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History
On June 15, 2020, KFC shocked the world with the announcement of an upcoming gaming console called the KFC Console. The console, which was announced to be a collaboration with PC maker Cooler Master, featured a chicken chamber that uses the heat from the PC component to keep your KFC chicken warm. The console was teased to be released on December 11, 2020 but was indefinitely delayed. While, to this date, KFC never released the console, the marketing aspect of it all was fantastic. Suddenly, KFC was on every gamer lips (literally). So even as a marketing stunt, this had been a humongous success. So there should be no surprise to learn that others soon followed.
On November 17, 2020, Bud Light would, in its turn, shake the gaming community with the announcement of a brand new console, the BL6, but contrary to popular belief, this was not an attend to imitate the success of the KFConsole as the work on the BL6 started long before the announcement of the KFConsole. The work on the BL6 started in January 2020, but the love story between Bud Light and the gamer between way before that. In 2016 when Bud Light announced they were taking a radical expansion into the 21st century digital realm of esports with the unveiling of the Bud Light All-Stars program where carefully selected by experts, Bud Light would reveal the field of esports athletes from across North America that will vie for votes to become the first-ever Bud Light All-Stars.
Over the years, Bud Light continues its venture into eSports buy notably acting as an official sponsor for major leagues and teams, including League of Legends and the Overwatch League. By January 2020, Bud Light was ready to push the relationship with the gamer community ever further and contacted the Engine Shop, an industry-leading, award-winning experiential and engagement marketing agency specializing in sports, entertainment, and lifestyle brand activations. It is through them that the BL6 found its creator: Michael Marrero.
Michael had been a pivotal contributor with The Gamer Agency, a marketing agency focused around gaming and esports events that the Engine Shop had acquired as few years before. So when Bud Light contacted the Engine Shop to discuss what they could propose to help expand their brand into the gaming world even further, it was a natural fit to have Michael as a key contributor on this project as well. Micheal was the one who came up with the BL6 idea. Right from the start Bud Light fell in love with the idea as it would show gamers that Bud Light knew how to have fun and would be something concrete that gamer would care about.
At first Micheal and Bud Light explored the idea of a modular console: Every module would be can-shaped. The module themselves would have been to put them in a carrier (like a six-pack) to build your own personal “ultimate” console. The Engine Shop looked into sourcing plastic can-shaped containers that we could put t-shirts in, toothbrushes, Bluetooth speakers, mini controllers, dice holders, etc. Said can modules would have been collected by doing things at a series of planned activations across the country.
In terms of the modular console, it was going to be delightfully absurd; think space balls (if you haven’t seen that movie, give it a watch).
-Michael Marrero
The Anker Nebulas mobile projector was aimed to be the module that would have been the real console. They were the same size as a soda/beer can and ran android. The thought being, they would buy a limited number, have them custom painted/wrapped, and have some special builds of android games installed on them. Those modules would have been very limited and largely given to influencers and media, but they did plan to give some away at the aforementioned events. But with COVID-19 hitting hard, the concept of hosting events fell impossible and the team had to change the concept from a modular console to standalone console.
While, the original idea had to be shelved, the standalone BL6 would retain a lot of the original concept. The console would fully portable and shaped as a 6-pack. Instead of an Anker Nebulas mobile projector, it featured an integrated ASUS ZenBeam 720 Projector connected to the gut of a Surface laptop running Windows 10, an Intel Core i7 chip and 16GB of RAM. The “cans” in the six-pack, while not being actual module would all have different purposes. The front two cans would serve as exhaust vent, the two middle one would hold the 8Bitdo N30 Pro controllers and the last two cans would be built-in koozies (can coolers).
Instead of a custom Android built, the BL6 came with Windows-Kiosk App that would serve as a dedicated interface for the 6 built-in games, including Tekken 7, Soul Calibur ViI and RBI Baseball 2020. The BL6 would also feature two exclusive games : Flashlight Freeze Tag, a game about hitting other players with the BL6 projector beam and Six Puck, a hockey-themed game around Bud Light (this is actually just PONG).
While the team would have loved to put more horsepower in the BL6, finding small enough PC gaming internals with enough thermal headroom was a challenge that they didn’t have enough time for. Finally, on November 17, 2020, the BL6 was unveiled to the world.
Release
A single console was put to auction on ShopBeerGear.com with the mention, “Bid to be the proud owner of the only limited edition console available.”. All proceeds would be matched by the Bud Light team and donated to the National Restaurant Association Educational Foundation supporting their “Change is on the Menu” program. With no solid bid validation being put into place, the auction started slowly but eventually started to be overrun by fake bids, one of which was over 2,147,483,648$. With fake bid being removed, the final winning bid was of 50,000$ according to some media. But Jennifer Kadragich, Supervisor at The Engine Shop, note that it ended up raising $24k for charity. It is unclear if this refers to a final bid of $24k or $12k with an additional $12k being matched by Bud Light.
While the action hinted that only one console existed, at least 5 were made (with incomplete prototypes floating around as well). At least two consoles were sent to YouTuber TimTheTatman Two to promote the release. Another YouTuber called Svenny McG has footage of the BL6 being sold on ShopBeerGear.com for $3000 (as a buy it now option) and later being marked as sold out, although it is impossible to validate if any sale did actually occur.
Demise
As with most marketing stunt, the BL6 had its moment of glory. The results of the campaign were very positive with nearly 200 million impressions, 241 placements and a 12% purchase intent increase amongst gamers. Micheal Marrero was awarded a Clio award for its work on the BL6.
With time, the legend of the BL6 faded away and nowadays, the BL6 is just a footnote in the video game history, although a very cool one (pun intended).
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| BL6 Flyer | BL6 Specs |
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| QA testing of the units | Clio Awards |
Operation
Power button : Press once to turn on or turn off the console
Projector: Hold 5 seconds to turn on. Press twice to turn it off.
Cool button: Press once to turn on or off the koozies.
The console can operate on batteries or while being plugged in. It has an HDMI out that be used instead of the projector. It also has a built-in speaker that turns on with the projector.