Mixed Information on Consoles or How I learned to loathe PR *spin off*

[iroboto]

They definitely need to be more transparent and get their messaging right.
a) frame rate is likely up to the developer, some games are designed for 30, and it in multiplayer games they may feel that they want both consoles to operate at 30, and not one at 30 and one at 60 (This seems somewhat reasonable, to at lest make the playing field fair -- but if the CPU is about the same as XBO, I'm don't think it's going to be straight forward for Scorpio to be running 60 just because it's got a beefier GPU)
b) resolution is probably going to maxed at all time on Scorpio, but this haszalready been suggested
c) it will likely be running higher fidelity features, that's entirely up to the developer unless MS is purposefully hamstringing scorpio until XBO is phased out. (I suppose this is where the outrage mainly lies)

 

[Shifty Geezer]

Sony's PS4E PR message was also confusing..

Sony haven't really messaged PS4E. They've only recently confirmed it by saying they won't talk about it at E3.

it's probably about making it simple to market right now, they can 'update' the message closer to release.

Is ti okay to 'update' a message by basically lying? I'm not asking morally, but in business sense. I'm starting to think it is, and the PR negativity that's generated doesn't really affect the business. You can run with a story for years (OVR is going to be cheap entry VR for the masses) and then change tack. Everyone complains, then moves on. The benefit is managing consumers and/or expectations and/or generating hype, and then delivering the product you really wanted to deliver regardless of what you said earlier. So perhaps MS are bald-faced lying, with plans for enhanced games which'll make for a much more compelling product, to minimise impact on current hardware interest?

It actually sounds like it's going to do what many people speculated the PS4 neo was gonna do when it first leaked. And that is simply run Xbox One games at a higer res.

The PS4K idea is much like this, but we also hoped/expected that SD players would get improvements too like higher framerate and more visual goodness. That seems to be the case for Neo.

 

[Deleted member 11852]

Phil Spencer: What TV do you have?

A standard 1080p TV.

Phil Spencer: Then you should buy this box [Xbox One S] , because Scorpio is not going to do anything for you. Scorpio is designed as a 4K console, and if you don't have a 4K TV, the benefit we've designed for, you're not going to see.

No downsampling for 1080p TVs is a bit of a missed opportunity but perhaps something they can add. Scorpio suddenly sounds a lot less interesting if it's just Xbox One visuals at a higher resolution. Is this 4K and/or 60fps? But presumably higher resoluton textures as well, but Xbox One / PlayStation 4 level shadows and lighting. Will Microsoft allow devs to target lower resolutions and use the extra power for better effects?

I'm confused now. Clearly some info is emerging that I've not seen details for.

 

[mpg1]

The PS4K idea is much like this, but we also hoped/expected that SD players would get improvements too like higher framerate and more visual goodness. That seems to be the case for Neo.

People on here speculated that the easiest/quickest way for for developers to develop two versions of the game would be to simply up the resolution while maintaining frame-rate for the ps4 neo mode opposed to tinkering with much with settings and frame-rate.

I still think we get effectively get up-res'd ports on these new consoles for a while couple of years.

 

[Scott_Arm]

For people who can't read without taking everything at its literal meaning:

Phil Spencer is a salesman and he wants your money now, so he's telling you to buy the Xbox One or slim, even though we all know games are going to look better on Scorpio even at 1080p.

 

[goonergaz]

I get that, but 'buy this now so you can buy that next year' don't sound a great way to treat customers

 

[mpg1]

For people who can't read without taking everything at its literal meaning:

Phil Spencer is a salesman and he wants your money now, so he's telling you to buy the Xbox One or slim, even though we all know games are going to look better on Scorpio even at 1080p.

They should really just stop talking for a bit. Mixed messaging about a bunch of things over the past couple of days.

 

[fehu]

It can be predamage control
99% of people have a 1080p or lower screen, don't panic, your xbox on't become obsolete soon

 

[Scott_Arm]

Gamers are so sensitive. Only people I know that are so glued to what comes out of the mouths of sales people.

 

[AlNom]

glued to what comes out of the mouths

Maybe it's sticky.

 

[goonergaz]

TBH that's all we have to go on!

 

[McHuj]

And now for another different message from Phil:

Speaking in the video (below), Spencer explained that Scorpio is a "6 teraflop gaming machine, which will be a great gaming machine for true 4K gaming, giving you a native 4K frame buffer so you can see games in all their beauty.

