I’m an absolute mark for a gorgeous limited edition. After writing about how I wasapprehensive about buying the Starfield controllerbecause I didn’t want to be disappointed if the game wasn’t all it was cut out to be, I went and bought it anyway, dropping a stupid amount of money on its gorgeous red and bronze accents and transparent triggers. I’ve never been much of a collector because I don’t like clutter and I’m quite attached to the money I make, but Xbox controllers are far less painful for me to buy. I know I’ll use them often, and more controllers means more people I can play games with when friends come over. Ever since I got my Starfield controller a week and a half ago, I’ve basically ditched my regular black one. I’m intent on getting my money’s worth out of it.Related:Across The Spider-Verse Wasn’t Worth What It Took To MakeNow, Xbox hasjust announceda vibrantly pink Barbie-themed Xbox Series S and equally colourful controllers that Ineed. It’s inexplicable. I am, by no means, a Barbie girl, but along with much of the internet, I’ve been eagerly awaiting Greta Gerwig’s Barbie movie with palpable anticipation. I am one of those people who is seriously considering a Barbie/Oppenheimer double feature, partly for the lols and partly because I hate leaving my house and would rather just watch them both in quick succession to make the commute worth it. The Barbie movie speaks to me in every way – campy, directed by Greta Gerwig, starring Ryan Gosling and Margot Robbie,possibly about men’s incompetence, and Michael Cera is in it. I was already excited about Barbie before the marketing campaign dropped an Xbox tie-in.
Who does this target, you might be asking. What gamer wants a hot pink Barbie console built into a DreamHouse? Who asked for Xbox controller faceplates based on Barbie and Ken’s on-screen outfits? Holy shit, me. I want that, and apparently, so do loads of people on the internet. There has never been a marketing tie-in that I’ve wanted so badly, and the knowledge that I can’t simply buy it has broken my heart – the Barbie Xbox and controllers are a competition prize, presumably with only one of each ever made. It’s hard to get more limited edition than that. On Twitter, people are making jokes about who they have to bribe to get one of these, and I’d like to know too.
More than just drumming up demand and attention for both Xbox and Barbie, it makes a statement about the place of girls in gaming. It’s no secret thatwomen are largely excluded from the business of creating gamesand the narrative of what kind of person plays games, despite the fact thathalf of the United States’ gamer population are women. Women who like video games are derided as ‘gamer girls’, not taken seriously, and spoken over. Women don’t speak in voice chats in online multiplayer games for fear of harassment. Women get dogpiled for wanting more diversity in games.Women get drugged at developer conferences. Men want to claim an entire hobby for themselves, and the prototypically feminine Barbie, long labelled as a toy just for girls, says no. It’s for the girls too, the ones that love hot pink and Greta Gerwig.
Don’t mistake this as me bending at the knee to laud a marketing campaign for being feminist – because it really is just marketing. It’s publicity, just like the gigantic Barbie house in Malibu, the Barbie hotel where the cast gave interviews, the Aldo shoes in classic Barbie packaging, neon Barbie roller skates and the Hot Wheels collab. It’s not activism, but it’s smart enough to position itself as activism: this Barbie is a gamer. This Barbie can do everything a boy can do. This Barbie can have hobbies in her high heels, too! I can know all of this, and still desperately want this hot pink Xbox Series S with matching controllers. It turns out that this Barbie is a mark for themed gaming paraphernalia.
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