8 Ways Microsoft Saved The Xbox One With Savvy Marketing
1. Making Backwards Compatibility A Thing
Marketing objective: Extending product lifetime.
This was the marketing coup to end all marketing coups. Originally thought to be impossible to pull off with the console’s architecture – and something Microsoft was adamant wouldn’t come to the console – suddenly gamers could play their typically vast back catalogue on the Xbox One.
Better yet, unlike Sony’s PlayStation Now, you didn’t have to pay for games you already own. That’s a powerful marketing message.
Sure, BC has netted an extra billion hours of play-time on the Xbox One, but that’s a drop in the game-playing ocean. It’s not really about the ability to play old games (if more than six people actually played Trine 2 when it went backcompat, I’ll eat my fedora with mustard), it goes back to appealing to brand fans, enticing 360 owners to stick with Microsoft.
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Are you still firmly in Camp Sony, or did Microsoft entice you over these past couple of years? Let us know in the comments!