New Xbox One Ad Focuses on Sports, Not Gaming

One of the first Xbox One ads is out, and it actually doesn’t focus on gaming, but rather on sports — the NFL to be specific. During Microsoft’s initial unveiling of the Xbox One, the company flaunted its partnership with the National Football League and packed the new console with tons of NFL features, such as fantasy football and live-streaming of games.

The 30-second ad specifically shows off different NFL features integrated into the console, accompanied by the demonstration of voice commands, including “Xbox on” and “Xbox, Skype [person’s name here].” The big thing here is that you can tell the console to turn on while you’re finishing up getting snacks ready in time for the Sunday game, so that there’s no delay in finding the remote and switching to the NFL channel on the console.

The ad also features the ability to Skype a friend during the game and chat back and forth while still keeping the game window open on the television screen. While we’re guessing you would have most of your friends over anyway, this could be a great feature for friends living out of town that you still want to taunt while their favorite team is getting hit hard on the scoreboard.

The NFL app on the Xbox One will include a sidebar with player information, as well as fantasy football information if you’re into that kind of thing. You’ll be able to bring up your fantasy football roster while still watching the game, and will be able to see stats being updated in real-time when your favorite players catch a touchdown or complete an impressive play. The sidebar can also be used for displaying scores for other games going on, as well as checking out social media buzz.

The app can also provide personalized highlights for your favorite team, as well as featured games going on that week, that way you’ll never miss a big moment over the weekend. Overall, it seems Microsoft and NFL outdid themselves with features in the NFL app.

Furthermore, this ad proves that gaming is no longer the main focus for Microsoft with the Xbox One. The company spent a majority of time during the initial unveiling of the console discussing many of the new living room and entertainment features of the new console. It was only at E3 when the company really started talking about the gaming potential of the Xbox One.