News & Rumors: Xbox One (codename Durango)

[patsu]

...when strategic parts were leaked beforehand and demonized before anybody could say anything. Fixed for you. And don't say "well they could have explained...", because we all know how guilty before proven innocent works.

Still doesn't change my statement. MS execs added to the confusion. One or two aggravated the situation.

There were die hard Xbox fans trying to help, but they went ballistic too after seeing MS's responses. I don't think just saying "consumers are dumb" let MS off the hook. They had a series of misfire during those dark weeks.


Reminds me of the GT5 fiasco where Shuhei, Kazunori and someone else kept contradicting each other about GT5 launch date.

 

[blakjedi]

...when strategic parts were leaked beforehand and demonized before anybody could say anything. Fixed for you. And don't say "well they could have explained...", because we all know how guilty before proven innocent works.

If I simplified complicated tasks under One word/phrase for the masses such as cloud, iwhatever, and then had that phrase fud'ed with enough negative spin, it would singlehandedly undermine an entire platform such that it has to be re-architected at the 11th hour for the faux panic. By default, the other choice is now the white knight with whatever they say or do, but the same thing spoken by me gets marred http://www.cad-comic.com/cad/20080227. It's worked beautifully to cause delays on every front from hardware to software to re-constructing marketing. "Always online".

Anyone wanting to see more of the UI can mute and check this vid around 0:30 and 0:50 http://youtu.be/rnQmvHsv5Tc .

Fantastic post and summary.

MS released high level information then the media and forums whipped themselves into a frenzy, and set about deconstructing what was still a high level plan. The frenzy was a transitive one too as it went from discussion and derision of the plan, to derision of the box and hardware, to full on assault and derision of MS...

incredible.

 

[patsu]

It's not just the Internet fora and press.

Their decision also sent their key retail partner, Gamestop, to publicize the "no used game" restriction to the end users. This is a formal business relationship with face to face meetings between execs. They have plenty of opportunity to clarify and correct. They lost control there too, without proper fences in place.

On the consumer front, consumers are just greedy, not necessarily dumb. They want to keep both their rights to physical goods, and also wait for someone to come up with a digital scheme that play well with their physical goods. If MS and existing arrangements can't provide that, then perhaps someone else may. But there is no reason to lose their rights to physical goods today. It may set a precedence for another industry.

 

[-tkf-]

Fantastic post and summary.

MS released high level information then the media and forums whipped themselves into a frenzy, and set about deconstructing what was still a high level plan. The frenzy was a transitive one too as it went from discussion and derision of the plan, to derision of the box and hardware, to full on assault and derision of MS...

incredible.

Uhh? Microsoft seemed arrogant on a Sony level, they had every chance to address the speculation.. the "fud", the frenzy, the whatever it is you are trying to make it up to be. I would call it well deserved smackdown.

They had the reveal to make things good, instead of talking about SPORTS and TV.
They had E3 where they could have given Sony a bloody nose by either standing by their proposed scheme or withdrawing it. They ignored the mountain of shit that was piled up in front of them.

Instead they chose to backtrack after E3 out of the limelight and with all the bad press Sony could have dreamed off.

I hope they get back into the game, moves DD into a new generation, with smooth sharing, family support etc. And keep their hands away from my physical media.

 

[Shifty Geezer]

...when strategic parts were leaked beforehand and demonized before anybody could say anything. Fixed for you. And don't say "well they could have explained...", because we all know how guilty before proven innocent works.

If I simplified complicated tasks under One word/phrase for the masses such as cloud, iwhatever, and then had that phrase fud'ed with enough negative spin, it would singlehandedly undermine an entire platform such that it has to be re-architected at the 11th hour for the faux panic. ...

That's just crock. People were uncertain prior to the XB1 reveal thanks to the rumours, but if MS had communicated and shown effectively, they'd have put people's mind at rest. Obviously not everyone, not the anti MS forum warriors, but the typical gamers were happy to wait and see. It was entirely MS's fault that they didn't set the record straight when they had the chance to do so. If they new there was FUD out there damaging their vision, they should have gone to even more effort regards their communication.

