in a locker room after a big game; lots of high-fiving, butt-slapping, and other telltale indicators of competitive confidence. For example, for the European (and New Zealand ... ean) PS3 launch, they did what any self-respecting mega-corporation would do: Used beer to visually communicate the price difference between their console -- the Xbox 360 -- and their competitor's -- the PlayStation 3. UK-pub CVG received the above stockpile while Auckland, NZ's GamePlanet store got a similar treat (pic after the break). We normally would consider additional games a more appropriate metric when discussing price deltas, but we suppose they wanted to stick with the locker room theme.
Read - MS sends CVG the difference between 360 and PS3... in beer! (CVG)
Read - Microsoft NZ Tease Sony (NZGamer.com)
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 3)
Myke @ Mar 23rd 2007 1:20PM
OH MY GOD, I think MS just became my favorite PR department, seriously. They are the coolest company ever.
Fosters: Austrailian for "better value than a PS3".
LaughingTarget @ Mar 23rd 2007 1:21PM
Aww, why didn't MS do awesome stuff like this in the US?
Matt B @ Mar 23rd 2007 1:22PM
So microsoft uses Mac's? (pictured in backround)
Vidikron @ Mar 23rd 2007 1:24PM
I love it when the console companies pull stunts like this. It's always good for a laugh.
Intentless @ Mar 23rd 2007 1:24PM
mmmmmmmm..... beer..........
Duby @ Mar 23rd 2007 3:51PM
Of course, as one Australian put it to me, "Why do all Americans know Fosters? Fosters is the shittiest Australian beer!"
Todd @ Mar 23rd 2007 1:27PM
Mmmm, Fosters... Austrailian for Xbox.
Jack of No Trades @ Mar 23rd 2007 1:27PM
Please substitute that Fosters with some Red Stripe or Amberbok.
jackbob @ Mar 26th 2007 12:36PM
@3
I think those are the CVG offices.
daniel @ Mar 23rd 2007 1:38PM
#3 thats the cvg office in the picture
Game Artist @ Mar 23rd 2007 1:42PM
lol. That's awesome, but fosters is kinda vile I think.
Intentless @ Mar 23rd 2007 1:42PM
MS does use Macs for game development... Saw it on one of the behind the scene things for Bungie or some game of theirs.... A 20 x 40 room lined with mac 10s at the time...
Matthew @ Mar 23rd 2007 1:44PM
The only thing that makes me laugh about this is that Foster's isn't considered a great bear in Australia. I only asked for it once during my trip last month and after some glaring looks, I stuck to Hahn Light for the rest of the two weeks. It would be like doing it in the U.S. and using Meister Brau instead of Budweiser.
RT @ Mar 23rd 2007 3:59PM
That's it? That's all the beer that makes up the price difference? Doesn't even seem like a meaningful difference.
Matthew @ Mar 23rd 2007 1:45PM
BEER, not bear.
shase @ Mar 23rd 2007 1:45PM
is that a core or premium 360? and does it have built in wifi, free online and Bluray player?
If they try to be funny at least do it right.
The_Wind_Waker8 @ Mar 23rd 2007 1:46PM
Mmmm... Beer...
"They say beer will make me dumb
It are go good with pizza
Now that we have drunk some beer
Let's go drive a car."
^_^
Joshua @ Mar 23rd 2007 1:48PM
That's sad.
lionzub @ Mar 23rd 2007 1:50PM
Ewwww fosters!?
I'll go with the PS3 and that non-fosters beer thanks.
Myke @ Mar 23rd 2007 1:49PM
BEER IS GOOD
BEER IS GOOD
BEER IS GOOD....AND STUFF!
D @ Mar 23rd 2007 1:54PM
wow... I can't believe MS would be this dumb. They are comparing their console to Fosters? LOL. Fosters is the horse piss beer of Australia. Most Australians don't drink it but yet North America thinks that everyone over there drinks it because of the TV ads we have. So when I saw that picture, I think Fosters=shitty beer. Associate shitty beer with a console and what do you get? I'm sure even the MS fanboys can figure that one out.
