Microsoft Highlights Xbox Adaptive Controller Users in New Super Bowl Commercial

[cageymaru]

Microsoft has released an extended version of its upcoming Super Bowl commercial that highlights the challenges that young people with disabilities may face when simply trying to have fun. The commercial shows how the Xbox Adaptive Controller can bring smiles to kids, levels the playing field, and empowers them to fit in with everyone else playing video games.

When technology empowers each of us, it empowers all of us. This Super Bowl, follow the inspirational story of passionate young gamers rising to the top of their game with a little help from their friends, family and the Xbox Adaptive Controller. The story illustrates Microsoft's commitment to building accessible technology that levels the playing field and creates opportunity for all of us.

 

[clockdogg]

Ah...how sweet. Microsoft expanding their data mining workforce.

 

[DukenukemX]

Wasn't that what the Kinect was for?

 

[DNMock]

Yes, let's put those kids into the only community worthy of the title "toxic"; The world of the 12 year old online gamer who just figured out they are anonymous and the repricussions for acting like a punk are tiny.

 

[Hatriot]

I know this is corporate fake PR garbage, but if some kid with a less than a perfect life can escape for a bit of "normal" kid fun then props to them for making it happen.

 

[Ghoststalker]

We have a few of these controllers at the VA iO work at for our disabled Veterans and the controllers are legit awesome.

 

[odditory]

Every Superbowl commercial now:

 

[SingleT]

Damn, so much negativity in this thread over Microsoft, commercials, the super bowl.

What if you had a physical deformity or chronic condition and couldn't do the things you enjoy due to circumstances that you had no control over? Show some compassion, people.

 

[horrorshow]

I think this is great and should have happened 10+ years ago!

(some of you guys need to chill out, this is about helping the less fortunate!)

 

[modi123]

Super ad. Glad to see MS is going the distance with their products.

It's a nice extension of an ad already running with the Owen kid playing.

 

[DNMock]

Damn, so much negativity in this thread over Microsoft, commercials, the super bowl.

What if you had a physical deformity or chronic condition and couldn't do the things you enjoy due to circumstances that you had no control over? Show some compassion, people.

Yup, you are right, MS is just doing this and dropping 50 mil or whatever it is per commercial just out of the kindness of their hearts. No way they are doing this as a means of exploiting those handicapped kids for pure marketing propaganda.

Personally, I don't take kindly to exploiting those kids for profit to be all that admirable, but to each their own.

 

[TangledThornz]

I'd like to see wounded vets get access to these too.

 

[modi123]

TangledThornz - I would think they would be available under their military and veterans specific area. https://military.microsoft.com/

 

[taz-nz]

Yup, you are right, MS is just doing this and dropping 50 mil or whatever it is per commercial just out of the kindness of their hearts. No way they are doing this as a means of exploiting those handicapped kids for pure marketing propaganda.

Personally, I don't take kindly to exploiting those kids for profit to be all that admirable, but to each their own.

This is net loss product for Microsoft, it was never designed to break even, the Superbowl ad is just them doubling down on their commitment to people with physical disabilities, by increasing awareness of the controller in the wider community, they can help more people. Microsoft has a whole division dedicated to philanthropy https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/philanthropies

 

[Ghoststalker]

I'd like to see wounded vets get access to these too.

See my post above. We use them.

 

[Strongarm555]

It’s not that often (ok, it’s never happened) that I get emotionally impacted by the acts of a corporation, but my eyes started to leak a little when first heard about this project.

Over the course of my evolution as a disabled gamer for the last 25 years, I’ve often felt like my situation would never be taken into consideration by any hardware/software manufacturer because there is no money to be made from it. That to play I would need to figure it out on my own. For the most part, I have. From being a keyboard only first-person shooter player, to using a joystick with my foot and mouse with my hand, to my current setup using a mouse with 20 buttons and using 4 foot buttons. And I can play, and people can’t tell I have any limitations, but it’s by far a perfect setup and I still run into situations that I just can’t do what I need like everybody else. Consoles have always made me sad because I knew none of my adaptations would ever work. I had high hopes for the original Xbox when it came out hoping it would be a meld of PC and console so I could use it. I even bought one on launch day. Only to be frustrated by my limitations and the realization that I would most likely never be able to play on that platform.