Irrespective of anything prior to or after the XB1 reveal event, it was that event that determined the public's understanding of the box and the experience. And that's the friggin' reveal event which is where they are rightly expecting to have the vision explained to them! MS's inability to manage their reveal event to educate the market is entirely their fault. Had they managed that properly, there wouldn't have been any confusion and FUD as the PR played catch-up (with conflicting stories). Had they presented their info in an effective manner, Joe Gamer wouldn't have been going to websites and forums to learn what the hell XB1's features and limitations were - they'd have just watched the 5 minute YouTube vid and understood the whole thing.

 

[Johnny Awesome]

While I agree that there's an anti-MS bias out there, it IS MS' job to be aware of that and plan for the appropriate PR. There's no excuse for a company that makes $20 billion annually for having poor PR.

 

[dobwal]

While I agree that there's an anti-MS bias out there, it IS MS' job to be aware of that and plan for the appropriate PR. There's no excuse for a company that makes $20 billion annually for having poor PR.

There plenty of excuses. The biggest one is that even companies with billions of dollars of annual profits all handle bad PR circumstances pretty horribly.

They all seem to either remain absolutely quiet about it in hopes that it goes away or badly limp through it and in both cases contritely licking their wounds at the end.

Which, honestly, I have no problems with or else any PR savvy company that could talk its way through anything would more readily engage in anti-consumer behavior.

 

[Shifty Geezer]

There plenty of excuses. The biggest one is that even companies with billions of dollars of annual profits all handle bad PR circumstances pretty horribly.

That's not an excuse. That's an explanation why they aren't any good, as opposed to justification why they would be good except something came up.

 

[-tkf-]

While I agree that there's an anti-MS bias out there, it IS MS' job to be aware of that and plan for the appropriate PR. There's no excuse for a company that makes $20 billion annually for having poor PR.

They loose touch with their user base and those that should tell them are to often those that should have that user base under control via marketing, telling your customer you suck can be hard to do

It's not simple, I would expect Sony to have learned the lesson and have more than one way to keep in touch with their user base.

 

[warb]

Anyone wanting to see more of the UI can mute and check this vid around 0:30 and 0:50 http://youtu.be/rnQmvHsv5Tc .

I had to sign-in to view that. "Inappropriate for some viewers" eh?

Kinect universal remote could be very awesome.

 

[Gubbi]

The former discussion shows a lot of uncertainty, even past the change when MS were talking about what the service would have been, such as whether only one game at a time could be loaned out, or each game loaned to one person. Which all came about because MS failed to communicate properly.

Or - they didn't communicate how lending games /multiple users with the same master account would work, because they hadn't hammered down the details yet.

Their vision was clear. They wanted online DRM so that you could play your games on any Xbox One, anywhere in the world. Where you went, your games/media went with you. The optical drive was included as a means of content delivery, nothing more.

Their big mistake was assuming people could connect the dots, that their next generation console would work exactly like software purchases for their phones and tablets work today.

.... And I even explained how I'd have done it. The XB1 announcement should have been accompanied by a lifestyle video showing all the services and features in use and how everyone benefits.

Don't get me wrong, I don't think it was a good reveal event, I'd like them to have had a more technology oriented reveal, explaining what makes the XB1 SOC special, and what the new time-of-flight tech in Kinect 2 means, and a demonstration would have been nice.

However, had they spent any significant time at the reveal event detailing what is effectively an expanded Live Gold Family feature, they would have been slaughtered in the press and by fanboys for wasting their time.

Cheers

 

[Cranky]

Posts like Cranky's are exactly why the DRM thread was locked.

Hmm, I was unaware that stating facts was verboten around here!

 

[Cranky]

That's just crock. People were uncertain prior to the XB1 reveal thanks to the rumours, but if MS had communicated and shown effectively, they'd have put people's mind at rest. Obviously not everyone, not the anti MS forum warriors, but the typical gamers were happy to wait and see. It was entirely MS's fault that they didn't set the record straight when they had the chance to do so. If they new there was FUD out there damaging their vision, they should have gone to even more effort regards their communication.