THH @ Mar 23rd 2007 1:59PM
Crappy choice of beer aside, funny promo
shase @ Mar 23rd 2007 2:04PM
@18
They probably used the cheapest(and known) beer they could find
unimental @ Mar 23rd 2007 6:51PM
I think the choice in beer had more to do with Foster's offering the larger cans, thus creating a greater sense of XBOX HUGE-ness.
mcloki @ Mar 23rd 2007 2:24PM
And when they return the empties, they can pay for online.
Where's the HD DVD player? OOOOPs.
What's Nintendo going to do. Send over a keg.
D @ Mar 23rd 2007 2:14PM
they also used the biggest cans of beer too. Kind of like the 360 power supply.
No I think Fosters was chosen for a reason. It perfectly reflects the quality of the 360 and the components used to build it.
Next Generation console = console shipped without HDMI, WiFi, HighDef player and proper heat ventilation. Yeah, it's a Foster quality console for sure.
Me @ Mar 23rd 2007 4:41PM
@18. I wish you could read as it says "Used beer to visually communicate the price difference between their console -- the Xbox 360 -- and their competitor's -- the PlayStation 3." Not compare their console. Get it right before making stupid claims.
AdminT @ Mar 23rd 2007 2:22PM
All well and good, but apparently the guys in UK got a nice surprise as well when they got their first set of PS3s...
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/6474045.stm
konajinx @ Mar 23rd 2007 2:21PM
@11: Budweiser sucks. Microbrew is the best way to go for American beers (Rogue, Weyerbacher, Victory, and Dogfish Head are just some of the greats). Other than that, Belgium makes my fave beers all around.
rfom @ Mar 23rd 2007 2:30PM
Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha
What a bunch of classless, clueless idiots M$ are.
Resorting to cheap gimmicks to disrupt the PS3 launch
While Sony shows what class is - can you imagine 36 hours waiting for a console, and then you reach home with in a free taxi with a HD TV!!!!
As someone put it "Fosters is the horse piss beer of Aust"
And 360 IS a horse piss console
MASIVE DAMAGE, noisy drive, NO MULTIPLAYER, no HD, 12GB, no HDMI, no wifi, pathetic BC, nothing other vthan shooters and a buggy, hacked Live network
IslandLife @ Mar 23rd 2007 2:28PM
Great advertisement for the Mirrored Drive Door (MDD) Power Mac G4!!!
Stupid MS, tricks are for kids.
Vidikron @ Mar 23rd 2007 2:36PM
@26
Do you ever give up? Stuff like this is hilarious. I supposed you are too young to remember back in the PSX/N64 era when Sony sent a Crash Bandicoot mascot over to Nintendo N. American HQ?
DiirtDevil @ Mar 23rd 2007 2:41PM
@ #26: I feel your pain (pain for playing a system that most developers are ditching for support) :p
Jake @ Mar 23rd 2007 2:45PM
Cmon, you people bitching need to pull the wad out of your butts. This is funny. It is a nice lighthearted poke at the PS3. I love how they put the 1 bottle of beer next to the PS3. It's hilarious. I hope Sony comes back with something equally funny.
Their choice of Fosters is a bit odd, though. On one hand, it is considered piss by most people in Austrailia. On the other hand, it is cheap and comes in bigass cans, so the beer stack is larger than it would be with a more expensive, high class beer. That and bottles don't stack very well.
Slaziman @ Mar 23rd 2007 2:45PM
LOOOOOOOOOL owned!
@rfom
lol? how old are you? :/
Charles @ Mar 23rd 2007 2:45PM
For the curious, that looks like a bottle of Beck's, which I've never had.
Foster's is not good. Bud's alright. Heineken's better.
I'd love to see a comparison shot with the Wii and even more beer. =]
rfom @ Mar 23rd 2007 4:21PM
And you can see that the xbots are now turning up
Its time for all of you to repeat the magic mantra
"360 costs USD200 less"
small print: unless you want a console that has multiplayer or a console that is not going to be obselete by 2008
I would love to see FF13 on 360 - if only to see the classless xbots dumping it in favour of the latest generic third-rate alien shooter
bootsielon @ Mar 23rd 2007 2:50PM
I rather spend the extra dough in a Blu-ray player, backwards compatibility, WiFi, bigger HDD, playStation Home, a GT Demo, and saving humanity from cancer than in beer, which is only good for a belly (Turning off the chicks) and destroying brain cells, turning into an Xbot.