But seeing the work Microsoft is putting into this effort with little to no expectation of making a profit, and to be willing to share their research and development really gives me hope things will get better and I will no longer be part of a forgotten group of gamers. I had joked a long time ago that I would love to be a part of Microsoft to work on accessible gaming, but never thought it would happen. I’m glad somebody followed through with my dream that I only ever thought would be a dream.

 

[Chris_B]

A realistic version of this ad would show kids of all abilities shrieking into their mics with f bombs, racial slurs, i fucked your mother comments etc. It's not very convincing as it is.

 

[Verge]

A realistic version of this ad would show kids of all abilities shrieking into their mics with f bombs, racial slurs, i fucked your mother comments etc. It's not very convincing as it is.

well on xbox playing against PC players... what do you expect?

 

[Chris_B]

well on xbox playing against PC players... what do you expect?

Not much, seen far too many vids of squeakers going batshit crazy to avoid voice comms for the most part.

 

[Verge]

Not much, seen far too many vids of squeakers going batshit crazy to avoid voice comms for the most part.

You shoulda been on playstation network when it first launched. 1/2 the usernames had the N bomb in them with no repercussions. I think you can actually report people now and they'll make them change it.

 

[Colonel Sanders]

A realistic version of this ad would show kids of all abilities shrieking into their mics with f bombs, racial slurs, i fucked your mother comments etc. It's not very convincing as it is.

Yep, great parenting these days.

 

[sfsuphysics]

Damn, so much negativity in this thread over Microsoft, commercials, the super bowl.

????

Were a crap ton of posts deleted? Because there's only 6 posts between you and the top, and only 2 could be considered negative, and in a very mild way, but even if they all were, 6 would be "so much" ?

 

[bobdabilder]

I think it's great that people, especially children, with needs get to be a little closer to what some may consider normal, but tugging the old heart string is a marketing ploy. They're exploiting people's emotions for the all mighty dollar.

Damn, so much negativity in this thread over Microsoft, commercials, the super bowl.

What if you had a physical deformity or chronic condition and couldn't do the things you enjoy due to circumstances that you had no control over? Show some compassion, people.

 

[capt_cope]

Damn. Grow a heart guys. YES the marketing dept. got involved but damn, there's no way they're making money off of this, even if this is their most effective ad campaign ever (didn't make me run out and buy an xbox fwiw.) Let them have the "moral" win for once. Whatever their intentions with the ad, this product is capable of bringing happiness to people, and it doesn't even cost you a damn thing. How about you don't discourage them from doing it again (or other companies from following suit?) If they've got the extra capital to do a "feel good" project that can create positive change... let them.


And just to clarify: the ONLY cost I can see to the average gamer here is having to see this ad instead of some other one. If that's the cost to make 10 (ridiculously low number I know) people happy... suck it up and change the channel. Marketing can tell the C-suite it was a win, and maybe some more money that might have been dumped into an exclusive title or amazing cgi ad gets funneled into new ideas to improve someone's life. I'm willing to spare 30 seconds for that.

TLDR:
Chill out.

 

[oldmanbal]

I really don't get what they're trying to do here. If this is the face of their marketing right now I don't see how they can compete with playstation and nintendo. Remember this is just a marketing team trying to push a narrative. What is it, inclusiveness? Why no promote female gaming? I think this is a big swing and a miss on their part.

 

[Sycraft]

Also why would it be bad if they are making money on it? I mean think: When you need or want something, it is quite nice when you can just get it. When a company (or individual) has said "We can make money filling that need," it means you can go out and get it, no problem. Well guess what? Same idea applies to people with special needs. It's much nicer when it is something the mass market has decided is needed enough to produce for rather than something you just can't get, or have to pay a ton to have made on a one-off basis.

As a simple example I have RSI from being hypermobile and all the computer gaming and work I do. So I need to use an ergonomic keyboard if I want to use the computer for long periods. However, I wanted a gaming keyboard. Well for years, that was a no-go. I could have ergonomic keyboards (and did) but if I wanted gaming features like mechanical keys, backlight, macros, etc I couldn't get that in an ergonomic form factor. So I harassed Kinesis Ergo to make a gaming keyboard, others did as well and the Freestyle Edge was the result. They make money on it, and I ought it gladly. I wasn't asking for charity, I was asking for the need/want I had to be addressed and I'm happy it was.

So all the more for something like this, when you are talking about people with disabilities to the point that normal control schemes are completely unusable for them. That a company is making money or not providing them the product isn't what they care about, they care that it exists at all, that it allows them to do something they wanted to but couldn't.

