There's a fabulous commercial for Xbox going viral on YouTube and Microsoft had nothing to do with it

A YouTube video called "Player Two" is going viral on YouTube because it is a tear-jerking, super touching story.

But the story of how and why it got made is just as heart warming.

Here's a clue: Microsoft had nothing to do with it, reports Adweek's Robert Klara.

The video tells the story of a how a teenager, whose dad died when he was 6, found his father's ghost inside an old Xbox. 

Before we reveal any spoilers, we suggest you watch the video.

The video/Xbox ad was done by John Wikstrom, an aspiring director who has been working as a commercial treatment designer in the ad industry.

Wikstrom hadn't done any of his own commercials yet so he decided to do one on his own, post it and see what came of it.

He had been haunted by a comment posted over a year ago by a user on YouTube named 00WARTHERAPY00 in response to a video called Can Video Games Be A Spiritual Experience? 

This commercial is 00WARTHERAPY00's story, although the young man featured is not 00WARTHERAPY00. He's an actor named Zac Pullam, Klara reports.

Still, the comment was so touching that it went viral on its own, with over 4,0o0 "likes" and 500 replies, surprising 00WARTHERAPY00. After the outpouring, 00WARTHERAPY00 replied to everyone:

"Thank you kindly for all your support. Honestly, I never expected it. Believe me or not, when I wrote that comment, it was just that - a comment, as simple and relaxed as any comment I write. I never really expect it to touch so many, let alone so deeply."

Still, the comment was so beautifully worded that the voiceover in Wikstrom's Xbox ad was the actor reading the comment verbatim.

00WARTHERAPY00 remains anonymous, though he did reach out to Wikstrom and thank him for telling his story, Klara reports. Some teams in Microsoft's Xbox division also took notice of the video, at least enough to post their own comment about it. (Wikstrom is hopeful this success will lead to more work, if not from Microsoft then elsewhere, Klara reports.)

But there's an epitaph to the story. (Spoiler alert, if you haven't watched the video do that now ...)

A short time after posting his original comment, 00WARTHERAPY00 posted another one: "Sadly, today I raced my father for the last time. The console, after over a decade, finally succumbed of old age."

And then he announced some happy news: he had been accepted into a university to study videogame art/graphic design.

00WARTHERAPY00 and Wikstrom did not immediately respond to a request for comment.