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Microsoft Exec Acknowledges Setting “Wrong Expectations” With Recent Inside Xbox

Mista

Mista

Banned
InsideXbox_New_HERO-1.jpg


On Twitter, head of marketing at Xbox Aaron Greenberg issued a response to criticism, saying that Microsoft “set some wrong expectations” and that they are listening to the consequent feedback, and will ensure that they take it all in and learn from it for future events. You can see his tweet below.

4oCpwCO.png


 
D

Danteyke223

Member
Kazza said:
I really appreciate Xbox's openness and candidness. Even when they do a slight misstep like this, they just freely admit the mistake rather than try to spin it. Some other companies out there could learn a thing or two from their approach *cough*
Click to expand...
It was not even that much of a misstep. MS cannot control what third parties do, and how they develop for the next gen. But if they kinda goof it on the First Party reveals with 2D pixel sprites or Minecraft reveal tier graphics then yeah we'll have a few issues :D
 
McCheese

McCheese

Member
I'm glad they are out there and trying to show us some stuff as early as possible, the wait for real PS5 announcements is torturous, especially when we're all bored at home and looking for something to get hyped about.

But the negative response does show how careful they have to be, announcing stuff before your rival might get you more attention, but it's still possible to shoot yourself in the foot even when you don't have any competition yet which is what MS has demonstrated with it's last two terrible "shows".

It's all well and good for them to say they messed up, but the scary thing is we don't know if they fucked up by not showing the good stuff, or if this was the good stuff; If it's the latter, then fucking hell MS, sort your shit out.

They cannot afford for the first-party stuff next month to be anything less than mindblowing, if it's just another generic looking Halo and Gears announcement, oof.
 
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Sota4077

Sota4077

Member
Had they hyped this up as "World Exclusive Reveals From 3rd Party Partners" it would have landed very differently. They should have left off the gameplay comments entirely because obviously they did not show actual gameplay. They showed in-engine footage which they know full well the general public does not consider "gameplay".

After having time to digest the event I would give it a C+ overall, but it certainly did not help build any hype for the system. It didn't hurt hype I would say either.
 
kyoji

kyoji

Member
GHG said:
But some people here were insistent they didn't do this and that it was our fault for expecting the event to be good.
Click to expand...
EXACTLY! kudos to him for getting out in front of this but its aaron greenberg, his whole MO is built around building false hype at times, It amazes me how quiet this guy was for mostly this entire gen, I wonder why?

That being said I have no doubt that the guys over there at ms will take into account all the feedback they received, good or bad as they dont have a choice. This goes back to the old saying its time to put up or shut up. Enough with the talking man they have been talking for years now, Look at your competitors and notice that they only do the necessary marketing needed there isnt a tryhard mentality associated with it where there is almost a chip on the shoulder to convince you their machine/products/services are great.. let the games speak for themselves and the rest fall into place.
 
Endless Fluff

Endless Fluff

Banned
Mentioning "next gen" for a 3rd party showcase was wrong anyways. We are in a cross-gen period, everything being shown is coming to PS4 and Xbox One as well (as was obvious by the "Smart Delivery" icon on every game shown)...

It's nice to see them acknowledge their fuck up.
 
Sota4077

Sota4077

Member
Endless Fluff said:
Mentioning "next gen" for a 3rd party showcase was wrong anyways. We are in a cross-gen period, everything being shown is coming to PS4 and Xbox One as well (as was obvious by the "Smart Delivery" icon on every game shown)...

It's nice to see them acknowledge their fuck up.
Click to expand...

I could be wrong, but I do not believe every game had that icon on it. Now that could easily mean they are not providing a free upgrade. It could also mean it is only releasing on next gen. I do not recall seeing that logo for The Medium.
 
AlexxKidd

AlexxKidd

Member
Danteyke223 said:
It was not even that much of a misstep. MS cannot control what third parties do, and how they develop for the next gen.
Click to expand...

Microsoft is taking accountability for this hot mess and these apologists out here still making excuses when even the company itself acknowledged the blunder. No wonder Xbox continues to remain a shit show their fans don't demand excellence.

Microsoft can't control what third parties do, but they can control their own damn messaging.



Yikes.
 
Matt_Fox

Matt_Fox

Member
Xbox titled the YouTube video ASSASSINS CREED VALHALLA FIRST LOOK GAMEPLAY

www.neogaf.com

Assassin’s Creed Valhalla: First Look Gameplay Trailer | Ubisoft NA

Get a first look at gameplay for Assassin’s Creed Valhalla. Footage is representative of Xbox Series X gameplay! Assassin’s Creed Valhalla Creative Director Ashraf Ismail breaks down the latest installment of the Assassin’s Creed franchise coming to Xbox Series X.
www.neogaf.com www.neogaf.com

They should apologise, that wording was misleading and disappointing.
 