 

[jfreund]

I appreciate the work that goes into making alternative controllers so that a limited number of consumers can enjoy gaming; but every time the current commercial comes on, with the kid running through the streets screeching at the top of his lungs, it's instamute.

 

[Vermillion]

The amount of negativity in this thread is flat out disgusting and those with the black hearts need to have their heads examined.

I'll just point everybody here: https://ablegamers.org/ The founder, Mark, is a great person (I'm lucky to have him as a friend) and AG had their hands very deep in the Xbox Adaptive Controller design process. I was at AG headquarters and saw the controller months before announcement. The work AG has done is amazing and they aren't slowing down. The stuff they're 3D printing as prototypes right now is astounding as well.

 

[Megaslug]

Such is the way of the world today, it seems. Extremism is EVERYWHERE. I hate Microsoft, because they did X, therefore, EVERYTHING Microsoft does is just for greedy profit mongering. No, that's not how it works. But that's how everyone ACTS these days. I was going to say it started with politics, but actually, no, I think it started in other places before it spilled over into politics. Right, Microsoft is producing and selling a product they have little chance of possibly profiting from to enable those who are not like the majority of us to be able to enjoy the same things we do, because they are just nasty greedy corporate whores. Right. Hope your tinfoil hat is securely fastened.

 

[TripleAgent77]

Damn. Grow a heart guys. YES the marketing dept. got involved but damn, there's no way they're making money off of this, even if this is their most effective ad campaign ever (didn't make me run out and buy an xbox fwiw.) Let them have the "moral" win for once. Whatever their intentions with the ad, this product is capable of bringing happiness to people, and it doesn't even cost you a damn thing. How about you don't discourage them from doing it again (or other companies from following suit?) If they've got the extra capital to do a "feel good" project that can create positive change... let them.


And just to clarify: the ONLY cost I can see to the average gamer here is having to see this ad instead of some other one. If that's the cost to make 10 (ridiculously low number I know) people happy... suck it up and change the channel. Marketing can tell the C-suite it was a win, and maybe some more money that might have been dumped into an exclusive title or amazing cgi ad gets funneled into new ideas to improve someone's life. I'm willing to spare 30 seconds for that.

TLDR:
Chill out.

THIS. As much as MS (and every other greedy corporation) deserves to be crapped on, I think we can give them this one. They blow marketing dollars on the most expensive ad space in existence on this. That has to be at least somewhat commendable.

 

[Nolan7689]

Didn’t super bowl commercials used to air during the Super Bowl? Wasn’t that always the thing. Watch the Super Bowl just so you could experience all the utterly retarded ads?

Whatever. Good on MS, I think I said it in the original thread, a controller that can bring gaming to more people isn’t a bad thing. Nintendo did it with the Wii. It was a fad and conventional controls were still better BUT it still expanded the hobby. Nothing wrong with that at all.

 

[TheOne&OnlyZeke]

However you feel about the superbowl or MS, at least they've made a controller which by all accounts, works damn well for people with certain disabilities
A lot of work went into making it I would think

 

[Dahkoht]

Fuck all of you that are shitting on them for this.

Hopefully karma hits you hard.

There was nothing like this for my little sister ( born in the 70’s) , growing up who was severely disabled , and now I’ve got daughter with Down Syndrome who things like this can help more than you know.

I watched them make this and test it out with many disabled gamers I talk with , kids and adults, who got to do things with video games they never could before and loved it in its early stages.

They are doing a good thing with this , and again , I personally hope the fuckwits who are shitting on them for doing something that helps disabled folks get a little more enjoyment out of life get ran the fuck over.

I’ve been around handicapped/disabled folks for all my life and didn’t choose their lot in life , but you negative jackasses chose to be scum.

This isn’t something they through together , they spent a lot and put a lot of testing and effort into it ( I saw it being worked on and tested ) and it’s got rave reviews from the people that matter , the people it was meant for.

Some of you really , really suck , at least you don’t mind publicly admitting what a waste of oxygen you are.

 

[modi123]

Dahkoht - follow up, Microsoft has put in a large volume of effort to leverage their tech to help folk. Be it the 'Ai for Accessibility', hiring practices, or piggy backing their Cognitive Services to assist prototyping out how to better inform the visually empared.

