Microsoft's Yusuf Mehdi: We Need To Educate Consumers

[Callate]

So there's a lot of education they need to provide the public, but their success depends on people who "don't pay attention to a lot of the details".

Glad we cleared that up...

Funny thing, though- I think Microsoft has convinced an awful lot of gamers that they need to educate the public as well. Specifically, educate them on why buying an XBox One is a bad idea. And Microsoft has all but provided them with a list of bullet points to hit on the subject.

As to it not mattering, well: The Playstation 4 currently occupies spots 1 and 3 on Amazon's top sellers for Video Games. The XBox One "Day One" limited edition is in spot 2- there's all the hardcore people who are devoted to the brand and were pretty much going to get one no matter what.

But the "standard edition" XBox One? That's currently at #21, down from yesterday, and currently several notches below both the PS3 and XBox 360 versions of Far Cry 3, a six-month-old game.

Any "education" that requires as much evasion as has surrounded the XBox One isn't education. It's spin. Take a letter, Microsoft: people aren't ignorant about what you envision, they're saying "no" to it.

 

[TheSYLOH]

I've noticed that whenever someone breaks out the "People hate/fear change" argument. They are usually talking about tremendously stupid ideas.

Spokesman: Our next console will grow legs and repeatedly kick you in the groin!
Consumer: Dude, that's stupid!
Spokesman: You just hate change, it will be great.

Yes some people hate change, but you know what... people hate bad ideas more.
And XBone is stuffed with them.

 

[5mj7R7yf4Dwr3gdZyyu9PeGNwYjlNrjzuh3iTXQG]

Is it me or does this sound exactly like the GOP after their loss in 2012 saying that not enough messaging was why they lost the presidency?

No, Mr. Soft, you need to retroactively rethink the XBone now. Put it back into beta and strip the DRM crap. No more obligatory phone-home. No kill switches. No face-counting. Guaranteed consumer second-sale rights. Come out and say "Oops, we fucked up bad" and you'll be back in like Coca-cola.

(Excessive DRM crap is what killed the Zune, too.)

238U

 

[Reyold]

You sure you want to educate us, Mehdi? Seems like you're banking on consumer ignorance for success, which you more or less admitted. Or perhaps you meant indoctrinate, as other have guessed? Because that would make more sense.

If you really wanted to educate us, you would have been more forthcoming about the details a long time ago, but we could barely get anything out of you until weeks later.

We see through your facade, MS. You can stop pretending now.

 

[Buizel91]

This whole thing just gets juicier every day

*awaits new thread from Microsoft, munches popcorn*

Anyone wanna join?

 

[rodneyy]

what im wondernig about taking the game round to your friends house is this. sure the account is easy enough to move but what about the games. either you take the hard copy with you so its exactly like it was before except you are taking your achievements with you, yay! gotta them them all like the crack addict they have turned me into. or you have to download the game once you get to your friends house. now with compression etc you can make a big game smaller but how small can they really get them? games are running at 10-30Gb each now that will take ages to download on an average connection let alone a bad one.

or do it the ps4 way and just take the physical copy with you. i guess if you are over your fiends house a lot you can download them bit at a time but if im downloading a game off steam i normally leave it running during the night. cant do that at your friends house 1 hour is your limit wile you are not there.

sounds like they are fixing a problem of their own design and then making out like its really a benafit rather than a clumsy workaround

 

[Boris Goodenough]

How many times can Microsoft shoot themselves in the feet and still stand?
I really want to know... are they standing on boon stumps? Doing a fine balancing act?

 

[RonHiler]

"Ultimately consumers will decide which is better," Mehdi said. "It's a big market."

Well, he's not wrong. But I'm not sure the result is going to be what he hopes for.

What was the last console that tried to sell itself as an "Entertainment Center"? This was probably in the 90s. And it flopped big-time (I mean it was a flop of EPIC proportions, although I think they wanted like $1,000 for it as I remember). I wish I would remember what it was called. Somebody help me out here.

Anyway, all those "Entertainment Center" features the XBone supports I already have from devices that do it better. Why again do I want to pay extra money for what would essentially be a glorified remote control?

 

[KOMega]

this is a big change, and people don't always like change. "There's a lot of education we have to provide to make sure that people understand," says Mehdi. He went on to add that "we're trying to do something pretty big in terms of moving the industry forward for console gaming into the digital world. We believe the digital world is the future, and we believe digital is better."

okay so far I guess.

