Molyneux: Microsoft's E3 Conference Was "Unprofessional"

[Smiley Face]

Usually I don't listen to what Molyneux says, but his logic is quite sound. Microsoft has said that 'always online' will be such a good thing - but has not shown anything that demonstrates that. Yes, they've said a bunch of stuff about cloud computing and yadda yadda, but they haven't SHOWN any of the benefits, and until they do, no one will care about it.

 

[Terramax]

This is coming from the guy known to twist the truth to customers regarding his own games?

Yeah, this guy really cares about the consumer more than Sony or MS.....

 

[Canadamus Prime]

Yes it has been more than a tad unprofessional, but then I've noticed that professionalism has be distinctly absent from this industry for at least a couple of years now. ¬__¬

Going on, Molyneux likened Microsoft and Sony to "two frat houses," playing off one another. He's concerned that the "us or them" attitude at the show is driving away unattached customers - and he may be right.

Very astute Mr. Molyneux, I know it's certainly driven me away.

 

[Terramax]

Sadly console's are always several years behind PC in the respect which I always thought was a good thing.

Unless I'm mistaken, games I download to my Vita never have to activated online to play. I don't even need a separate program to play them. I can also delete, store on my laptop, and reinstall anytime, again, without using the internet or any program recording how many times I do so. Or redownload from the store.

I could be missing something, but the Vita's downloads are a lot more convenient than Steam. Therefore, it might actually be that Steam is actually several years behind handheld gaming.

 

[PoolCleaningRobot]

Always online is simple for me. As a consumer, just
show me why I should be always online and I'll be happy with it. At the moment, it just means game sale authentication. I don't want that. But if there's some way you can give a huge benefit for the consumer, and make the message super clear, [it would be accepted]."

Holy balls. Someone who works in the industry said this? And it was Peter Molyneux? Strange times. But the only "us vs them" attitude I see is from Microsoft vs it's customers. The difference is Sony was on the sidelines and just joined our side. Call it unprofessional but we've all been wanting to tell Microsoft to go fuck themselves and Sony was just doing what we wanted

 

[Sheo_Dagana]

I don't like most of his games... or the way he 'dreams out loud.' But Molyneux really knows what he's talking about.

 

[Proverbial Jon]

Always online is simple for me. As a consumer, just show me why I should be always online and I'll be happy with it. At the moment, it just means game sale authentication. I don't want that.

Say what you like about Molyneux, he's hit the nail on the head with this one.

 

[Olrod]

... industry veteran Peter Molyneux ...

He may be an industry veteran for video games, but that's like calling Uwe Boll an industry veteran for movie production.

 

[Vivid Kazumi]

When can we finally drop this?

Judging from the way people have latched on to the latest mud-slinging craze, I doubt this is a trend gamers will drop anytime soon.

Interesting to see how readers seemed to latch onto only part of Peter Molyneux's message. Yes, Microsoft's communication and understanding with its consumers have been shithouse - but the first point of the original article was all about how Sony and Microsoft have perpetuated this "us-versus-them" attitude with their consumer base, and how they're now defining their products purely from what their competition doesn't have.

Quite frankly, I think the gaming industry's atmosphere at the moment is pretty goddamn toxic.

this, big two have single handedly turned alot of gamers into consumer warriors(the over dramatic kind).

 

[FalloutJack]

Wait, Sony forgot the customer? That's funny, because I remember it THIS WAY...


Listen Major Molyneux, the two of them are backing opposite standpoints on some rather important customer issues. That means, logically (and by that, I mean from outside Bizzaro World), they cannot be both ignoring the customers. Sony is winning BECAUSE of that front and Nintendo will hold stable because they NEVER ignored it. Now, go back to being the weird guy who pushes out games, alright?

 

[Lex Darko]

Going on, Molyneux likened Microsoft and Sony to "two frat houses," playing off one another. He's concerned that the "us or them" attitude at the show is driving away unattached customers - and he may be right.

But the real question then is, do unattached customers drive up attachment rates for a new console?

 

[Jingle Fett]

That's a pretty reasonable and level headed comment by Mr. Molyneux I have to admit. Although personally, I love how Sony's been behaving. If it means Sony doing what we want, but Microsoft isn't, I can't see that being a bad thing. Competition being good for the consumer and all.

Sony is just trolling Microsoft...and being the good guy while doing so

 

[Casual Shinji]

Well whadda ya know, ol' Pete is actually right regarding something game related.

Both Sony and Microsoft are all to eager to play on the fanboy mentality, and it doesn't exactly strike one as very proffesional.

[small]Still, Microsoft sucks worse! [/small]

 

[Bat Vader]

I have always liked Peter Molyneux. He can stretch the truth a bit or a lot when it comes to talking about games he has made. At the same time though when he talks about the gaming industry he seems to know what the problem are.

 

[9thRequiem]

You think Microsoft were unprofessional?
Remember Fable Journey's introduction? "It's not on rails" repeated. Remember the part where you made journalists sign a wall saying they understood it wasn't on rails? Yeah, you don't get to say what's professional when it comes to release events.

Can't say he wasn't right, but really hypocritical.

 

[Gothproxy]

Peter Molyneux thinks that Sony and Microsoft are getting so caught up in out-doing each other that they've forgotten the customers.



Yes, yes they did.

(Although I think Microsoft forgot about us more than Sony, but that's just my take.)

And by the way, This article makes Peter one of my new heroes.

 

[RhombusHatesYou]

what are they offering that isn't already a feature on smart tvs and will be a standard feature on all tvs within 5 years?

Achievements?

...

I have nothing to say to that. To me the idea of offer achievements for watching tv is fucking insane... so it's probably going to be huge.

 

[Atmos Duality]

"Always online is simple for me. As a consumer, just show me why I should be always online and I'll be happy with it. At the moment, it just means game sale authentication. I don't want that. But if there's some way you can give a huge benefit for the consumer, and make the message super clear, [it would be accepted]."

I agree with the sentiment: If they want continued business, they should be sweetening the deal, not souring it.
Or at the very least acting less shifty and half-hearted about their business.

That said, Always Online *cannot* offer a huge benefit to the consumer for every game, just as not every experience can or will be enhanced with Online or Multiplayer components. And yet, time after time Microsoft and others constantly repeat this lie to us; trying in vain to say that the best possible experience is only through online interaction or the like.

Sometimes, a "feature" just won't fit, and forcing it to fit after numerous failures suggests that maybe it'd be better to invest in other avenues.

 

[piinyouri]

But companies competing is exactly how customers win.

Peter, get your butt back in the game dev kitchen, and make me another Fable!
;-;