• Hey Guest. Check out your NeoGAF Wrapped 2025 results here!

Gamesindustry.biz: Why did Microsoft do it?

Miles Quaritch said:
You mean Phil Harrison. Mattrick isn't far behind, but Harrison man.

The dude is a freaking walking curse. I refuse to believe he isn't. There's just too much evidence to dismiss the claim.
Click to expand...
Remind me again the list of Phil Harrison f#@* ups in the past. I think it its amusing how this guy fails upwards.
 
One of the reasons they did it is because in the future they want to release a smaller box without a BD drive, and all the games you bought for it will still work. So you're paying for potential of a smaller box in the future, maybe it'll even be as small as the PS4!
 
Phonomezer said:
If not now, then when and by whom? Sony has demonstrated that they aren't too interested in taking risks.
Click to expand...

You offer the option of digital alongside traditional retail, and I honestly think that within a few years' time, digital will slowly but surely begin to overtake the retail market. The key, though, is not making anyone feel as if it was forced upon them. I would also like to see retail stores get into the digital space. I think if Wal-Mart, Target, etc. had their own online game stores, things would be a lot more fair and competitive price-wise.
 
I see that the article made mention of us possibly being the vocal minority, however talking to my friends recently who are not gamers at all or only play casually, I'm starting to get the idea that it's actually quite widespread.

For example, went to the gym with a mate this morning (he rarely plays games) and brought up the new consoles with a "Have you heard about the new Playstation and Xbox?" to which he instantly replied "Yeah, I've heard the new Xbox is shit"

Also on my Facebook, I've been noticing a fair bit of anti Xbox sentiment, alot of which is coming from 360 owners. This problem is starting to spiral out of Microsoft's control.

People love their physical media :/
 
Graphics Horse said:
One of the reasons they did it is because in the future they want to release a smaller box without a BD drive, and all the games you bought for it will still work. So you're paying for potential of a smaller box in the future, maybe it'll even be as small as the PS4!
Click to expand...

That was their vision of the future after they released the Xbox 360, the Xbox one is trying to force the issue unnecessarily.
 
Even the comments are mature and well thought out.

Brilliant article and sums up this PR nightmare in a good way.
 
The whole vocal minority idea underestimates the viral nature of word-of-mouth and the unofficial leadership positions in-the-know gamers assume in their social circles. I can tell you that I work with hundreds of people and this recently former Xbox fanatic is continually espousing the virtues of the Playstation 4 and deriding the anti-consumer policies Microsoft is proposing, even though their efforts don't particularly serve as a detriment to my personal gaming style. We can get them to reform these policies because this is a market-driven business and we are significant forces in this market.
 
Aaron said:
Being deaf to the world around them is Microsoft corporate culture. You can see it in their handling of the Surface and Windows 8 long before the Xbox One. They simply do not react to what the general public is telling them until the public becomes so deafening they can no longer ignore it. See adding the start button back to Windows 8
Click to expand...
Adding the start button is a perfect example of MS's piss poor handling of backlash and limited backpedaling when a complete overhaul is what people are asking for. The start button isn't what people were bitchin going about. They want the start menu. Pressing the start button just takes you back to the metro bullshit. It's like them giving us permission to let 10 whole people to share a game. It's a superficial fix that doesnt attack the main issue of them taking away rights gamers have enjoyed forever and asking them to put so much trust in a corporation.
 
Aaron said:
Being deaf to the world around them is Microsoft corporate culture. You can see it in their handling of the Surface and Windows 8 long before the Xbox One. They simply do not react to what the general public is telling them until the public becomes so deafening they can no longer ignore it. See adding the start button back to Windows 8
Click to expand...

And even then they won't completely comply with what the public wants. The new start button doesn't bring up a start menu, it just takes you too the metro screen. It's as if they're purposely fucking with us.
 
As someone who would have gladly bought a unit at 500/payed for gold through the gen if it wasn't for this bullshit.

Good job throwing away 2000+ dollars in console/subscription/game sales from a single user.
 
MCD said:
Even the comments are mature and well thought out.

Brilliant article and sums up this PR nightmare in a good way.
Click to expand...

and are the two other articles that are being quoted in this thread, THAT HAVE NOTHING TO DO WITH OP's article, are they being quoted and link to in here just to confuse and mislead people?

because when someone quotes from those other articles, they give the impression (maybe on purpose?) as if they are quoting it from the Gameindustry.biz one.

like so

JaggedSac said:
The OP didn't bold the most important part:

The cloud capabilities is the shit they like the most. We basically made a huge cloud compute shit and made it free. What people are doing with it is kind of cool. THe original intention was to get all the Multiplayer servers not requiring 3rd party costs (Like EA shutting down game servers to cut costs), as well as taking all the games that servers hosted by the clients (Halo, etc),
Click to expand...

