So, Xbox has, by the way, revealing a peculiar yet outstanding and at the same time a marketing stunt, and the most amazing part about it was getting to see Hawkins from a bird’s perspective, indeed that Hawkins from the Netflix series! The Xbox official account joined forces with Netflix’s Stranger Things and Microsoft Flight Simulator to come up with ‘Hawkins Heli-Tours,’ a fresh way of witnessing the town before the fifth season premiere. They are offering a free trip to the players and all they need to do is to give a call to +1 260-204-3011. This is not a prank call, that is the number from the tweet.
The vending of such a thing as a marketing crossover to persons allows taking virtually the helicopter tour over the show’s most famous locations, all of it through Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024. It is not a new game but rather an immersive experience within the simulator that combines the game’s accurate mapping of the world with the legendary and monster-infested town. The community’s reaction was instantaneous yet divided which is always a good sign that things are going right.
From the very beginning, gamers were ecstatic. User Glitchy 🪄 beautifully captured the mood of all players: ‘Overfoiting in a chopper over Hawkins? I am terrified and excited at the same time. let’s all hope that the demogorgons don’t come up! Quite a good integration.’ That’s the whole point, isn’t it? It is a humorous yet slightly terrifying concept that pulls the audience directly into the show. Another user, Gro3, pointed out that ‘creativity in collaboration like this is always a good indicator. It shows they are thinking and acting beyond the screen when it comes to engaging the fans.’ And they are not wrong. It is not just a new character or a skin pack; it is a whole experience designed to take you even deeper into the world.
On the other hand, the internet was its usual self, and not only the joyful replies came through. The main issue that was on everybody’s mind was when. User mcsherlocks had the guts to ask, ‘So, when is this going to be available?’ this question incidentally triggered a confusion with another user, ogIronWolf, who said, ‘today but don’t know the time it’s out.’ Thus, we have the classic gaming ambiguity that we all know and love. Then, the legendary GAMEBORO made an appearance with the most relatable tweet of the day: ‘I just called and got put on hold for 47 minutes but it is still less frustrating than waiting for season 5.’ A mood. An absolute mood.
And then… the drama unfolded. User VersaFN8 said it was completely unrelated to Stranger Things and accused Xbox of cheating kids with the Fortnite V-Bucks and Crew Pass that were linked to Game Pass Ultimate. This led to a side-debate in the replies about billing dates and customer service with users like TrSkillin asking, ‘Did you contact Xbox support, or did you run straight here?’ It was a messy, human moment that reminds us these official feeds are just digital town squares where anything can happen. The hype was there for a helicopter tour, but people were airing their grievances about customer services in the real world. The duality of the gaming timeline!
Curiosity was the only thing that the other replies were filled with. User pixelluma simply asked, ‘Huh, what kind of ride is that?’ while Davy Cruze made a joke saying, ‘“Finally… a way to see Hawkins without running into Demogorgons.’ And some users, like PhantomChunxx, took the promotional tweet as an opportunity to ask about completely different games, with ‘Where is State of Decay 3?’ as their contribution. Very classic. Gotta try your luck.
What is the larger picture then? Microsoft is getting really smart about how they are utilizing Microsoft Flight Simulator. It has stopped being just a sim for aviation fans and is becoming a platform for all these unique, wonderful, and even bizarre virtual tourism experiences. Partnering with a collector’s item like Stranger Things is an ingenious way to pull a different audience into playing and experiencing the simulator. It’s marketing, of course, but it’s the engaging type that, in fact, brings new things to players.
The very fact that they gave a working number that you can call is that gamers who are fans of the show will find it very hard to resist this kind of immersive, alternate reality game (ARG) style teasing. It sort of blurs the line a little bit. Is it just an advertisement? Or is it a tiny part of the Stranger Things universe that you can interact with? That sort of engagement is what gets people talking about it, sharing their screenshots, and yes, even waiting on hold for the fictional heli-tour company.
