Xbox Launch

Launching and consequently marketing Xbox in New Zealand was always going to be a challenge. PlayStation and PlayStation 2 dominated the market and Microsoft did not share in the consumer heritage of video gaming.

Xbox Launch

Agency: Republik Communications Advertiser: Microsoft New Zealand Ltd Awards: New Product or Service Introduction (Bronze)

Marketing Challenge

Before the launch of Xbox, the video gaming console market had but one name Sony PlayStation. PlayStation and PlayStation 2 had enjoyed a largely uninterrupted market dominance for 7 and 2 years respectively and, in fact, had become the generic term for the entire category both in popular culture and media coverage of youth trends. Children did not play video game consoles speculated many a columnist, they played PlayStation.

Xbox had been introduced by manufacturer Microsoft with the...

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