The Farm press packs Xbox console

Next year’s long-awaited UK launch of Microsoft’s games console, Xbox, takes a step closer next month with a media launch featuring material designed by The Farm.

The consultancy was appointed to produce a press pack, including Xbox merchandise and giveaways for the press launch, which is shrouded in secrecy. It will take place on 2 and 3 October at an undisclosed, non-UK location.

Xbox is Microsoft’s rival to Sony’s PlayStation 2 and launches in the US on 8 November. It is scheduled to arrive in the UK in the ‘first quarter of 2002’, says a Microsoft spokesman.

The press launch literature is designed to generate a buzz around the event, says The Farm account manager Iain Atkin. The material will be loosely based around a travel theme, incorporating life-jackets as a visual theme.

‘[The media] will be able to see it, touch it and play it,’ says the Microsoft spokesman. The aim of the event is to show off the hardware and the games, he adds.

The Xbox identity was created by ad agency BBH based on non-visual brand positioning work by design group Happy Dog. The console was designed by Microsoft’s in-house team in Seattle.

The Farm was appointed without a pitch on the strength of previous work with Microsoft last year.