And the negativity? Well, it may not matter so much to Microsoft. Sure, core gamers complain, but the folks who don't really pay attention and who just want a fancy box will be fine with Microsoft's Xbox One. "In a broader set of community, people don't pay attention to a lot of the details," said Mehdi. "We've seen it in the research, we've seen it in a lot of the data points."

wait, wait... You want to educate people about your system and stuff. But you also don't want them to so they can buy your stuff.

Maybe I'm reading this wrong but this by itself:

the folks who don't really pay attention and who just want a fancy box will be fine with Microsoft's Xbox One.

Just seems really scumbaggy. Relying on people not knowing about things so you can sell them your system.

Captcha: poetic justice
Funny thing is, microsoft is writing all the verses too.

 

[Colt47]

So Microsofts plan to convince consumers to buy the Xbox One is to blatantly admit that what the conspiracy theorists bank on is true: by which the entirety of Microsoft prays upon consumer ignorance of the product and what select information they choose to inform the public of?

Okay, EA did some bad stuff, but they did things that were primarily isolated and of bad taste. What Microsoft is implying is something that breaks apart trust and is manipulative in the worst sense.

 

[Adam Jensen_v1legacy]

Does Microsoft really expect us to trust them after they've been caught in bed with the NSA's super secret spy program? Not to mention all of the other issues people have with the actual system.

 

[Kenjitsuka]

"We believe the digital world is the future, and we believe digital is better "

Hence we refuse Indie games!
Marketing scum with their lies and twisting....

 

[CyberMachinist]

Well it looks like MS has topped Atari as a "videogame history-Changing" company i can't wait to see what happens next.

 

[Zombie_Moogle]

"There's a lot of education we have to provide to make sure that people understand"

Translates to: I'm sorry you're too stupid to understand how awesome we are

Consumers don't hate digital; Steam, GOG, GamersGate, Greenman Gaming, & many others are doing better each day

Consumers hate you, chiefly because they aren't nearly as stupid as you think

 

[Rad Party God]

His comments reminds me of this:


Sometimes, I think Microsoft is run by soulless robots of dimension X or something.

Speaking for myself, I love digital distribution, seriously, I haven't looked back ever since I started buying from Steam and GOG, but neither of those have an arbitrary 24 hour check and (some DRM free Steam games and ALL GOG games) I can share them with my friends without much trouble.

I really don't see any, any advantage at all from the Xbone.

 

[Little Duck]

You know I think I understand the bat he is swinging. THink about this for a second, Diabalo 3 and Sim city BOTH had online DRM and BOTH still sold millions. Think about what they're saying "We've still got games, people will buy this for our games etc etc." If this is his research then yes a DRM console will work as the people who still wanted those products bought it and the people who bought a 360 will, theoretically, still buy a Xbox One.

Except they won't. As we've done some market research. We know what DRM is and how bad it is. It's one thing to tolerate for 10-40 hours of play at £30-40. It's another thing entirely to tolerate it at £500+ (or however much that stupid thing is) for 5-8 years and as a 360 owner I don't see people doing this. I know of my 360 owning friends that 0 are interested in buying the xbone. But I guess we'll need to wait for the "research" to show them that guys.

 

[Trishbot]

We need to be "Educated"?

This is MONTHS after the reveal, WEEKS after the policies were made public, and DURING/AFTER E3! When do they plan on "educating" us about all these benefits that miraculously haven't shown up?

If only they had something like a media round table press-conference to clear all this up... glad they didn't CANCEL something like that... that would have been silly.


... Seriously, they flat-out admit they're banking on consumer ignorance to sell their product. If they wanted people informed, they wouldn't be crossing their wires months after their policies came to light.

 

[Little Duck]

Step 1) Claim that consumers need "re-education"
Step 2) Claim that you are only interested in consumers who don't give a crap anyway
Step 3) GIVE JIM STERLING SO MANY THINGS TO ***** ABOUT HE ENDS UP SWALLOWING HIS LATEX FIST
Step 4) Profit!


Really, at this pace, there'll need to be a daily Jimquisition update, if only to serve as a cathartic release for the shared rage.

I put £10 on seeing that fist being swallowed and doing reverse fisting by next month if this continues. Is this post too far?