INDIANAPOLIS —
When it comes to marketing, Microsoft pulled out all the stops for Super Bowl XLVI.
Witness the Fan Dome, the inflated bubble containing Xbox 360 Kinect games, plenty of room for players to jump up and down and do their moves, and some pumping music to elevate the experience.
Look at Wednesday’s plug by Indianapolis Colts receiver Reggie Wayne, who drew the biggest cheer of the day when he told a couple thousand kids that their schools would each be getting an Xbox 360 gaming system, complete with the motion-capture Kinect add-on.
Thursday, it was New Orleans Saints quarterback Drew Brees’ turn to give out Kinect-equipped Xbox systems to deserving schools.
But back to the Fan Dome, which sits a tad bit tucked away, down at the east end of the Super Bowl Village, next to Bankers Life Fieldhouse.
Anyone who likes can play Dance Central, Kinect Adventures, Kinect Sports, or the awesomely titled Fruit Ninjas game. The latter game requires players to perform karate moves, in order to slice and dice fruit.
“You don’t want to chop the bowls, or you’ll lose points,” explained a marketing agent.
Tara Nummela and Renee Cook work for the Wunderman marketing agency in Chicago, and both were down working at the Fan Dome for the week.
Inside the bubble, it was getting warm, as kids hopped about and adults lounged in comfy chairs, looking on.
“It’s heated, but it isn’t air conditioned,” Nummela explained, not that the kids seemed to care.
Inside the NFL Experience, at the Indiana Convention Center, there’s another Xbox 360/Kinect station set up, so Xbox has managed to bracket the downtown Indy area with gaming systems.
Wednesday, with the aforementioned thousands of kids roaming the NFL Experience, the player the kids wanted most to see was, you guessed it, hanging out at the Xbox display.
Wayne was getting a solid workout, from the look of the sweat popping out of every pore.
He was racing each kid via the Kinect, running in place while his computer-screen avatar ran around a virtual track.
Either he was letting the kids win, or the kids, with their short legs, had an easier time completing each up-and-down running cycle.
They were eating it up.
The Xbox 360 Fan Dome will be open the remainder of the week for the same hours as the Super Bowl Village.
State News
Related Videos
Related Photos
-
Colts wide receiver Reggie Wayne races Christian Riggs from Justice Intermediate School while competing on Xbox 360 Kinect. Tim Bath
Discussion
Fan Dome brings Xbox under the bubble
- State News
-
-
Hundreds pay respects to slain Indiana soldier
Hundreds of people turned out for the funeral of a northeastern Indiana soldier who was killed by enemy rocket fire in Afghanistan.
-
Allisonville Road bridge project in Indianapolis begins Wednesday
The already rough commute on the Northeastside of Indianapolis will only get longer this summer.
To complete a $19 million road improvement as quickly as possible, state highway officials Wednesday will close the Allisonville Road bridge over I-465 for up to 110 days.
-
Delaware County grandstand likely done by July
Delaware County says the show will go on this summer with new fair grandstand after it demolished the old one because of safety concerns found during an inspection prompted by the deadly Indiana State Fair stage collapse.
-
Fort Wayne officials give tax breaks another look
Officials in a northeastern Indiana city are taking another look at their policy on property tax abatement, which critics consider too generous but supporters contend is needed to attract businesses.
-
Police probe similarities in missing IU student
Police in Bloomington say they have contacted authorities in Louisiana about their search for a college student whose disappearance has similarities to that of an Indiana University student who has been missing for nearly a year.
-
Census: Hispanics boosting Indiana's small towns
Hispanics are fueling population growths in many small Indiana towns that are seeing their white populations shrink, census figures show.
-
Indy 500 in the books, but heat isn't a record
Fans sought shade under the grandstands and beneath umbrellas. Misting stations got a healthy workout. But Sunday's Indianapolis 500 won't go down in the record books as the hottest in the 101-year history of the race.
-
Rose-Hulman renames center for late president
Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology is renaming its Student Innovation Center after late President Matt Branam.
-
Ohio casinos will cut into nearby states' winnings
The opening of casinos in Ohio this spring means the luck is running out for neighboring states that have pulled in an estimated $1 billion each year from gamblers who've been crossing the border to wager at riverboats in Indiana, gaming tables in Michigan and casinos in western Pennsylvania.
-
Dry spring causing concern for holiday weekend
An abnormally dry spring has farmers worried about crops and the Indiana fire marshal concerned about fireworks, cookout and bonfires sparking fires during the Memorial Day weekend.
- More State News Headlines
-
Hundreds pay respects to slain Indiana soldier
