"We suck at telling the story" Microsoft engineer telling us how it really is

[bug_of_war]

I think the only way Microsoft is going to be able to win back that mindshare is by releasing the Xbox One and letting people use it and see that it isn't really as bad as people assume it will be.

It's clear that their PR operation is completely ill-equipped to deal with this problem.

I don't doubt that the Xbox One is a good console, in fact I think many people would agree that it is, however the main issue seems to be stemming from the fact that it's forcing people to use the internet to play anything. You only have to log in once a day, but for many people that is a big inconvenience. I can't hook my Xbox 360 up because it's just not in any way easy. Also, only Americans can utilize the whole "Watch Netflix, and cable television! And American Football!" feature when the console is released. People aren't so much annoyed at it's gaming capabilities as they are annoyed about how inconvenient the Xbox One is going to be for them. And in that regard, PC, PS4 and Wii U all offer much MUCH more convenient gaming than the Xbox One.

 

[Imperioratorex Caprae]

Seriously, PC gaming is not as prohibitively expensive as people seem to think it is.

Except when you factor in the O/S cost as well. Unless of course you're one of those bad people who don't pay for O/S'es or use Linux, but then most non-hardcore users don't use Linux or even know how to use it.
Average Win7 cost $180 to $220 USD, so add that to the price of the "average PC".

 

[Imperioratorex Caprae]

Except Steam has an offline mode, doesn't cost a penny to use, has a bustling community, and ridiculously good deals.

The cons of Steam(offline mode being shoddy or just not working for some people, can't trade in used games, Greenlight and its myriad issues) are heavily outweighed by its pros. The XB1's aren't.

Y'know, it doesn't cost a dime to have a gaming PC capable of playing decent games, right?

Last I checked, Steam isn't a PC, it's an application. It's not my fault people want to compare a piece of expensive hardware to a free piece of software.

No, you just need a PC to use it is all. Otherwise its a useless bit of software, and yes it costs $0 to play TF2. Anything else will cost you money to buy said game. My point still stands, Steam isn't free. It costs for a PC and a 'net connection to run it. Its not a knock against them, but a fact people forget to factor in... you need a platform to run it, even when/if the SteamBox is released.

 

[wintercoat]

Except Steam has an offline mode, doesn't cost a penny to use, has a bustling community, and ridiculously good deals.

The cons of Steam(offline mode being shoddy or just not working for some people, can't trade in used games, Greenlight and its myriad issues) are heavily outweighed by its pros. The XB1's aren't.

Y'know, it doesn't cost a dime to have a gaming PC capable of playing decent games, right?

Last I checked, Steam isn't a PC, it's an application. It's not my fault people want to compare a piece of expensive hardware to a free piece of software.

No, you just need a PC to use it is all. Otherwise its a useless bit of software, and yes it costs $0 to play TF2. Anything else will cost you money to buy said game. My point still stands, Steam isn't free. It costs for a PC and a 'net connection to run it. Its not a knock against them, but a fact people forget to factor in... you need a platform to run it, even when/if the SteamBox is released.

Steam costs a PC like an XB1 costs an HDTV. It's assumed you have one before you get it, therefor the price of the thing you play it on isn't calculated into the price.

 

[romxxii]

Sounds like the same "We wanna be like Steam, but better" claptrap that EA was bandying about when they were pitching Origin. Yeah, they're still selling games for $50-60, so total BS.

 

[Dryk]

Steam costs a PC like an XB1 costs an HDTV.

Steam also has the benefit of not trying to directly compete with the device necessary for it to function

 

[RoBi3.0]

Except Steam has an offline mode, doesn't cost a penny to use, has a bustling community, and ridiculously good deals.

The cons of Steam(offline mode being shoddy or just not working for some people, can't trade in used games, Greenlight and its myriad issues) are heavily outweighed by its pros. The XB1's aren't.

Y'know, it doesn't cost a dime to have a gaming PC capable of playing decent games, right?

Last I checked, Steam isn't a PC, it's an application. It's not my fault people want to compare a piece of expensive hardware to a free piece of software.

No, you just need a PC to use it is all. Otherwise its a useless bit of software, and yes it costs $0 to play TF2. Anything else will cost you money to buy said game. My point still stands, Steam isn't free. It costs for a PC and a 'net connection to run it. Its not a knock against them, but a fact people forget to factor in... you need a platform to run it, even when/if the SteamBox is released.

