Microsoft Corporation (MSFT): Xbox Live and Office 365 – A Natural Fit!

Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) has been known to come oup with promotional offers every so often to promote sales of some of its products, which either have slowed since a peak or have been slow to get of the ground in the first place. Two of the recent releases for the company (which Insider Monkey has featured, here and here) have been the cloud-based enterprise suite known as Office 365, and of course the next -generation gaming and entertainment console, the Xbox One.

One is considered for business, the other for pleasure. While these seems as different as oil and water to some customers, the “work hard, play hard” mantra may be in full effect with the latest promotion designed to step up paid subscription rates. After all, who doesn’t answer the question, Do you use Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) for business or pleasure, with a resounding “yes”?

One has to think that the company has done its market research before considering this perceived oil-and-water promotion and try to sell it as peanut butter and jelly. This new promotion by Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) introduces an Xbox Live Gold subscription for 12 months with the purchase of a one-year Office 365 Home Premium subscription or a four-year Office 365 University edition subscription.

While that sounds mighty fine, there seems to be a caveat – this offer is currently available to customers in Asia, Australia and most of Europe. There is nothing so far about this offer being in force in the U.S. or North America.

Customers who buy the Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) Office 365 subscription before Sept. 28 will be given a special redemption code for the Xbox Live Gold subscription, which can be redeemed at the Xbox Live website, but only until Oct. 31. The Xbox One gaming and entertainment console is not expected to hit store shelves until late October or early November, according to recent reports.

Do you wear a tie by day, but an Xbox headset at night? Are you a “work hard, player harder” kind of person that uses Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) to get your work and play accomplished?

Would this offer entice you to become one of those people? If you are an investor like fund manager David Einhorn (see his full equity portfolio), how would you see this promotion in terms of oveall sales for the next quarterly earnings report? Give us your feedback in the comments section below.

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