Watch Microsoft’s holiday ad featuring adorable pups dreaming about being in video games

Apple’s holiday-themed commercials are usually quite nice, or even awesome, but Microsoft has had some memorable holiday commercials over the years as well. This time around, however, the Windows maker has one-upped its old friends from Cupertino with an excellent, well-executed holiday ad featuring adorable dogs that dream about being in video games.

Titled “Find your Joy (A Dog’s Dream)”, the 90-second commercial features cute dogs being ignored by their owners who get distracted playing Halo, conducting work calls on Microsoft Teams, crafting materials in Minecraft and so forth. The pups then fall asleep, dreaming of taking to the skies in Microsoft’s Flight Simulator, playing fetch with grenades for Master Chief in Halo and running around in a virtual Minecraft world.

And now, watch the ad embedded right ahead.

The Redmond company wrote in the video’s description:

The holidays are a lot different this year, but that doesn’t mean we can’t experience joy and connection. ​Our ad tells the story of Rufus, a dog who can’t physically be with his best bud but through his dreams, experiences the joy of togetherness and friendship. Together, they go on an epic adventure into the ​worlds of Minecraft, Halo, Microsoft Teams and Microsoft Flight Simulator, just like Rufus’ humans.

For reference, here’s Apple’s 2020 holiday commercial released ten days ago, featuring the HomePod mini, AirPods Pro and rapper Tierra Whack.

Meh, right?

I don’t say this lightly, but Microsoft’s is the best 2020 holiday commercial from a technology company that I’ve seen thus far. As for others, Samsung’s new holiday commercial is a typical dull agency work and I couldn’t even remember what Apple’s recently released ad was all about, which tells you a lot about how memorable it is. But I bet I’ll remember Microsoft’s 2020 holiday commercial for years to come even though I’m more of a cat person than a dog person.