Steam costs a PC like an XB1 costs an HDTV. It's assumed you have one before you get it, therefor the price of the thing you play it on isn't calculated into the price.

This man speaks the truth.

Cost of XboxOne 500.00 + cost of decent low end hd tv 200.00 = 700.00

I don't think I need to point out that you can build a decent gaming PC for that if you shop the deals.

 

[Atmos Duality]

So, what he's saying, basically, is that the Xbone was designed to discard EVERY SINGLE ADVANTAGE THE 360 HAD OVER STEAM.

Perhaps he and Microsoft still just don't realize that trying to upsell new limitations introduced from the previous generation is stupid.

 

[ghostrider9876]

I tried to read this, I really did, but this alleged Microsoft person just comes across as an insufferable douche. Anyone else experiencing this issue? Maybe it's a localization problem.

 

[AuronFtw]

I love how everyone seems to have accepted that this guy is legit, without doing any sort of fact checking.
Weird.

This is the internet. Everything you read on it is 100% factual.

Duh.

 

[Vivid Kazumi]

I've gotta say, this guy is better at PR than the guy who is charge of PR and market strat.

He sounds enthusiastic, talks like a normal person, explains things well ... shame he works for Microsoft.

I can commend MS for trying to push the medium forward, I just think there forward is the wrong forward. Gamers want the medium to move north and MS is like "no, east is better ... now get your fuckin' ass over here!".

Maybe if they said "look, we know this looks awful but just keep with us"

Well to be honest there deal's started out like ass.But,in the last 3-5 months they've been getting way better.so who knows it might be possible,it might not

 

[J Tyran]

Seriously, PC gaming is not as prohibitively expensive as people seem to think it is.

Except when you factor in the O/S cost as well. Unless of course you're one of those bad people who don't pay for O/S'es or use Linux, but then most non-hardcore users don't use Linux or even know how to use it.
Average Win7 cost $180 to $220 USD, so add that to the price of the "average PC".

For anyone playing a lot of games they will make back any extra costs for the PC several times over during the life span of a PC, seriously. Its not just Steam, all the digital distribution services have huge sales. Even Origin has 50% off sales regularly now, don't forget that the retail boxes and digital versions are cheaper in the first place anyway. Not sure of the savings in the US but in the UK a multiplatform release will be between £5-15 cheaper for the PC, the console versions are £40 but its £25-35 for the PC version if you shop about for a good deal. They come down in price faster and further than console releases too, you can pick up the brand new PC retail version of a game from places like Amazon cheaper than a used PS3 or 360 version at places like Game/Gamestation once a game has been out six months or more.

When I only played console games before 2005 I could never afford the amount of games I get to play now.

 

[Smeggs]

Okay, let me put it this way. There is potential for this to be pulled off.

I new games on the Xbone only cost 40 dollars, would you buy one? How about 50? What if they only cost 30? At one point would you buy an Xbox one and be happy for the price advantage. What if they had sales like steam did? We'd all be happy to purchase one.

There are, however, several issues that prevent Xbox one from being the "Steam of consoles," And its not just retailers. First is trust. Microsoft's sales have never been generous to say the least. I've never seen any of their games get cut in price in a timely fashion. I don;t trust Microsoft to manage sales and price drops in the same way that I trust valve does. This could be corrected with time, but I that's going to take a few years. The second is Indie games. I don't buy many AAA games over steam. Mostly I'm buying indie titles. Xbox One, with its publisher requirement and 10000 fee, will never be indie friendly. I don't think games like Amnesia and Bastion would ever be welcome on Xbox one, at least not without paying a huge amount of cash up front. That's just another item separating the two.

Overall, I just don't think MS is customer friendly enough to pull off that model.

If any sort of price below $60 had even been remotely a part of their agenda for this console they would have said so and defused a shit ton of the overall avalanche since the console's Reveal a few weeks ago. No. I can only foresee full-priced downloads in the future. Which are already overpriced anyway.

Secondly, this was not Microsoft trying to emulate Valve, it was Microsoft blatantly disregarding the original target audience in favor of trying to make the first God-Machine and pandering to a huge bunch of people, while in the end all the machine has accomplished is being a watered down version of the items that the creators were trying to replace. I say this because the XBone and its services thus far seem to be only the downsides of Steam and none of the good parts that made Steam so popular in the first place.