Free cloud resources. That is a pretty nice for devs.
Click to expand...

^
those quotes are from the pastebin Microsoft anonymous "engineer" which I find hard to believe.
 
it's sort of amazing that the old "3X" expression still applies to MS Xbox division...

Xbox: Embrace
Xbox 360: Extend
Xbox One: Extinguish
 
Iacobellis said:
Two words: Don Mattrick.
Click to expand...

From what I can tell, this is the case. Working here in Bellevue, I've heard from a few ex-Microsoft people who would be in the know that Mattrick is responsible for the ousting of both J Allard and Peter Moore, and deciding to lean huge into the Kinect and the current direction of the Xbox brand.
 
I don't know why they did it. It's easy for us to say it's all about money.

The fact is the industry has thrived over the last 30 years with used and without DRM. If they want more revenue from games then convince us to transition to digital downloads. Open up the market. It completely dumbfounds me when you have people like CliffyB and executives at MS essentially shifting the blame on consumers for problems that are fundamentally caused by developers. There is absolutely no self reflection.
 
Microsoft's current corporate culture gave us the Metro interface shoe-horned in Windows 8 and even called the classic desktop a legacy, like it was an outdated UI. They're forcing consumers to buy what they want and not making what the consumers want.
 
PistolGrip said:
This is so desperate. Foomy not sure if you are just some marketing guy or a naive junior but this was an obvious and terrible first post.
Click to expand...
Whoa whoa, I don't think he meant it in any way other than how awful MS thinks these DRM policies are good for the consumer.

That was an interesting link, thanks Foomy.
 
Commanche Raisin Toast said:
And even then they won't completely comply with what the public wants. The new start button doesn't bring up a start menu, it just takes you too the metro screen. It's as if they're purposely fucking with us.
Click to expand...
Not at all. Maybe even the opposite. The fact that their solution is half-assed just shows how deaf they are, and how only the very loudest voices are getting through. Their corporate culture is so inclusionary its practically incestuous, like the royal families of old.
 
Aaron said:
Not at all. Maybe even the opposite. The fact that their solution is half-assed just shows how deaf they are, and how only the very loudest voices are getting through. Their corporate culture is so inclusionary its practically incestuous, like the royal families of old.
Click to expand...

Matrick = Marie Antoinette ?

"let them play xbox 360"
 
JaggedSac said:
How do they handle physical game sales without the check-in? The person has to manually deactivate on their box before they take it in? Or Gamestop does a deactivation on the game from the store but the person's box if offline...what happens then? No funds until the box comes back online?

As for optional installs, I think the benefit of the devs not worrying about streaming media from two different optional places is a good thing.
Click to expand...

The best system would be an offline based RF tag on each disc.
 
MS is trying to herd people into a cloud based/no physical media future. I had to buy Office 365 at school and you get 2 (or was it 4?) years free and then you have to start subscribing. This just seems like another attempt to shift audiences towards this new culture.
 
chubigans said:
Whoa whoa, I don't think he meant it in any way other than how awful MS thinks these DRM policies are good for the consumer.

That was an interesting link, thanks Foomy.
Click to expand...
http://microsoft-news.com/microsoft-...s-valid-points

Good points? This is salty bullshit where he basically confirms the ludicrous Microsoft knows better then you bullshit that put them in this position:

"Some PS4 viral team made them all “U TOOK R DISCS” and they hiveminded."

So once again Microsoft thinks I'm a mindless sheep, and when things don't go their way, it's not because I was too smart for their bullshit, it's obviously that I fell for someone else's bullshit.

"Everyone and their mother complains about how gamestop fucks them on their trade ins, getting 5$ for their used games. We come in trying to find a way to take money out of gamestop, and put some in developers and get you possibly cheaper games and everyone bitches at MS."

Riiiiiiight, so basically, 'you weren't getting much for your trade in so we took what you were getting and gave it to someone else because we love you.' Seriously? SERIOUSLY?

"Well, if you want the @#$@ing from Gamestop, go play PS4."

Ummm, that's what they are all doing. Or hadn't you noticed?

"Publishers have enourmous power. Microsoft is trying to balance between consumer delight, and publisher wishes. If we cave to far in either direction you have a non-starting product. WiiU goes too far to consumer, you have no 3rd party support to shake a stick at. PS4 is status-quo. XB1 is trying to push some things, at the expense of others."

So WiiU is TOO nice to consumers! (Glad to know you think that's even possible) PS4 is just doing the same old same old annnnnnnnd, MS is "pushing some things." So you are defining yourself in opposition to being nice to customers and doing what's been done before? So basically, 'we are innovators that hate our customers.' Sounds about right actually.

Instead of 10mins, is 24hrs for your console, and 1 or 2 at a friends house. Really the majority of people have a speck of internet at least once a day. And if you don’t. Don’t buy an Xbox 1.