"Or," he continued, "if developers want to use those 6 teraflops in other ways they're free to do that."

www.videogamer.com/news/developers_can_use_scorpios_6_teraflops_however_they_wish_says_spencer.html

 

[Shifty Geezer]

Gamers are so sensitive. Only people I know that are so glued to what comes out of the mouths of sales people.

They're wanting to understand things, and Spencer shouldn't be operating as a sales person. Consumers are facing a chocie. They want to make an informed choice. They are looking for info to tell them whether they want to wait for Scorpio or not. Anyone buying XB1 now having been told Scorpio is only good for 4k, who then sees Scorpio games improved at 1080p and would have preferred to wait, would be rightly pissed because they were misled.

PR is about dressing up the truth in enough ambiguity or fluff to lesson the impact of negativity. That's not what's happening here. MS should have done a Sony and just not talked about it. Either that or Spencer is being genuine (as he should be) and Scorpio is about 4K XB1, nothing else.

Either way, it's pretty ridiculous that we have an unambiguous fact and yet we have people saying, "don't beleive a word of it." Basically that makes communication pointless. It makes interviews pointless and the responses pointless and means we can never be informed. Which isn't really how the retail sector works.

And now for another different message from Phil:
www.videogamer.com/news/developers_can_use_scorpios_6_teraflops_however_they_wish_says_spencer.html

Okay, now that's what should be said. MS's messaging continues to be totally crap and contradictory and generate angst.

Maybe it's just absurdly clever? Keeps everyone talking about their products and what they hell they are and do for weeks on end!

 

[Ike Turner]

And now for another different message from Phil:



www.videogamer.com/news/developers_can_use_scorpios_6_teraflops_however_they_wish_says_spencer.html

Videogamer.com is full of it..there's no backtracking or any such thing..the video is 2 days old and predates the Eurogamer interview. As a matter of fact the video has a fairly clear marketing message unlike the interview which is a total mess... now let's see if Spencer comments on it or not depending on if Eurogamer took some liberties with Spencer's answers and interpreted them wrong or if Spencer was just talking he ass out for PR/marketing damage control to sell the One S.

 

[MrFox]

The only way to reassure gamers is to promise no game will be allowed to be exclusive to Scorpio, nor have exclusive features or functionality.

How difficult is it?

 

[mpg1]

The only way to reassure gamers is to promise no game will be allowed to be exclusive to Scorpio, nor have exclusive features or functionality.

How difficult is it?

Pretty difficult I'd say considering the power gap. At some point Xbox one will have to be cut loose.

 

[Dave Baumann]

Very. Because he doesn't have control over all the developers out there.

The message for the developers and publishers that want to maximise their profitability is: Look, target 900p-1080p for XBOX One to capture the user base and then treat Scorpio as a ~4K device with the same graphical use. But the hardware and the API abstraction layer (DX12) is still an open sandbox that's basically impossible to restrict, so developers that like to target different hardware levels, such as the DICE's of this world, I would easily see them doing different things dependant on the class of hardware and the resolution selection of the user - especially since their titles are already massively scale-able to accommodate the PC landscape.

Look, even the jump from XBox One to One S has exclusive features in terms of graphical fidelity and that is being promoted in MS's own titles!

 

[AlNom]

They just have to make it clear as mud that XO is just hitting its stride.

Look, even the jump from XBox One to One S has exclusive features in terms of graphical fidelity and that is being promoted in MS's own titles!

More details.

 

[Deleted member 11852]

And now for another different message from Phil:

The Microsoft E3 2013 comms fiasco was attributable to different people being involved but now Phil Spencer is a one man communications mess.

Assuming what he says here is right, and he doesn't say something completely contradictory tomorrow, this is what I expected.

The thing is, I have difficulty believing him. Because of stuff like this.

 

[ZeroEx]

Man I was hype to heard about this new Xbox.
But now all this mixed messaging is just telling me to stick with PC. Cause obviously consoles are for people who don't use PC for gaming.
With this Xbox Anywhere program, people who do indeed use PC for gaming should not bother buying an Xbox.

They really need to be consistent in their messaging, because I'm sure a lot of prospective console buyers must be thinking: "why should I buy a Xbox One S or a Xbox Scorpio? They both say 4K capable and HDR blah blah....but I just want a console with better graphics.... are they not delivering this with Xbox One S or Xbox Scorpio?"