Most press conferences at E3 end with some kind of exciting, beautiful-looking, not-yet-released game developers canât wait for you to experience.
Microsoft ended their joint Xbox / Bethesda showcase with a mini fridge.
In Microsoftâs defense, the gorgeously coiffed (did you see that Black womanâs hair! Finally!) Redfall was probably the announcement it intended to whet our appetites with but still, Microsoftâs parting E3 gift wasnât Halo Infiniteâs release date but a dang fridge.
The mini fridge is shaped like an Xbox Series Xâso a black rectangular box, like most fridges. According to the teaser, the fridge features âXbox velocity cooling architecture,â suggesting there might actually be console tech keeping your Monster Energy drinks cool.
Back when the Series X was revealed in 2019, fans observed that the black, rectangular, and uncomfortably holey console wouldnât look out of place super-sized and next to a dishwasher. Microsoft would have us believe that the shape was a design feature rather than a flaw because apparently the fridge-like configuration was the most efficient way for the console to disperse heat.
Read More: The Xbox Series X Is Shaped Like A Fridge So It Can Vent More Heat
Microsoft leaned into the joke in tweets and a contest that awarded one lucky(?) winner a full-size Series X-styled fridge.
So how did we get from a one-off joke to having a mini fridge close out one of the biggest video game showcases of the year?
The answer isâand believe me, it pains me to write this next phrase because it is just so asinineâ Microsoft got into a Twitter brand war with Skittles.
Yes, really.
Back in April, Twitter hosted a March Madness-esque bracket pitting different brands against each other to see which company had the best, âHow do you do fellow consumers?â tweets. After beating out questionably-good-at-Twitter brands like Wendyâs and Mr. Peanut, (I donât know how you can have a Best at Twitter tournament and not include Steak-umms), the finals came down to Skittles and Xbox. Aaron Greenberg, the general manager of Xbox marketing, tweeted that if fans helped Xbox win the title bout against Skittles, heâd make the Series X fridge real (albeit smaller).
OkâŚhere goes. Help @Xbox win this and weâll put into production this year REAL XBOX SERIES X MINI FRIDGES! Yep, you read that right. Not an April Fools joke. Not clickbait. #Xbox #BestofTweets https://t.co/vm5B0kZht1 pic.twitter.com/A28hWBP3Db
â Aaron Greenberg (@aarongreenberg) April 2, 2021
Xbox won the fake poll by a razor-thin margin and Microsoft, true to its word, put the mini fridges into production. This energy drink storage case is scheduled to hit stores just in time for Christmas, because why wouldnât Xbox want to take advantage of a meme during the most important spending time of the year. Thatâs capitalism for ya baby!
