As part of its “Video Game Week”, Late Night with Jimmy Fallon played host to the Xbox One last night. Microsoft's Phil Spencer wore a Sunset Overdrive tee shirt and his best confident smile as he repeated the phrase “coming this fall” several times over the course of the five minute segment. It's interesting to watch these appearances, contrived as they are, because it shows how these companies will market their products to those outside the “core”.
For example, Spencer describes the Xbox One as an “all-in-one entertainment system. Killer place to play games, live TV coming to Xbox One. All of your entertainment, right here.” Fallon, working off the notes he's been given about the console, asks about cable and Xbox Live services like Netflix. Kinect is branded as something that lets you Skype in splitscreen while you play your games, and control your console with just your voice. “The future is here,” Fallon jokes. Of course, no one mentions privacy concerns.
The games Microsoft has selected to show off the Xbox One to this particular audience are Killer Instinct and Forza 5. For Killer Instinct, Spencer lets Fallon win to rouse cheers from the audience. For Forza 5, Fallon gets to sit in a vaguely car-shaped construct and use a wheel to play. He actually seems to enjoy playing Forza as he cuts across Spencer, who is explaining how they've laser-scanned Prague to digitally replicate it for the game, to enthuse about it.
“This is gonna be the Christmas gift everyone's gonna be talking about,” Fallon proclaims. Let's see what he says about the PS4 when he has it on the show tonight.
