World's worst cookie gets an Xbox version

Oreo-themed spartan from Halo Infinite. — (Image credit: 343 Industries)

Xbox has announced a collaboration with the mystifyingly popular cookie Oreos. The flavourless pucks will now be sold in special Xbox packs and stamped with six different images, including "the iconic A, B, X and Y controller buttons." I've never looked at a controller button and thought it looked iconic, but that's probably why I don't work in marketing.

The sponsorship would not be complete without in-game proof of one's devotion to Oreos. The cookie designs can be combined and entered in various sequences that will unlock Oreo-themed items like armor packs and skins for Forza Horizon 5, Sea of Thieves, and Halo Infinite. As an additional thanks for rendering your data up to the cookie moguls, you'll be entered into a prize draw for various kit including "custom Oreo hardware". There is sadly no imagery of this, though I'm now imagining an Xbox Series X that's shaped like a cookie.

The Xbox Oreos will be available this month (in selected countries, natch). It's the latest in a long list of food partnerships involving Xbox, joining a list that includes Doritos, Mountain Dew, Krispy Kreme, Taco Bell, Pizza Hut, and Rockstar energy drinks. Bit of a theme there, enough of one to make you think that maybe Microsoft's next food partner should be in the salad business.

There's an official site to go along with this tie-in that promises some degree of interactivity, but it's currently just sitting there with a 'coming soon' notice saying check back on 16 January 2023: that's when you can probably expect to see these things in stores. Perhaps they'll inspire the latest round of DLC-induced shoplifting, perhaps not.

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Rich is a games journalist with 15 years' experience, beginning his career on Edge magazine before working for a wide range of outlets, including Ars Technica, Eurogamer, GamesRadar+, Gamespot, the Guardian, IGN, the New Statesman, Polygon, and Vice. He was the editor of Kotaku UK, the UK arm of Kotaku, for three years before joining PC Gamer. He is the author of a Brief History of Video Games, a full history of the medium, which the Midwest Book Review described as "[a] must-read for serious minded game historians and curious video game connoisseurs alike."