Further pimping its latest ad campaign - on which more money has been spent than the Halo 3 'messaging', Microsoft is doing its utmost to tie itself in knots of consumer appeal.

The latest "please all of the people all the time" rhetoric comes from Charlotte Stuyvenberg, GM of marketing and communications services for Xbox at Microsoft. Charlotte expains that, "Our customers will always be hardcore gamers..."

That sounds pretty darned confident to us - and a welcome soundbite the ears of Xboxers who love their console for actual game-play.

However, Charlotte is also well aware of the fact that the big money now lies in the land that Nintendo rules over. So, she is also happy to point out that, "...but this is an opportunity to move beyond to serve casual gamers and consumers who want other types of entertainment, which extends into the family".

The 'opportunity' in this case is an advertising campaign aimed at casual gamer and consumer who wants other types of... you get the idea.

^{Source: Mediapost}