Sota4077

Sota4077

Member
Musky_Cheese said:
Appreciate the honesty. Just show me some Halo real quick and we will forget this whole mess.
Click to expand...

In my last job I dealt with a lot of press releases for new features on machinery in a crazy competitive industry. Whenever we would put out a release or have a promotional video released our marketing department literally always has another thing ready to go as a sort of oh shit panic button. Not because we were not confident that what we were putting out wasn't what the customers wanted. But because if we put something out and our messaging was not crystal clear we wanted to clear that up immediately. I am not saying they will show Halo. I seriously doubt they would do that at this point. But I could 100% see them doing another video for a major 3rd party franchise they have a marketing agreement with and being crystal clear that it is 10 minutes of GAMEPLAY and they show true gameplay with the HUD and everything. They're smart folks over there. An apology is a good start but they probably want to bury the misleadingg gameplay term ASAP and align the standard for what they refer to as gameplay to what the public recognizes as gameplay.

EDIT. Wow. I guess I was right and didn't even know it. They already put out a video yesterday with a very different title.

 
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Portugeezer

Portugeezer

Member
TBH Ass Creed set the wrong expectations, I didn't expect only gameplay from every game. It's a bit early compared to regular E3 times to have many gameplay demos, let alone now with coronavirus.

Also didn't feel much of the 12 Tflops next-gen goodness from these third party games.

Honestly, a small bump in what has been good and clear messaging otherwise from MS.
 
Demon2blades

Demon2blades

Member
Danteyke223 said:
It was not even that much of a misstep. MS cannot control what third parties do, and how they develop for the next gen. But if they kinda goof it on the First Party reveals with 2D pixel sprites or Minecraft reveal tier graphics then yeah we'll have a few issues :D
Click to expand...

The show wasn't bad and it was what it was but don't think ms hasn't seen those games before hand and blindly gave 3rd party's a platform without knowing a thing about the games they be showing that's just odd .
 
Sota4077

Sota4077

Member
Matt_Fox said:
Xbox titled the YouTube video ASSASSINS CREED VALHALLA FIRST LOOK GAMEPLAY

www.neogaf.com

Assassin’s Creed Valhalla: First Look Gameplay Trailer | Ubisoft NA

Get a first look at gameplay for Assassin’s Creed Valhalla. Footage is representative of Xbox Series X gameplay! Assassin’s Creed Valhalla Creative Director Ashraf Ismail breaks down the latest installment of the Assassin’s Creed franchise coming to Xbox Series X.
www.neogaf.com www.neogaf.com

They should apologise, that wording was misleading and disappointing.
Click to expand...


Way to be completely misleading. The Ubisoft video is name the exact same thing. If Ubisoft sent them the video to be uploaded they do not get to name it whatever they like. I guarantee you there are marketing agreements that Ubisoft get to dictate naming of everything. Microsoft showed of gameplay so "technically" they didn't lie. But they certainly mislead viewers and they know that because the publicly apologized. But to say that the Assassins Creed trailer is on Microsoft is just wrong. That falls on Ubisoft 95%. Microsoft could have pulled it since it wasn't gameplay and that is what they promised, but they had the chance to show off a massively popular game on their stage. They're not gonna take a pass on that.

 
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Hostile_18

Hostile_18

Banned
Danteyke223 said:
It was not even that much of a misstep. MS cannot control what third parties do, and how they develop for the next gen. But if they kinda goof it on the First Party reveals with 2D pixel sprites or Minecraft reveal tier graphics then yeah we'll have a few issues :D
Click to expand...

I disagree, just like Sony, how they take there first steps towards marketing their console is very much in their control. They choose to put out lesser third party games without first party support etc as their first look to the world. Its great they acknowledged the flaws of the presentation... something I believe Sony is yet to do!
 
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FranXico

FranXico

Member
Portugeezer said:
TBH Ass Creed set the wrong expectations, I didn't expect only gameplay from every game. It's a bit early compared to regular E3 times to have many gameplay demos, let alone now with coronavirus.

Also didn't feel much of the 12 Tflops next-gen goodness from these third party games.

Honestly, a small bump in what has been good and clear messaging otherwise from MS.
Click to expand...
Not all games need to be graphical wonders. Plenty of great games are actually not graphically demanding at all.

Case in point, Streets of Rage 4 is a superb game and it could have been made 10 years ago.

And they did show some really cool games. They needlessly overhyped this presentation, but let's not overreact either.
 