It's understandable Microsoft wants you to kill your brain cells with alcohol, that way Microsoft gets more sales ;)
chawboo @ Mar 23rd 2007 5:20PM
The 360 may not have built in wireless, but at least it has good games and DMC4 now. Go watch "Failure to Launch" on your Blu-ray player along with all 12 ps3 owners in Europe, I'll be playing one of the many top notch 360 games.
As far as the beer comparison goes nobody is going to go "I have to have Foster's? That sucks!" They'll think that's alot of beer! I'll get the kind I like though. Sony should be giving out the beer though. If every potential console buyer had beer goggles on then maybe the ps3 would start to look like the 360. Can you imagine waking up next to a ps3? What did I do last night? Why soes my butt hurt so bad? What is this ps3 doing here?
andres @ Mar 23rd 2007 3:02PM
@32 I wish i can save humanity from cancer...but im too busy playing all these video games that the 360 has.
Justin @ Mar 23rd 2007 3:02PM
This is childish. I hope other companies dont start resulting to this. Im glad Im not an Xbox supporter. I would feel ashamed. Its actually flattering for Sony that Microsoft is really that afraid of them. Theyre trying to lie to customers and compare that the two machines are the same when only one actually plays a next gen format. Oh sure, you can get the add on HD DVD drive but whats the point in paying the same amount, but still have your games on a regular DVD? I just dont get it. People are so brainwashed.
Piemaster @ Mar 24th 2007 11:15AM
Why are PS3 fanboys so angry? This is two hilarious MS ad campaigns, and all the PS3 fanboys have been doing is bitching about how much they think MS sucks. Maybe its because they have nothing better to do when they get bored of Resistance. At least paying $50 for online service gets you a system that works. And seriously, 200 dollars more for worse graphics? I'll stick with Gears...
Zamfir @ Mar 23rd 2007 3:04PM
I'll take the Beck's any day... a quality beer beside a quality console. Fosters is garbage, Beck's is made with 4 ingredients, the way beer is supposed to be made. Mmmmm... tasty.
WebPimp @ Mar 23rd 2007 3:04PM
@2 because here in the US, people get their panties all in a wad if you "defamed" someone like that.
Gamey McGee @ Mar 23rd 2007 6:11PM
If I were Sony, I'd counter their pithy comparison with one of my own. An Xbox Premium system, an HD-DVD drive that won't play games, and a yearly subscription to X-Box live ... which would cost the same as the PS3.
It's the same old argument, folks. Pay a little at a time or pay up front. It's up to you.
andres @ Mar 23rd 2007 3:07PM
Because when I buy a video game system I want to play video games. I do not care about hd-dvd or blu-ray. I dont care about HDMI I dont care about wi-fi . I want something that plays games.
The fact that I can get an Hd-dvd player if i want is just microsoft telling me. By our console and oh hey if you want to watch HD movies get this.
As far as blu-ray being the big thing, right now it is not. RFOM has been opened up to show that the extra blu-ray material is nothing more then just padding to make the disc look big
Draco @ Mar 23rd 2007 3:17PM
Becks over here in Canada is a non alchoholic beer you can get at the local Safeway.
Vidikron @ Mar 23rd 2007 3:23PM
@34
Apparently you are the one that has been brainwashed. What does the format have to do with the actual games? Why do you think a game being on a BR disc makes it next-gen? It's just a storage format. You could burn NES games to BR if you wanted, would that make them next-gen?
Myke @ Mar 23rd 2007 3:35PM
Vid, don't be silly, we all know next-gen games have to be displayed in 4D, and NES games are only displayed in 2D.
Silly Vid
icruise @ Mar 23rd 2007 6:32PM
"This is how much beer you have to drink to convince yourself to buy this product!"
I kid...