It's no secret that video game culture has by now evolved to embrace an audience far broader than geeky teenage boys. Still, Microsoft launched its much-anticipated Xbox 360 game console with two Southern California events that separated the cool kids from the plebes: one exclusive party that took over a private Beverly Hills mansion, and a massive event for 3,000 consumers that filled a hangar in out-of-the-way Palmdale.
Microsoft global event marketing manager April McKee worked with PMK/HBH and Event Eleven to produce the celebrity-driven event on November 16 at the Beverly Hills residence, hosted by rapper Snoop Dogg, actor Wilmer Valderrama, and hip-hopper Fergie. The house, illuminated brightly in Xbox green, was visible from Sunset Boulevard, contributing to the hype about the well-publicized launch around town. Poolside, modern white furnishings from Event Eleven's warehouse also assumed the green glow cast by the lights. Felix Lighting created tall industrial-look towers from plexiglass and metal, and Creative Technology built LED towers that showed a loop of advertising and games.
Indoors, the highly stylized space-age furniture from Modern Props included ladle-shaped chairs (deep scoop seats with tall, narrow backs) in red and white, as well as more comfy couches for game playing. Guests who included Justin Timberlake, Matthew Perry, Josh Duhamel, and Paris and Nicky Hilton spent the evening trying out the new toy at 15 gaming areas in the home. (Valderrama and Snoop spent an hour in a shared game of "Madden NFL 06.")
Proving once again that those who need the least get the most, guests left the party with the coveted new Xbox 360's, which wouldn't arrive on store shelves for nearly another week to long lines of obsessed fans.
The Palmdale event handed out Xboxes too—but the attendees had to buy them (still a perk, since supply at most regular retailers on opening day was far less than the demand). In fact, the "Zero Hour" event produced by Venice-based Zed Ink was a 30-hour affair for gamers timed so that the finale coincided with the moment the new product went on sale at 9 PM Monday evening (sales officially began on Tuesday on the East Coast, so West Coasters got their mitts on the toys three hours earlier). When the time came, Best Buy trucks stocked with the new products made a dramatic entrance into the venue. "We were looking to do something totally different," McKee said. "We were looking to gear something toward the hard-core gamers."
More than 3,500 gaming fans (some of whom won their attendance privilege through international contests) and 150 members of the media converged in a 200,000-square-foot hangar in the desert location an hour from L.A. for the event, overseen by Microsoft's group manager of global events John Ellard and McKee. On their way inside, guests got their own seats for the event: white beanbag chairs they could carry around the vast open space to plop down in front of any of the hundreds of high-definition monitors set up throughout the hangar with 500 new Xboxes and games. Sponsor G4 broadcast three hours of live feed from the event for its video game show X-Play.
—Alesandra Dubin
Photos: Nadine Froger Photography
