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Jesse Schell: Listening to customers was Microsoft's big mistake

S

shinobi602

Member
"If you understand the technology and you understand the human mind, you can predict the future. You can tell what is going to happen."

According to Schell, this is at the root of Microsoft's mistakes with the Xbox One. It understood the needs of its partners, and its own needs as a business, but it badly misjudged the psychology of its customers. It is the classic innovator's dilemma: the market will change, and the customer will respond positively to that change, but the customer won't necessarily allow the current leader to be the one to make that change happen.

"Your customers want you to stay the same, even if it drives you into the ground," Schell says. "Somehow, Microsoft didn't seem to think that would be a reality, or even a problem.

"The reality is that they can't do what the customers want. Basically, Microsoft said, 'We're going to be Steam. You like Steam, don't you?' And we all said, 'No, we hate that. We hate you. You're an idiot to do that.'
Click to expand...
"There's one mistake that they all make, and that mistake is listening to their customers."

But that's precisely what Microsoft has done. In the last few weeks, it has altered or removed almost every feature of the Xbox One that truly distinguished it from both its competitors and the current generation of hardware. Microsoft wanted to demonstrate boldness in the face of a rapidly changing market, but it did too much, too soon and with too heavy a hand. The problem for Microsoft, Schell explains, is that while the subsequent outcry came from a relatively small section of the gaming audience, it is nevertheless impossible to ignore. Microsoft may prove to be correct about what a console needs to be in the digital world, but that's irrelevant when it comes to the psychology of the consumer.

"The problem is that the hardcore folks always want the same thing: 'We want exactly what you gave us before, but it has to be completely different.'

"When you want to do something really different - the solution to the innovator's dilemma - you can't take your big brand and say it's going to be completely different. You need to set up something up on the side, and big companies are hesitant to do that. It's how Valve could do it [with Steam], because they had nothing before.

"I suspect that we're going to end up in that world. Are we going to end up there on these consoles? I don't know. It could be that some dark horse shows up. It could be that Apple shows up. It could be that somebody finds a better way."
Click to expand...

VG247 via GI.Biz
 
S

Silky

Banned
BUT IT WAS NOTHING LIKE STEAM

Like seriously. The way people describe Xbone's original system is like "Just like Steam" is a selling point or a buzzword. It's not. Steam's design and way of operationv is nice, but that's not what I want from a console. It has nice features that i want implemented in everything, but I don't want everything to be like Steam ffs.

Honestly if they kept the always online and reduced the price to $399, I'd buy it in the future
 
D

Dio

Banned
But they were never going to be like Steam. The point of Steam is that it has competitors who force it to have Steam Sales.

On a closed system console, there are no competitors. Thus, there will be no sales on that scale.

That's a terrible comparison.
 
J

JDSN

Banned
Is Microsoft forcing people to act like we missed on the greatest innovation of the century? Its not the first time I hear random people complaining about us missing something amazing due our closed-minded nature.
 
dugdug

dugdug

Banned
JDSN said:
Is Microsoft forcing people to act like we missed on the greatest innovation of the century? Its not the first time I hear random people complaining about us missing something amazing due our closed-minded nature.
Click to expand...

"so, congratulations internet? i guess?"
 
N

Not Spaceghost

Spaceghost
I'd like to see what would have happened had MS not 180'd.

Would we then have articles saying "SONY STUCK IN THE PAST!" or "MICROSOFT SHOULD HAVE LISTENED TO THEIR COSTOMERS!"
 
OneEightZero

OneEightZero

aka ThreeOneFour
Dio said:
But they were never going to be like Steam. The point of Steam is that it has competitors who force it to have Steam Sales.

On a closed system console, there are no competitors. Thus, there will be no sales on that scale.

That's a terrible comparison.
Click to expand...

But Steam... with a box... or something... coming...
 
H

harSon

Banned
I disagree with a lot in the article, but this quote is so fucking true: ""The problem is that the hardcore folks always want the same thing: 'We want exactly what you gave us before, but it has to be completely different.'"
 
S

Slateboard

Neo Member
I felt it had potential and would've been great in the long-term. But I'm also one of those people who were unphased by all of the stuff people were angry about with the Xbox One.

It just seems like a terrible no-win scenario now as far as satisfying the hardcore fanbase.
 
M

MormaPope

Banned
The idea that Steam is like any Microsoft marketplace needs to be put into the toilet, flushed, and fucking plunged till it never surfaces again. "They both sell things" as a comparison is lazy at best and completely ignorant at worst.

Does the Xbone allow me to download mods and other things to change my game up? What about pricing? Server browsers? Community features such as specific forums and screenshots?
 
T

The Omega Man

Member
the future was to let only a handful of countries to play your new console, oh my gawd! Microsoft you so forward-thinking!
Also compairing it to Steam lol
 
T

Tybolt

Banned
Nethaniah said:
Who?
Click to expand...

This!

I'm also not sure why the consumer has to be "blamed"? This article reeks of contempt towards the consumer market. Isn't the entire root concept of business to make product the consumer wants? When did this turn into an us-versus-them battlefield?
 
