In-world advertising is always a fun tactic for gaming brands. And now, Minecraft has gotten into the act, enlisting ad agency 215 McCann to build a giant machine inside the Minecraft world—whose mismatched components serve as marketing for a special update to the popular building game.
For years, the various versions of Minecraft—mobile, Xbox One, PCs—haven’t been compatible with each other. If you build your world on platform, and a friend builds a world on another platform, you can’t visit each other.
For the first time in the history of Minecraft, tens of millions of players will be united across different platforms and devices and able to play together regardless of whether they’re playing on mobile, Xbox One, or Windows 10 PCs.
But yesterday, that all changed. Microsoft explains:
The big day is finally here!
It’s probably the most significant update we’ve made in Minecraft’s recent history – we’re releasing a new version of the game that lets players on Xbox, mobile, VR and Windows 10 play together!
And not only that! It lets you access oodles of player-made goodness on Marketplace! It lets you take that Marketplace goodness from one device to another! It lets you play your Realm on console (for example), hop off, then pick up where you left off on your phone! It lets you join massive servers, with communities numbering in millions of players and eccentric minigames to suit every taste!
The new update to the game is called “Better Together.” And to help market it, 215 McCann built a colossal in-game machine—which players will soon be able to visit—that embodies this sense of togetherness. The “Togetherness Machine” uses claws to grab pieces of the game’s separate platforms and brings them together in a unified village.
The point is to remind players that they can engage with building and breaking cities in real time with other players on different platforms.
Here’s footage of the Togetherness Machine:
It’s great placement, as the cross-platform capability is good news for existing players at least as much, or not more so, as it is for would-be players. The machine will be available in-game in about a month.
CREDITS
Client: Microsoft Xbox
Title: “The Togetherness Machine”
Agency: 215 McCann
Chief Creative Officer: Scott Duchon
Creative Director: Neil Bruce
Copywriter: Andy Holdeman
Art Director: Zach Lepine
Editor: Carson Bell
Producer: Sarah Sweeney
Director of Integrated Production: Alex Spahr
Business Director: Peter Goldstein
Account Director: Drew Porter
Account Executive: Sam Brody
Group Strategy Director: Brian Wakabayashi
Strategy Director: Cassidy Wilber
Communications Strategist: Amy Tucker
Production Company: Blockworks
Recording Studio: One Union Recording
Mixer: Joaby Deal
Original Music: Robot Repair
Minecraft Built a Colossal Machine Inside the Game to Advertise a Special New Update