Irrespective of anything prior to or after the XB1 reveal event, it was that event that determined the public's understanding of the box and the experience. And that's the friggin' reveal event which is where they are rightly expecting to have the vision explained to them! MS's inability to manage their reveal event to educate the market is entirely their fault. Had they managed that properly, there wouldn't have been any confusion and FUD as the PR played catch-up (with conflicting stories). Had they presented their info in an effective manner, Joe Gamer wouldn't have been going to websites and forums to learn what the hell XB1's features and limitations were - they'd have just watched the 5 minute YouTube vid and understood the whole thing.

Here is the problem. The reveal was in fact fantastic and extremely well designed, if you have a coherent audience. Unfortunately despite dramatically clear expectation setting, the pre-meeting FUD created some reality distortion field that seems to have prevented about 99% of people from processing clear information.

 

[Cranky]

What are you talking about ?? They wouldn't let me sell , trade or lend MY games without going into a tedious process and they wanted me to phone my parole officer every day since i was considered a criminal .You call that " phenomenally forward thinking and very consumer friendly" ? And don't let me start on their weak excuse of a hardware . It is practices like these that made me to not want to have any more business with them , ever .

You do realize you could have let anyone in the world borrow your game for as long as they liked with no effort right? The price for all of this yummy goodness. Use the box as you would normally, i.e. with it connect to the internet. If you don't have an internet connection then you didn't fit their customer profile.

 

[BoardBonobo]

Here is the problem. The reveal was in fact fantastic and extremely well designed, if you have a coherent audience. Unfortunately despite dramatically clear expectation setting, the pre-meeting FUD created some reality distortion field that seems to have prevented about 99% of people from processing clear information.

I think the reality distortion is with anyone who fails to see that it was MS who screwed the message. Blaming your target audience for your own failure to be clear and concise about your product is the worst kind of corporate egotism going. Spinning around three times and clicking your heels together whilst repeating the 'it's all their fault' mantra isn't going to earn any of the lost respect, integrity, and more importantly, sales back.

 

[hesido]

Instead of shouting TV 163 times during the reveal event, they could have demonstrated game sharing after a person skypes his friend / brother in another corner of the country. They could have done this at E3. They had two big chances to do that, but no they didn't. It wouldn't take two minutes to show off the family plan and game sharing in a mock skype conversation.

But in fact, the digital sharing sounded too good to be true, really. It would be the best and most generous digital distribution platform. And we got to know how awesome it was after they removed it. It sounds fishy to me, to say the least. "We'd have given diamonds the size of a fist to every Xbox owner, but we had to change our plans." Oh, why didn't you say so earlier?

 

[eastmen]

MS wanted a slew of reveal's over the 6 months or so till release. That was their original plan. You can see some of that now with these videos that are coming out this week. It would also prevent others from reaching feature parity or coming close. Remember E-3 to Nov is a long while to copy some stuff.

Forum warriors don't want to wait , they want everything yesterday.

So the two approaches clashed and it allowed for others to inject their opinion as fact. Thus spiraling out of control.

We will see a lot of the drm come back and I bet you will see a bluray less xbox one in the next few years with the original vision intacked.

 

[eastmen]

At new York comic con , I could find 2 xbox ones.


One was real at the twitch booth in a horrible postion

https://www.dropbox.com/s/503x6zehk6tfzts/20131011_155426.jpg

The other was an empty shell behind glass at some other booth

https://www.dropbox.com/s/fkcldymy9w8wlmd/20131011_133443.jpg

 

[hesido]

..
Forum warriors..

The power of forum warriors, ruining the awesome Microsoft plans that would benefit everyone, because they wanted to reveal their awesome plan slowly. Does not make any sense to me, or doesn't clear Microsoft from blame, given that after their initial reveal and drm details, they still had E3 to clear that confusion, there was this backlash prior to E3, no single point was addressed or detailed at E3, just because they wanted to take things slow and tease us?

All that was ever said at E3 that the Xbox Gold Plan could be shared in family. No single word about sharing games or anything. Those family game sharing plan was a bullet point in a long list with absolutely no details, and I don't see how anyone can blame people posting on forums.

 

[eastmen]

Things don't get finalized in a split second. Aside from that , announcing plans 5 months ago would give sony time to copy them.

Detailing game sharing would at e3 would give sony 5 months to copy it and give them a guide on what to implement and what not.