D

danthefan

Member
I don't think that article makes sense. There was basically no policy of the Xbox One that I felt benefited me at all.
 
diffusionx

diffusionx

Gold Member
He's right, customers don't like change until they do like it. That put Microsoft in their bind and has hurt them over and over. They have long been in the business of keeping things the same, it almost killed them in the mid-1990s when they didn't see the internets coming and it did kill them in the 2000s when they didn't see the iPod and iPhone coming. In 2000 they envisioned a future revolving around desktops using Internet Explorer on Windows forever.

The world is moving towards digital, people won't be using discs and looking at grody racks at GameStop forever. Of course, customers can't imagine this.
 
F

Freki

Member
Interfectum said:
Besides the ability to sell your Xbox One game and the 24 hour check-in it was almost exactly like Steam.
Click to expand...

Is Steam the only digital store where you can buy games for PC? Steam is the way it is because of competition - especially when it comes to prices. That's one of the main differences as there will not be any competition on the Xbox One (or PS4 for that matter).
 
Interfectum

Interfectum

Member
Silky said:
Does Steam make you pay for online
Does steam require a mandatory component that's absolutely useless
Click to expand...

This is talking about the distribution method, not PC vs console mentality. The way Microsoft wanted to sell you XB1 games (ie physical copies come with one use unlock code, exactly like a steamworks title) was completely inspired by Steam.
 
G

GrizzledGrump

Banned
Faster horse, etc.

I'm glad MS did the 180. Screw the "partners". These "partners" cowardly stood silent as MS was taking the flak for all the DRM stuff. I'm pretty sure MS discussed their plans with them and received their blessing. But when all was said and done, corporations do what corporations do and that's avoid bad publicity at all costs.

If I didn't dislike physical copies of games, I would buy them all used just to screw these cowards.

MS wanted to stay silent on the issue until they could show consumers the benefits, but all of the leaks killed them and forced them to speak before they wanted to.
 
I

Into

Member
"When you want to do something really different - the solution to the innovator's dilemma - you can't take your big brand and say it's going to be completely different. You need to set up something up on the side, and big companies are hesitant to do that. It's how Valve could do it [with Steam], because they had nothing before."
Click to expand...


To make their product different, and to "innovate" the solution was to offer DRM, limit used games, forced online 24 hour check and ram Kinect down peoples throats? These "innovative features" only are good for Microsoft, not the consumer.

That is like if i sold pizza where for toppings i scraped the asfalt outside my shop and put on old ass gum, hair, and garbage on to save money, and called myself a innovator, come get a slice of the new and really different Pizza della Vomit, i am revolutionizing the business. It totally benefits *me* but to great detriment to the customer

Microsoft should forever be grateful that people reacted as strongly as they did and i assume the pre orders were not setting the world on fire. The consumer saved them in the long run
 
Marvel

Marvel

could never
I wouldn't say it was just a few hardcore gamers on the internet that were upset with what Microsoft tried to shove down our throats... the polls/pre-orders didn't lie.
 
M

Majanew

Banned
Microsoft's big mistake was doing the dumb shit that they had to reverse their stance on. Online DRM and blocking people from selling/trading their games with anyone they wanted to... was a big mistake. Now, MS better wise up and allow Kinect to be unplugged.

Nothing MS can do about being weaker than PS4. Just have to hope they grab enough of the big spenders. They lost me.
 
U

UnluckyKate

Member
People are still comparing Xbox One to steam ? That was stupid 4 month ago, it's still so stupid god how can you pretend be in this industry and not understand it
 
Z

Zushin

Member
This is so stupid. MS didn't innovate in anything. They weren't pushing anything revolutionary, they were just adding excessive restrictions for their own gain. And it's getting extremely tiring to see the comparisons to Steam. They are completely different and should be treated as such.
 
G

GrizzledGrump

Banned
Xer0 said:
Probably because MS doesn't have their shit together.
Click to expand...

I can't believe there are people out there that don't believe that a multi-billion dollar product was just slapped together at the last minute. That's not how these things work.

Almost everything is a moving target messaging and policy-wise until the damn thing ships.
 
J

JaseC

gave away the keys to the kingdom.
Interfectum said:
This is talking about the distribution method, not PC vs console mentality. The way Microsoft wanted to sell you XB1 games (ie physical copies come with one use unlock code, exactly like a steamworks title) was completely inspired by Steam.
Click to expand...

The check-in policy was nothing like Steam, though; Steam's Offline Mode doesn't expire.
 
S

Spirit of Jazz

Banned
danthefan said:
I don't think that article makes sense. There was basically no policy of the Xbox One that I felt benefited me at all.
Click to expand...

The writer attempts to explain it's all down to consumers regecting innovation whilst maintaining that said innovation was MS aping Steam. You can't copy a competitors model (which MS didn't even do, they just aped the less than desirable Steam elements) and then claim people hate them due to their innovation. The whole article makes no sense at all.
 
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