Phil Spencer: We Shouldn't Have "Sugar-Coated" Xbox One Controversy

[Aggieknight]

What I take away, from these soundbites at least, is that Microsoft isn't done trying to get these features into their console or future consoles.

They just need to find a better way to "package" it.

Well, let's be honest "DEAL WITH IT" wasn't' the best approach in the world. Particularly when followed (after they changed course) with "People just didn't understand our vision".

TBH, I feel for M$ here. I truly believe they are trying to innovate. Unfortunately, they put themselves at the forefront of the battle between consumers and content providers over ownership of digital content.

Content owners want to strictly control digital content, but consumers expect that digital products function in the same way as "real" products.

 

[SecondPrize]

The need for your console to check in daily was just pretty silly, considering the non-total broadband availability in their strongest market.
The removing of their customers inability to buy, trade, sell or give away copyrighted material they owned was the big problem. It was a move designed solely to strip rights from their customers to benefit themselves and there is no sugar-coating that.
The question is, knowing that Microsoft wanted these things for their console, are you willing to still purchase one from them? Because always online isn't gone, games that harness the 'power of the cloud,' whether they need to or not, will serve just fine, for MS, as an always online requirement. Though it doesn't seem likely the can find a way to pretty up the no used games idea, it should be a given that if they do find one, they will go with it.

 

[kurupt87]

Yeah, you can't do floor salesman techniques when you aren't one on one with the customer; it doesn't work.

 

[Buizel91]

Once Microsoft release the inevitable "Xbox one Slim/Elite" is when they will start shifting consoles, especially if there is a Kinect free version. That's what im hoping anyway, i refuse to get an X1 while Kinect is being sold with ut.

 

[BrotherRool]

This sounds like a ridiculously sugar-coating wishy washy speech. It's buzzwords and no substance

'I'm sorry for not being 'true' to our 'core-vision'' etc. What the frig is your core vision?

 

[Sir Thomas Sean Connery]

As sugar coated as it was, I'm actually pretty pleased that he brought this up at all.

Have the issue with the Xbone for me was the total disconnect between corporation and consumer. It felt like Microsoft was trying to sell their product in a different galaxy and we were just picking up the transmissions on accident.

It isn't much, but even this minor acknowledgment is a decent sign.

 

[Callate]

"Confusion"? Yeah, that might be one way of putting it.

What I remember of the XBox One lead-up was like something blew up after the initial reveal. Then there were MS people being belligerent in their defense of those features, others who didn't know the specifics of how things would pan out but still managed to go on about their lack of information at great length with vague platitudes about how great everything was going to be, others who clearly did have some idea what was going on but were equally clearly afraid to say anything for fear of threatening their own employment or stepping on the official statement of some other talking head, and still others who wanted to be conciliatory but didn't really have the clout to actually suggest that things were getting better. Occasionally you would see different stances from the same person within the course of a week.

Ultimately, they sort of pulled a U-turn and made gestures indicating that they were listening. But Microsoft is not a young company, especially in tech-world terms, and I think there's a lingering feeling that a) they should have gotten the message that it's important to listen to your customers when the vast majority are screaming "NO...!" at the top of their lungs before now, and b) there still isn't firm evidence that the lesson will stick (hellooooo, Windows 8). And I think XBox One's continued faltering behind the PS4's sales can partly be blamed on that lingering unease. Not that the $100 price difference is doing them any favors.

So, yes, Spencer is saying some of the right things as far as honesty goes. As to whether the warm fuzzy talk about building on what they've learned and being better people translates to actual core principles that percolate through the company... Jury's still out.

 

[Karavision]

I doubt that the sugar coating is going to stop anytime soon. Wake me when he admits that the kinect is anything more than a boon to their advertising division.

 

[Sniper Team 4]

A suggestion I have is to start advertising the Xbox One as a gaming device first and a home entertainment center second or third. I recently looked at a Xbox One box at my work because someone had just returned it. I flipped it over, and you know how they always put those pictures on the back? Well, only one of those pictures was for a game (a racing one, I think). The other five were about T.V., the NFL, and Netflix. If you took away the one picture of the game, there wouldn't be anything on the box about how a Xbox One is a video game console. It's kind of sad.

 

[Fox12]

Microsoft... Microsoft, stop talking. No! Microsoft, stahp!

At least he admits that they were basically lying and spewing BS. Unfortunately, yhat doesn't really win any points with me.