LOL. I see they have learned much from all this.

"This allows us to do cool shit when we can assume things like you have a kinect, you have internet, etc."

And that would be???????????????????????????????????????????????????

"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."

Wow, I don't even... Alright, if you want me to buy a PS4 I will, I guess? WTF?

Welp, that explains it! I reckon!
 
PhatSaqs said:
WTH. The dude posted a link to an article....prosecution complex much?
Click to expand...

http://microsoft-news.com/about/

the most obvious corporate shilling site I have ever seen

until I found its sister site

http://wmpoweruser.com/about/

terrible

I'm not the first to notice either
http://forums.theregister.co.uk/forum/1/2011/12/28/microsoft_leaked_phone_os_plans/

wmpoweruser.com is owned by "M S Davids", then microsoft-news was registered later with whois hidden behind domains by proxy
 
Well they did it, and completely fucked up their Trojan Horse strategy they held for so long. Timing is everything and theirs has sucked for the past several years.
 
Durante said:
I think the point about Microsoft's overall culture is an insightful one.

At this point, they are trying to turn products into services in every single part of their business. Also applying this same philosophy to games would seem like a logical next step to in such an environment.
Click to expand...

The main problem is that the world is not ready for an always online type of box streaming a ton of megabytes to the console. If everyone had google fiber it would be a different story.
 
they approached the entire situation wrong and they are and will pay for it.

Like one of the other users here said, they are trying to force something on to consumers that should have naturally occurred.

Not everybody is ready to move into an all digital future and will react negatively on the fact nor does everybody like not "owning" something physically as proof of ownership. I know I know, we don't actually own our games, here in the U.S. at least, but physical media gives people the feeling that they do own something.

The steps Microsoft should have taken imo opinion to transition and get people acclimated to the idea of an all digital future in regards to games:

1. Left physical media exactly the way they are this gen. Nothing needed to be changed. If you installed the game you either have to check in ever so often or leave the disk in the tray.

2. In order to get people acclimated to the idea of an all digital future, Microsoft should have offered incentive to purchase games from the xbox market place, basically copying steam. Purchase games online for $10-$15 bucks cheaper then if you purchased it in store, plus you can pre-load it the day before release so you can play at exactly midnight and what not. Also, if you purchase the game digitally, you can share your game with 10 "family members" and they can play along with you from their own xb1.

3. The DRM bullshit. LIke others have said, they should have followed the steam model because it obviously works. People play their games offline without needing a 24 check in. etc etc.
 
I think this was always Microsoft's goal. The idea was to establish Direct X as a programming API with the original Xbox, create a revenue stream and online presence with Xbox Live on the 360 and now that the Xbox brand name is strong, attempt to take over the living room as a all in one entertainment device.

People can complain about DRM all they want but I think they are missing the bigger financial picture. Microsoft could come in a distant 3rd place this generation and still make a killing thanks to the Xbox One. It all comes down to ad revenue.

The Kinect in theory could detect how many people are watching a PPV and charge accordingly. It can also detect your emotions such as a smile, frown or indifference to a TV show, movie, game or advertisement.

Those two things are marketing gold. To this day, TV shows live and die by ratings. If a TV show does good ratings, it stays on the air. If it doesn't, it gets pulled quickly. Imagine not only being able to track ratings but now you can actually get data on how people are reacting to a show, what works, what makes them laugh, what scares them, how many heads are watching, etc. Marketing firms are going to go nuts to get their hands on that kind of data.

It may hurt Microsoft's brand in the eyes of gamers but they are going to be an advertisers best friend.
 
Tylahedras said:
http://microsoft-news.com/microsoft-...s-valid-points

Good points? This is salty bullshit where he basically confirms the ludicrous Microsoft knows better then you bullshit that put them in this position:

"Some PS4 viral team made them all “U TOOK R DISCS” and they hiveminded."

So once again Microsoft thinks I'm a mindless sheep, and when things don't go their way, it's not because I was too smart for their bullshit, it's obviously that I fell for someone else's bullshit.

"Everyone and their mother complains about how gamestop fucks them on their trade ins, getting 5$ for their used games. We come in trying to find a way to take money out of gamestop, and put some in developers and get you possibly cheaper games and everyone bitches at MS."

Riiiiiiight, so basically, 'you weren't getting much for your trade in so we took what you were getting and gave it to someone else because we love you.' Seriously? SERIOUSLY?

"Well, if you want the @#$@ing from Gamestop, go play PS4."

Ummm, that's what they are all doing. Or hadn't you noticed?

"Publishers have enourmous power. Microsoft is trying to balance between consumer delight, and publisher wishes. If we cave to far in either direction you have a non-starting product. WiiU goes too far to consumer, you have no 3rd party support to shake a stick at. PS4 is status-quo. XB1 is trying to push some things, at the expense of others."

