Limited edition Fanta cans and bottles with Xbox themed packaging will become available starting next month.
Between the dire sales of the Xbox Series X, the abandonment of exclusive games, Microsoft’s unpopular obsession with AI, and last year’s brutal layoffs that resulted in several game cancellations, Xbox fans have little cause to be excited for the brand’s 25th anniversary this year.
Xbox is keen to drum up hype, though, with plans to revitalise both the Halo and Gears Of War franchises this year, which were once key Xbox IPs but have since faded from the spotlight.
A big summer showcase scheduled for June should include some major new game announcements too but before then, Xbox has announced, of all things, a Fanta collaboration.
As explained in an Xbox Wire blog post, Fanta cans and bottles with Xbox themed packaging will be made available worldwide from next month, albeit in limited supply.
There will be five different variants for Halo, Call Of Duty, Forza Horizon 6, World Of Warcraft, and Diablo 4, and that last one will even come with a new flavour: Fanta Crimson.
Expert, exclusive gaming analysis
Sign up to the GameCentral newsletter for a unique take on the week in gaming, alongside the latest reviews and more. Delivered to your inbox every Saturday morning.
That’s not the extent of it, though, as these Xbox cans and bottles will have QR codes to scan that unlock interactive challenges. What exactly these challenges entail hasn’t been explained but completing them can net you in-game rewards for certain Xbox games.
These include a garish looking Fanta coloured suit of armour for the upcoming Halo: Combat Evolved remake and a 1966 Toyota Sports 800 with a Fanta livery for Forza Horizon 6, which launches on May 19.
The codes also let you enter competitions to win further prizes, such as a ROG Xbox Ally, an Xbox Series S console, and a one-month subscription to Xbox Game Pass.
Don’t miss Gaming news! Add us as a Preferred Source
As a loyal GameCentral reader, we want to make sure you never miss our articles when searching for gaming stories. We have all the latest video games news, reviews, previews, and interviews, with a vibrant community of highly engaged readers.
Click the button below and tick Metro.co.uk to ensure you see stories from us first in Google Search.
A Fanta collab hardly seems like the kind of thing that will curry favour with disgruntled Xbox fans looking for a reason to remain invested in the brand and hardware, though there have been clear efforts by Xbox’s new CEO, Asha Shamar, to course correct in recent weeks.
She’s already lifted the lid on the next Xbox console, Project Helix, confirming rumours that it’ll be more like a gaming PC and she’s apparently responsible for killing the ‘This is an Xbox’ campaign too, which reportedly upset Xbox employees as much as fans.
As for what other plans Microsoft has for Xbox’s 25th anniversary, Jason Ronald, vice president of Next Generation at Xbox, said ‘We’ll be rolling out new ways to play some of the most iconic games from our past’ during his Game Developer Conference keynote speech earlier this month.
Given Microsoft’s push to make its games more widely available, Ronald could be hinting at old Xbox games seeing re-releases not just on Xbox but also on PC, and be made playable through mobile devices and cloud streaming.
Email gamecentral@metro.co.uk, leave a comment below, follow us on Twitter.
To submit Inbox letters and Reader’s Features more easily, without the need to send an email, just use our Submit Stuff page here.
For more stories like this, check our Gaming page.
