David Fincher, the director of films likeThe KillerandGone Girl, has now helmed a strangeXboxcommercial featuring rodents. A humanoid rat embarking on his daily routine serves as the main subject, and the camera captures his emotions as he travels from an apartment complex to his office before returning home at the end of the day.
The video, titled “Wake Up”, was released on YouTube on Thursday viaXbox’s official YouTube channel. Directed by Fincher and Romain Chassaing,the commercial concludes by encouraging players to “wake up the human inside"and to play Xbox with Samsung OLED products.
Samsung recently partnered with Microsoft to bring Xbox gaming to its OLED TVs, allowing players to access Game Pass Ultimate through the cloud without owning a physical console.A Game Pass Ultimate subscriptioncosts $19.99 a month, and the service has recently focused on platform expansions like the Samsung OLEDs.
David Fincher’s Commercial Doesn’t Focus On A Specific Product
Xbox Sees Itself As An Industry-Mold Breaker
By calling viewers to “wake up,” Xbox has positioned itself as a product capable of breaking the mold. The timing of the trailer and Xbox’s new attempt to attract consumer attention isn’t a coincidence:the company reportedly plans to release a new handheld console,potentially later this year,that could have a significant impact on the entertainment industry, especially with theintroduction of the Switch 2. Capturing images of rats-turned-humans enjoying the Xbox brand is a less-than-subtle indicator that Microsoft wants to position itself as holding the key to entertainment that punches through monotony.
Our Take: This Xbox Commercial Feels Like It’s From Another Decade
The 2000s Were Filled With Weird Game Ads
Branding aside, David Fincher’s commercial is just plain weird. It’s unsettling to see life-sized rodents scurry around a city, and the realistic expressions on their animated faces do little to help viewers escape the uncanny valley.The gaming industry has put out some weird commercials in the past, such as Sony’s ad for the PS3 featuring an animatronic baby, reuploaded on YouTube byEtienneValencienne, and Nintendo’s poorly executed Wii U announcement trailer, shared byIGN,that introduced a “new controller” over three times.
Stranger still was Sony’s five-minute-long short film supporting the release of the PS3,This is Living, available on thePlayStation of EuropeYouTube channel.This isn’t the first time Xbox has released a weird trailer, either: one infamous commercial available on thePure XboxYouTube channel featured a baby rapidly undergoing the aging process after being launched out a window during birth and concluded with the now-old man crashing into a grave. The tagline? “Life is Short.”
These types of commercials were immensely popular in the late 2000s and early 2010s, and like Fincher’s project, many didn’t advertise a specific product, preferring to provide insight into each brand’s identity. It’s possible Xbox is trying to play on nostalgia, and the commercial is certainly successful in sending me back in time. That said, it’s even more likely thatXboxhas somenew products on the horizon, and it’s only a matter of time before players find out what’s next.