So WiiU is TOO nice to consumers! (Glad to know you think that's even possible) PS4 is just doing the same old same old annnnnnnnd, MS is "pushing some things." So you are defining yourself in opposition to being nice to customers and doing what's been done before? So basically, 'we are innovators that hate our customers.' Sounds about right actually.

Instead of 10mins, is 24hrs for your console, and 1 or 2 at a friends house. Really the majority of people have a speck of internet at least once a day. And if you donÂ’t. DonÂ’t buy an Xbox 1.

LOL. I see they have learned much from all this.

"This allows us to do cool shit when we can assume things like you have a kinect, you have internet, etc."

And that would be???????????????????????????????????????????????????

"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."

Wow, I don't even... Alright, if you want me to buy a PS4 I will, I guess? WTF?

Welp, that explains it! I reckon!
Click to expand...
So good!

Why can't I star this?

And lastly... we are now friends (even if it's singularly directed...)
 
dcx4610 said:
People can complain about DRM all they want but I think they are missing the bigger financial picture. Microsoft could come in a distant 3rd place this generation and still make a killing thanks to the Xbox One. It all comes down to ad revenue.
Click to expand...

Er, no. It's all about subscription.
The MS model right now is about that : have people subscribe to a service, and get a continuous income for it. XboxLive. XboxMusic. Office360. Azure. Skype. There was even a project for subscriptions for Visual Studio.
MS is not as dependent on ads as Google. Of course it's still a nice income, but they have much more income and value with their subscribers (and probably the data mining they can do on their habits).
 
bishoptl said:
hey buddy
Click to expand...

oh-boy.gif
 
Deadstar said:
The main problem is that the world is not ready for an always online type of box streaming a ton of megabytes to the console. If everyone had google fiber it would be a different story.
Click to expand...

Either way its not ok for a distribution company to own the viewing experience of the media content.

MS could very well decide the consumer market is not worth it and fold back to the business market only. They could very well decide to ditch the gaming business like they ditched "PlayForSure".
 
Article isn't good and this is so easy. MS wants to be the online publisher, retailer, renter, lender, and trader. They want to be Steam for consoles and get those margins. And they're committing to it 100% because they believe it's going to set them up for big revenue later.
 
I made this post for a thread earlier, by the time it got posted it was locked.

If MS wanted to reduce the used games sales and turn people digital then they should have offered a carrot to go digital, instead of hitting everyone with a stick and forcing them to do it.

Keep everything with disk games exactly as it was, but allow full installs but need the disk in for verification, no online needed at all. Then make all digital games 60% of the price of retail, available day one AND available to preload to unlock at midnight. No retailer taking a cut, no used games, no trading, no selling, and because of the relationship consumers have with digital media, few would have felt like they were losing anything. Plus, no online needed. (That's another thing, why if I buy a game digitally will it stop working after 24 hours? It's digital, I can't do shit else with it).

On the flip side, they would have been lauded by blogs and consumers as being forward thinking in the digital space, offering discounts for something we ALL think should be cheaper when we buy digitally (no retailer cut, no manufacture, no shipping, no storage) and lose a bunch of options to do what we want with it.

Instead they decided that the best way of getting everyone to go all digital was to not give them a choice, they imposed check ins, registrations, serial numbers and then managed to come out basically say "If you don't like it, buy a 360".

The engineer from that pastebin doesn't seem to get it either.

Without actually thinking about how convienent it would be for the majority of the time to not find that disc your brother didn't put back... [...] just simpleminded people not seeing the bigger picture. Some PS4 viral team made them all "U TOOK R DISCS" and they hiveminded.
Click to expand...

Many of us DO get it, and many of us who definitely don't have anything to do with Sony don't like it. It's not a question of being simple minded, it's a question of looking at the pros and cons of the situation and arriving, really rather easily at the answer "fuck that".

The messaging from all concerned should have been better from day 0, they should have known what they could and couldn't answer, with prepared answers. If they didn't want to talk about it they just had to say "we aren't talking about that today".

The Gamesindustry.biz article about WHY they have gone the route they have was very interesting.
Click to expand...
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

Why did only 2D games use the RAM expansion of the Sega Saturn? Did it make no sense for 3D games?
2 3
133
2K
iidesuyo replied
Do you really anticipate Microsoft will be out of the "console" game?
2 3 4
155
630
Sooner replied
Microsoft may have scored a massive HBM deal with SK Hynix, and investors loved it. Here's why it matters.
Business Hardware 
7
345
Demigod Mac replied
GamesIndustry.biz presents... the Year In Numbers 2025 | Year in Review
32
867
BennyBlanco replied
The Verge: Microsoft brings Xbox back, scraps Microsoft Gaming
2
85
479
HerjansEagleFeeder replied
Top Bottom