Microsoft Holiday 2020 ad spot delivers free Minecraft, Flight Simulator goodies

This week Microsoft released an ad spot video with a daydreaming dog. The dog dreams, and the dreams are a delight. The dog's name is Rufus – his owners are all about the Microsoft products, and the dog (like any good dog) dreams of living the life his human lives. That means living inside Minecraft, flying an airplane, and talking on Microsoft Teams.

The advertisement video spot was created in collaboration with McCann New York. As you'll see in the ad, the dog reminds the user that the holidays this year aren't like holidays of the past. We're still living in a global pandemic – most families won't have the opportunity to connect as they normally would. Rufus misses his friend – another dog.

Instead of meeting up with his best dog friend, Rufus drops in to Minecraft – boxy pixel style. He takes action in the first person shooter Halo. Rufus chats with a bunch of friends with Microsoft Teams.

Best of all, Rufus flies a plane. Rufus and his buddy fly through the air with custom-paited stunt fighter planes. Rufus's plane is red with white checkers and his name RUFUS written on the side. Sam has a similar design, in a yellow plane with black checkers.

Later this month (December, 2020), users will be able to use these planes in the official Microsoft Flight Simulator game. Flight Simulator will be decorating 12 cities around the world with special "holiday lights and magic" too – later this month. You'll also find some VR support for Flight Simulator later this month, too – holiday deliveries aplenty!

If you're in Minecraft, you'll find a free "Dogtopia" world made by Blockworks available for free. That'll be inside Minecraft Marketplace and for Minecraft with Java. No word yet on if we'll see dog-related updates to Halo – but you never know!