It seems Intel’s GPU Odyssey campaign has come to an end or at least is being totally re-spun. At least if you believe what they told you when this epic journey started. Let's take a little walk down memory lane.
In February of this year, Intel announced “Odyssey,” a series of magical events, that promised to not only take GPU enthusiasts and game developers along for the ride, but promised that Intel would integrate those people into first hand GPU development reporting and most importantly garner feedback from its target audience.
“JOIN THE ODYSSEY
“The Odyssey is built around a passionate community, focused on improving graphics and visual computing for everyone, from gamers to content creators. And we want voices like yours to help guide us.
“We’re committed to listening to the community, and in return you will get closer to the inner workings of visual technology development than ever before.
“You’ll hear the latest reports first and you’ll have access to some amazing offers and exclusive giveaways. The Odyssey is about how we’ll work together to build the visual computing solutions you really want.”
This was the basis of Intel's GPU initiatives, led by Raja Koduri and Chris Hook, however similar in many respects to the waning Team Red strategy at AMD. Surely there are some campaign differences, but the bones of both programs are very similar.
Odyssey events were touted all over the world, including but not limited to, Bangalore, Beijing, Dublin, London, Los Angeles, Minneapolis, Munich, New York City, Paris, Portland, Sacramento, Sao Paulo, Seattle, Seoul, Stockholm Taipei, Toronto, and Warsaw. So far, most of these events have failed to take place. It was going to be a huge party that all Intel GPU fans and those curious could attend.
Intel’s first Odyssey event was held March 20th at GDC. Attendees at Odyssey events were welcomed with tons of great food and booze upon entering. Intel flew in tech journalists and influencers to attend. When the event started, the crowd was treated with looks at made-up products rendered out in 3D that were very impressive, but nothing more than imaginary, and everyone “Oohed and aahed.” There was amazing passion and scale to the event according to Red Gaming Tech as covered on their YouTube channel. Then a seemingly confused and somewhat uncomfortable looking Bob Swan got up and spoke about gaming and what it meant to Intel in an awkward fashion. However, everyone was happy to be at the inaugural event, and Intel somewhat seemed to hit its goal of driving a bit of “customer obsession,” which was its primary goal. Raja shooting t-shirts into the crowd seemed to be the actual highlight of the evening if you asked me.
The second Odyssey took place at the end of May aside Computex in in Taipei. The profile of the event was much the same as above, but with a few different players. However, the Computex Odyssey went much different than first event. To put it short and sweet, the attendees soon got bored with all the vapid messaging, non-product products shown, and started leaving before even the stars of the show had time to take the stage. It seemed like a clear step down from the first event, if the highlights told any story. The Odyssey got way out over its skis in that it has never had anywhere close to any actual hardware to even talk about. It ended up being another all show and no-go event that a company like Intel should be running away from when their execution is still under fire.
Intel reps mused publicly, “What do you do to take it [Odyssey] to the next level? Apparently, nothing. As of today, there are no more Odyssey events planned to my knowledge. When's Bangalore, Beijing, Dublin, London, Los Angeles, Minneapolis, Munich, New York City, Paris, Portland, Sacramento, Sao Paulo, Seattle, Seoul, Stockholm Taipei, Toronto, or Warsaw? Did we miss the memo? It will be interesting to see if Intel still sees value in funding these kinds of events with a new marketing regime in 2020 that may or may not have anything to do with the current Odyssey leaders.
Intel has learned that its Odyssey is best fleshed out on Reddit and Twitter or via email, you know, where people cannot walk out on you, or at least you do not have to watch them physically do it. The fact is that only thing reflective of a true Odyssey at an Intel event was the name alone. Even this week we see Intel positioning the Odyssey campaign with its roll out of Xe for server/data center at SuperComputing 2019 in Colorado. This is a huge change in Odyssey positioning. The Odyssey has been about gamers, enthusiasts, and game developers since day one. Intel’s cancellation, or rather not being scheduled any longer, of upcoming Odyssey events and its tacking on of Xe HPC parts in its Odyssey marketing is very foreboding about what is to come in the Xe gaming space, which is likely very little for a long time.
The Odyssey seemed to be more about ego and posturing rather than about actual product. Anyone thinking that Intel’s DG1 card is going to be more than a prototype for developers is kidding themselves. Intel has seen the light and realized that it pushed the GO! button way too early. It seems that Intel is now learning from AMD's missteps of the past, both of which Koduri and Hook were very much a part of. Do not over-promise and under-deliver.
All that is left of Intel’s marketing Odyssey is a handful of Tweets, an email spam list, a huge pile of swag to still send out, and a lot of fans left with nothing of substance to install in their gaming computers.
https://www.reddit.com/r/intel/comments/dy9ayu/intels_odyssey_to_nowhere/