Vawn

Vawn

Banned
Kazza said:
I really appreciate Xbox's openness and candidness. Even when they do a slight misstep like this, they just freely admit the mistake rather than try to spin it. Some other companies out there could learn a thing or two from their approach *cough*
Click to expand...

Talk about trying to spin something for a certain kind of "war" *cough*
 
Vawn

Vawn

Banned
Danteyke223 said:
It was not even that much of a misstep. MS cannot control what third parties do, and how they develop for the next gen. But if they kinda goof it on the First Party reveals with 2D pixel sprites or Minecraft reveal tier graphics then yeah we'll have a few issues :D
Click to expand...

Yeah. What they did wrong was by emphasizing everyone would finally get to see what next-gen gameplay looks like.
 
Sota4077

Sota4077

Member
ZehDon said:
I’m not sure why anyone is being negative about this. This is exactly what gamers ask for, and frankly. Microsoft should be applauded here.
Click to expand...

I mean transparency matters. They know they kinda shit the bed on the messaging and it has taken away from some pretty cool games they showed off yesterday. What Microsoft should be doing is apologizing to the developers who were in the video. Each one of them had to have been mislead too and because their game was shown in a video that the public is universally saying was misleading the excitement for their games could very well suffer. For some of these folks this was the big reveal and it totally fell flat because of Microsofts misfire on messaging the entire event. That is bad for everyone.
 
Portugeezer

Portugeezer

Member
SotaSkoldier said:
Way to be completely misleading. The Ubisoft video is name the exact same thing. If Ubisoft sent them the video to be uploaded they do not get to name it whatever they like. I guarantee you there are marketing agreements that Ubisoft get to dictate naming of everything. Microsoft showed of gameplay so "technically" they didn't lie. But they certainly mislead viewers and they know that because the publicly apologized. But to say that the Assassins Creed trailer is on Microsoft is just wrong. That falls on Ubisoft 95%. Microsoft could have pulled it since it wasn't gameplay and that is what they promised, but they had the chance to show off a massively popular game on their stage. They're not gonna take a pass on that.

Click to expand...

No, MS worded it poorly they weren't just copy pasting the video title.


r9GtvfH.jpg
 
Schmick

Schmick

Member
sw0mp_d0nk3y said:
Personally, I was more disappointed in the games themselves. Regardless of whether they showed cut scenes, game play, or simulated gameplay, these games just were not a good show case for convincing anyone that they need a new superflopping expensive console.
Click to expand...
Well... I suppose the only truly next gen example we've seen in detail is Flight Simulator which, I know from comments here and YouTube comments people are really impressed with it.
 
KiNeMz

KiNeMz

Banned
I'm a PS fanboy yes. Was this an invite to me buying an Xbox. No not really. But the systems aren't out yet and we barely no anything about both systems. Was it a good showing by Microsoft. Probably not. But neither mob has revealed their cards yet. Let's be patient. Everyone wants the info now. When it's time hopefully both mobs will reveal their cards and give us motivation to purchase the consoles. It's just not time yet. It will come when they are ready. I have faith in both companies providing us reason to purchase their consoles. It was a mistep by Microsoft. Sony has had a mistep too. Different times. Different approaches. It's uncharted waters for releasing new concoles in the current marketing and climate era . Hopefully they both deliver. I'm excited for what's coming.
 
Jigsaah

Jigsaah

Gold Member
#FireGreenberg

Been saying this shit for years.

The show was fine for what it was. We got to see what some indie studios could do with next gen. Just gets me hyped for the 1st party stuff. I do think they should have started out with more of a bang. I do think doing a show monthly is a bad idea, but it may be necessary at this point given COVID-19 circumstances. It's definitely better than nothing.

As for the hashtag...people need to realize that Aaron Greenberg has been here at least since Xbox One's launch. Marketing wasn't always even at this level. It used to be worse. So while I've been satisfied with the XsX marketing, I did not forget that Aaron Greenberg was probably behind alot of the issues with Xbox One's early years.
 
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Saber

Saber

Member
Acknowledging is the first step. Well done.

GHG said:
But some people here were insistent they didn't do this and that it was our fault for expecting the event to be good.
Click to expand...

Pokemon syndrome is the same.

"Just be thankful with what you have, you ingrate".
 
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ToadMan

ToadMan

Member
EricKillMongerz said:
All they had to do was not mention gameplay when most shown are not gameplay and just call it Game trailers and everything would be fine
Click to expand...

No it wouldn’t. The games they showed were without exception, underwhelming.

What they should’ve done was said nothing at all about these games and let them dribble out as youtube trailers that would’ve been ignored.

The only upside is that whatever MS does next can’t really be worse than this. I mean a one hour silent image of the halo logo would rouse more interest.
 
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