Ex:
https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/ai-for-accessibility

https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/diversity/inside-microsoft/cross-disability/hiring.aspx

 

[DNMock]

Fuck all of you that are shitting on them for this.

Hopefully karma hits you hard.

There was nothing like this for my little sister ( born in the 70’s) , growing up who was severely disabled , and now I’ve got daughter with Down Syndrome who things like this can help more than you know.

I watched them make this and test it out with many disabled gamers I talk with , kids and adults, who got to do things with video games they never could before and loved it in its early stages.

They are doing a good thing with this , and again , I personally hope the fuckwits who are shitting on them for doing something that helps disabled folks get a little more enjoyment out of life get ran the fuck over.

I’ve been around handicapped/disabled folks for all my life and didn’t choose their lot in life , but you negative jackasses chose to be scum.

This isn’t something they through together , they spent a lot and put a lot of testing and effort into it ( I saw it being worked on and tested ) and it’s got rave reviews from the people that matter , the people it was meant for.

Some of you really , really suck , at least you don’t mind publicly admitting what a waste of oxygen you are.

Now that you are done jerking yourself off there, ask yourself this... That 200+ million dollars spent on advertising it, how far would that money have gone to help those kids if donated to St. Joe or to, I don't know, give every kid with a disability the controllers for free? Gee, I wonder.

Nope, instead of doing that, they spent that money to say "Hey, look how great we are! Aren't we something special? Buy our products now!" And obviously, their marketing strategy worked like a charm.


I haven't seen one person poo poo on MS for making said controllers. So who exactly are you cussing out and having a titty fit towards? The people who don't like the fact that MS is grandstanding about it?

 

[Dahkoht]

Yes, let's put those kids into the only community worthy of the title "toxic"; The world of the 12 year old online gamer who just figured out they are anonymous and the repricussions for acting like a punk are tiny.

Only time I’ll reply to you , because you are the worst in this thread.

Let’s just keep all the disabled in a little room away from the rest of the world , not let them play and game with other folks.

You’re right about one thing , I’d rather my daughter never hear or be around anything like you.

 

[DNMock]

Only time I’ll reply to you , because you are the worst in this thread.

Let’s just keep all the disabled in a little room away from the rest of the world , not let them play and game with other folks.

You’re right about one thing , I’d rather my daughter never hear or be around anything like you.

You know nothing about me, what I've been through or what I am, but if virtue signaling is that important to you, by all means...

 

[Soulmetzger]

If the kids are happy then I'm happy.

 

[capt_cope]

Now that you are done jerking yourself off there, ask yourself this... That 200+ million dollars spent on advertising it, how far would that money have gone to help those kids if donated to St. Joe or to, I don't know, give every kid with a disability the controllers for free? Gee, I wonder.

Nope, instead of doing that, they spent that money to say "Hey, look how great we are! Aren't we something special? Buy our products now!" And obviously, their marketing strategy worked like a charm.


I haven't seen one person poo poo on MS for making said controllers. So who exactly are you cussing out and having a titty fit towards? The people who don't like the fact that MS is grandstanding about it?

If they want to spend 200+ million dollars to pat themselves on the back for doing something "good" why not let them? An ad campaign doesn't undo the good work done in creating the controller, and I'd argue it's required to keep projects like this alive - here's a quote from their director of user research:

We got the question: how many [units will sell]? We were like, we don’t know! And we won't know until we ship. The traditional business success metrics... this doesn’t fit into any of those normal metrics. We had to move the goalpost. The [return on investment] is different. This is about allowing more people to play.

So sure if you want to put on blinders a 200+ million dollar donation to a charity might do more good than 200+ million on an ad campaign, but that ad campaign is probably the only reason the adaptive controller made it past the "that's a cool idea" stage.

 

[Sycraft]

So sure if you want to put on blinders a 200+ million dollar donation to a charity might do more good than 200+ million on an ad campaign, but that ad campaign is probably the only reason the adaptive controller made it past the "that's a cool idea" stage.

Advertising is important too. You ever discover something, a game perhaps, that has been out for years that you really wanted but never saw? You say "Why the hell didn't I know about this!" Well that's a marketing failure. They were not able to make you aware of something you wanted. Same shit with something like this. You think that if they made this all people with special needs and/or their family would magically know about it? No. However you do a big ad campaign, much more likely they will.

I'm not saying they aren't also interested in the good will it gets them, but it also needs to be advertised just to let people know there is a new option.