 

[Yossarian1507]

That statement told me exactly nothing. Buzzword after buzzword, and completely no substance. Hearing about "learning from mistakes" makes me think about the coach of my national football/soccer team. "Yes, we got our asses kicked again, but we will learn from it, and come on top next time", and then 2 years later, after another failed campaign to qualify to World Cup, nothing is learned. Give me proof, Microsoft. Proof.

Hold on, actually... No. There's no point in proving anything, at least not for me and other people in my country. I mean, your precious piece of technology isn't even available for purchase in my place, and according to rumors, it won't be out in here until the end of the year. Even my co-worker, who was the biggest X-Box fanboy I ever met, and zealously defended every horsecrap "feature" you tried to force on us, eventually went with PS4. And you are wondering, why you are losing so hard with PS4 in hardware sells. Ugh...

 

[AzrealMaximillion]

Why is MS dragging this bullshit back out again?

Titanfall not moving as many units as they hoped?

Titanfall's sales are likely going to disappoint MS, and EA. It looks like an amazing game, but the marketing on it was mediocre at best. The only good thing they did was let a bunch of YouTube gaming channels stream the game. Other than that they pretty much admitted that they didn't know how to market the game.

They were having difficulty making a trailer for it because they wanted to make a "movie-like trailer" for the game when its MP only. That could have been solved by showing clips of gameplay with the game's soundtrack playing and not feeding into the AAA publisher's want for generic movie trailers.

They also were surprised that Japan was so responsive to the game. A game about giant robots. I don't know how someone could think that the people of the country that gave us the Giant Fighting Machine trope would not like a game that's Giant Fighting Machines. This problem specifically is also relevant because its a missed opportunity for MS to finally get into the Japanese gaming market, but the Xbox One isn't released there yet and a launch date is undisclosed. This also suck for EA because having the game not be a console exclusive would have definitely made them more money due to the absence of Watch Dogs.

People who didn't buy an X1 by now aren't going to grab one in droves because of Titalfall bundles. I should know. We've got a bunch of them in out local Target and they've not been touched. Neither have the game discs themselves and there are at least a dozen on the display with another dozen in the back. I think a lot more people than expected are going to be grabbing Titanfall through Origin. Origin is now better than uPlay and that's good enough for anybody these days it seems.

 

[Tradjus]

Their main issue, the thing that caused the backlash too be so pronounced, it's simple.
All they did was talk about what the console -couldn't- do, that was it.
Over and over, more and more features they'd stripped, more and more requirements for you too be deigned worthy to play the console you paid 500$ for. It was too much, that's all, they crossed the invisible bullshit threshold that people have and they paid for it, and it's all because they kept saying "No it can't do that" and "You must do this too play" instead of "It does this" and "This is how easy it is too play"

 

[Lightknight]

Ok, so they figured out that their level 5 PR spells no longer work against us. The question is whether or not they're going to try a level 6 PR spell (as this itself could well be) or if their actions will follow suit and they will go forward with the concept that their consumers are not all morons and that they had better provide a product that we want rather than a product they can calculate reasonable success at shoving down our throats. Let's hope it's the former but they've been doing the latter in a lot of their products lately (Win 8, I'm looking at you too right now).

 

[ExileNZ]

Do I think they're doing a better job now?

Well, yes. They couldn't possibly do worse.

That said, in all fairness I do appreciate honesty, especially in this kind of situation.

 

[Johnson McGee]

I don't Sports what they're Sportsing about. I didn't Sport anything Sports about their Sports with the Xbox One. I mean, they could have Sportsed down the Sports a bit when they were Sportsing their Sports to the Sports but Sports Sports Sports.

Capcha: Charley horse.

 

[kurupt87]

I doubt that the sugar coating is going to stop anytime soon. Wake me when he admits that the kinect is anything more than a boon to their advertising division.

A boon is a good thing.

Edit: I couldn't immediately think of the word I believe you meant, but am fairly sure it is "bane". And the phrase would be "nothing but a bane". Or perhaps you meant "anything but a boon". Nevertheless, I believe you meant that Kinect is bad but said that it's good.

 

[TwoSidesOneCoin]

hindsight is 20/20. i'll wait n see if they learn from those mistakes

Ninja'd from the get go! I was going to say it a bit differently "Hindsight's a *****" with a bit of an inflexion on the word *****.

Sounds like they're just a bit butt hurt the console didn't do as well as they planned.

 

[FalloutJack]

Whelp, I guess everything's fine here! No reason to believe that Microsoft has anything to worry about and that their company isn't sweating more bullets now than ever before! Nope nope nope!

(Can we all just agree that I called it?)