I guess it really just boils down to if you're going to make a gaming PC, then make a gaming PC. If you're going to make a console, make a console. A fully online digital download service works well for PCs, but mostly removes the convenience of buying a console in the first place. And let's not forget Microsoft's track record with buggy hardware and shoddy manufacturing. Just last week one of my friend's 360's suffered a critical hardware failure. I think I'd rather spend a bit of time trying to fix or update or download whatever I need instead of either waiting two weeks as Microsoft re-fixes their terrible handiwork, or I have to fork over another $500 for a new system. Let's all be real, we know that this system will have some sort of issue. Last I remembered, there were errors on the 360 that Microsoft themselves didn't even have answers for yet.

I tried to read this, I really did, but this alleged Microsoft person just comes across as an insufferable douche. Anyone else experiencing this issue? Maybe it's a localization problem.

And the fact that his grammar is atrocious. I realize it's on /b/ and the whole, "nobuddy kairs how i tipe on teh inturnet" but come now. If you're someone who would actually have inside information on the new console from one of the world's largest tech providers I'd think you'd actually be able to spell.

 

[Agayek]

And the fact that his grammar is atrocious. I realize it's on /b/ and the whole, "nobuddy kairs how i tipe on teh inturnet" but come now. If you're someone who would actually have inside information on the new console from one of the world's largest tech providers I'd think you'd actually be able to spell.

While I definitely agree with you in spirit, having worked in the tech industry for several years now, I can confidently say that he could very well be the most competent engineer they've got and still type like that in the workplace. I've seen very competent, highly skilled engineers with no idea how to use proper diction and/or grammar. Generally, that's because English isn't their first language, and I've seen none of the usual signs of that here, but there's been some rare instances where I've seen natives do it too. It's well within the bounds of possibility that is the case here.

That's not to say I actually believe that for a second (I'm rather confident it's an Xbox fanboy trying to rapidly defend his purchasing decisions, it reeks far too much of desperation for anything else to be very likely), but it is conceivable that he's telling the truth.

 

[Gauddith]

I love how everyone seems to have accepted that this guy is legit, without doing any sort of fact checking.
Weird.

http://www.gameranx.com/updates/id/15439/article/supposed-microsoft-engineer-speaks-out-on-xbox-one-drm-it-s-all-fake/

Decided to do some real fact checking. He missed Typhoon, the Thai restaurant in the building. Oddly enough I live in the area, and I can confirm he is correct about the Double Punch Wednesdays. Go figure, this guy took five minutes to debunk something, and I took five minutes to call him out on it. Not saying the person who posted on 4Chan works there, but, you know, if you're going to do research, don't half ass it.

 

[ScrabbitRabbit]

>Honestly, if you care about anything other then pure games AT ALL. Xbox 1 > PS4. If all you do is play games, and nothing else, PS4.

oh, really?

so if I want to play games, since that is exactly the only thing I do with a GAMING CONSOLE, I should buy a PS4?


coming straight from Microsoft people, if you want to play games, get a PS4.

The funny thing is, is that Playstation has Skype, Netflix, Lovefilm, BBC iPlayer and... well, a whole host of movie and TV services. The only thing it can't do is connect to your cable box and I'd find it easier just to change over with my remote anyway.

It's pretty much equal in the multimedia department.

 

[Genocidicles]

The funny thing is, is that Playstation has Skype, Netflix, Lovefilm, BBC iPlayer and... well, a whole host of movie and TV services. The only thing it can't do is connect to your cable box and I'd find it easier just to change over with my remote anyway.

It's pretty much equal in the multimedia department.

Well slightly better, in that you don't need to pay Sony to use their movie and tv services.

Whereas I need to pay Microsoft to use a service that I already pay for in the first place.

 

[devotedsniper]

If its so focused on digital distribution why will it have only a 500GB HDD at launch? That will hold 10-20 or so AAA games, triple A games will easily hit 25-50GB next gen and that hard drive is simply too small.

Well when you consider the Witcher 3 is meant to be 35 times the size of the second one and that was 20GB on launch (for pc), god knows how big the new one will be, 500GB just isn't going to be enough for next gen games.

 

[Mr.Mattress]

At first, I thought this article was "We Suck at Telling Stories", and it would basically be Microsoft admitting that their games aren't good enough to keep indefinitely (In response to Nintendo's "You wanna stop used games? Make better games!"). You can imagine how disappointing I was when it turns out they're just explaining their DRM...