Muse (see above) could probably get a whole concept album out of gaming hardware somehow developing a voice and learning to sing. The hardware could provide backing vocals on the album and there would be a recurring motif about state surveillance not being “a game” (or something) amid the fiddly guitar solos.
For other musicians, such a febrile and nightmarish vision of the near future is simply a handy way to promote their new joint track. For the single ‘Bad Decisions’, benny blanco, BTS and Snoop Dogg (it’s always Snoop Dogg in the middle of these things, isn’t it?) have partnered with Microsoft to create the “first-ever Xbox singing controller”.
It is tied into the Forza Horizon 5 racing game which came out in 2021. “The controller, sure to become a prized-collectible item for gaming and music fans alike, features custom artwork, the names of the artists and a speaker attached to the back which allows you to listen to the new single out loud through the press of a button,” explains Microsoft.
People hoping to get one of the controllers have to follow the official Xbox account on Twitter and retweet its post about the competition. They also have to include the (somewhat long and clunky) #BadDecisionsSongXboxSweepstakes hashtag.
Entries close on 25th August. There were, 10 days into the competition, already 18,000 retweets and almost 8,000 quote tweets. It would not be a gaming activation without some sort of Twitch involvement, of course. The ‘Bad Decisions’ video was launched with a 75-minute livestream on Xbox’s Twitch channel on 5th August. During the livestream there was a demo of the branded singing controller in action to whip up further interest and to power even more retweets and competition entries.
Only 30 of the controllers have been made and all 30 will be given away through the competition. The fact that this controller is extremely limited edition makes this a pretty compelling competition.
The real test of its audience impact for the artists involved, however, will be checking to see how many of them are kept as opposed to quickly listed as “unopened” for sale on eBay.
