Xbox was doing some marketing recently (Microsoft's gaming division is often criticized for not doing enough marketing, especially around the release of new games), and ended up releasing a terrible ad to promote Xbox Game Pass.At first I (foreign media Eurogamer) thought it was okay. Although it was a bit strange, I could accept it.The ad mainly compares the experience of renting games from stores in the past and playing games through Game Pass today.

But the more I watched, the more reality began to collapse. The ad was playing before my eyes, as if suspended in the middle of a dark room, and my brain was completely unable to comprehend its meaning.The various concepts in the ad were strung together in a way that made sense and fooled me into thinking everything was normal, but as it played over and over again, it was as puzzling as an Escher painting.Which begs the question: What exactly is this new Xbox Game Pass ad trying to say?

Let's take a look.A sad man appears in a dark room surrounded by boxes of physical Xbox 360 games.He looked hot, tired, and maybe hungry.You'd think he was craving food and water, but no... the camera cuts to a delivery slot in the wall of the room, and someone is inserting an Xbox 360 game through the small opening.That's Gears of War.It turns out the man was in a "return drop box at a game rental store."He grabbed the box of games as if he'd been stuck in the wilderness for days and suddenly saw a cheese sandwich.He shook it and kissed it wildly.The subtitle "THAT WAS THEN" appeared on the screen, and then it switched back to modern times, a glamorous family game environment

I’m not against the absurd, I even like the absurd.But there’s really no logic at all, right?

If this man is hungry for new games, why are there so many in the drop box? There's obviously a ton of games in there, but he's acting like he hasn't seen them in weeks.I used to work at a rental store and we would empty the return bins several times per shift.By this logic, between clears, this person should see hundreds of returned games every day.What's his problem? Isn't one hundred items a day enough?

But that’s not the most intolerable thing about this ad for me—I even gave it a break the first time I watched it.The more I look at it, the more I realize it doesn't hold up at all on a logical level.The person "in the past" in the ad was not the consumer at all.He's the store clerk (or some weird guy hiding in the returns bin).So when the scene cuts to modern times, what exactly is the comparison going on? This guy felt like not enough games were being returned to him in the past, and now he can play a lot of them through GamePass? It's not a comparison at all - it's just two "game-related scenes" shoehorned together.

Some people might say that Game Pass is a bit like a "rental service", which is probably what the advertisement wants to express.But if you think about it seriously for five seconds, the comparison completely collapses.It used to be that you could basically rent all the new games, and of course they were sometimes borrowed, but you could try them out.Our store allowed you to rent three at a time for five days (if I remember correctly - it was more than 20 years ago, and I spent most of my time watching "Fast and Furious" on repeat and staring at the N-Gage in the warehouse).This experience is quite good.Although Game Pass also offers many games, you cannot choose all new games, nor can you "borrow" them for a few days at a fixed price and then pay them back.The comparison simply doesn't hold up.

Plus, going to a rental store is part of the experience, browsing the aisles with friends and picking out a game to play for the weekend, picking up some snacks along the way.This is part of the entire entertainment process.I like this feeling, and I dare say a large number of Xbox players also like it.The ad is not offending nostalgia, but rather failing to understand that nostalgia is something positive, warm, and something that can be exploited.

Next the ad says, "Now, new games are being added all the time." The man who was once stuck in the return box seems to have found meaning in his dimly lit living room through Game Pass.But life seems more depressing than that bright, possibility-filled rental store—and let’s pretend that “a hundred items a day is not enough” is a reasonable setting.

The ad ends with "This is how we play now."The "how" and "now" are oddly emphasized, making it look like a beat poem written by a 10-year-old imitating a poetry recitation show.

The YouTube copy reads: "No more waiting in the return box. With Xbox Game Pass, new games are added all the time. Play whatever you want." I'll say it again: this makes no sense.The logic is inconsistent.I actually recognize the position of Xbox in the market and the value of Game Pass.

I know this is just an advertisement, but it reflects that Microsoft's current understanding of the player ecosystem is confusing and lost.Players are nostalgic for the Blockbuster era more than ever.Game Pass is much more convenient than driving to the store to rent discs, I admit that.But the ad could have been put in a warmer, more emotionally relatable way: Game Pass is a modern "rental store"—not that.

The ad (and if you're in a bad mood, you can even extend the review to the entire Xbox brand) is like a children's flip book: put a badger's head on a cat's body, and give it a pair of running shoes and a pirate hat.A mess with no clear identity.I have to go.I really don't know what this ad is about.