Synergy is one of those buzz words I was never fond of. In fact, at my previous place of employment, it was thrown around more than a midget at a cannon factory. But today, I’m going to use the word, as it’s simply the best word I can think of as to Microsoft and their ability to synergize their brands and platforms together.
multiplayer beta of Halo 3 will ship with copies of Crackdown. Suddenly the interest in Crackdown becomes 10 fold greater. Most figured this was Microsoft’s admission that Crackdown was a poor game, when in fact just the opposite is true. The game was released to critical success, and gamers enjoyed it thoroughly…for a few weeks. You see, Crackdown just didn’t have the longevity to make it all the way from its late February release all the way until Mid-May when the Halo 3 beta would actually hit. More on this later.

So time goes on and the Halo 3 hypo-meter is dies off a bit. Suddenly we start to see bits and pieces of information on Halo 2 for Windows Vista. Penned for an early May release most people write it off. While not significant, this gets the Halo name out there again. Slowly but surely the Halo buzz begins to build, and message boards begin talking about Halo 3 again.

Now as we approach the actual beta period, people need to dig out those copies of Crackdown again. What better way to do that than to release some premium content. So gamers dig out Crackdown again, start playing it and realizing that it’s still fun. Along with a free download that adds a lot of missing features, a fresh content pack becomes available and quite a few of these gamers will decide to drop the 10 dollars on it. This holds them over for a week or so until….the Halo 3 beta.

So the MP beta lasts 3 weeks or so. People realize how fun Halo still is, and they still have that itch for more things Halo. What better way to solve that than to go back and play some Halo 2…or better yet the newer, shinier Halo 2 for Windows Vista which hits shelves a week into the beta. Shortly after this happen, E3 is going to come around where I assume the single player portion of the game will slowly be unveiled. The hype train continues to roll carrying it through most of the summer.

I’m not sure what Microsoft will do for the August-November time period, but I assume they won’t let Halo be far from gamer’s minds. And lets forgot tie-ins like the recently announced limited edition Halo Zune. If this doesn’t help get the word out on Microsoft’s music player….nothing will.

The point of all this is, what sometimes seems like minor coincidences turns out to be carefully planned marketing strategies. These strategies sometimes don’t reveal themselves for months, even years later when the entire spectrum of it can be realized. Microsoft is continuously creating an amazing extended marketing campaign that Synergizes multiple brands and platforms…and they are all riding on the Master Chief.