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Phil Spencer: We shouldn't have "sugar-coated" the Xbox One controversy

C

Chill Penguin

Member
Everyone knows it's going to be a digital future eventually. Their issue was they didn't let it happen organically and tried to force it on everyone on only their terms. Hope they learn from this and create a beast of a machine with clear concise messaging next time.
 
3

3rdamention

Member
I found it funny he didn't mention Penello while name dropping. +1 for credibility for that.



I also like what sounds like his honesty, but you can tell he still believes in that vision, but doesn't like they way it was revealed, explained, and finally defended. You feel like they felt strong about their message, just not the way it was delivered.
 
K

kmax

Member
The problem was that Microsoft patronized their consumers by saying that they didn't "get" their vision, instead of admitting to the fact that their vision was confusing, premature, flawed and down right limited in comparison to their competitor. Next time, try to come up with something with the consumer in mind, and not what you want as a company to achieve. You follow the market, and the market will follow you.
 
T

TalonJH

Member
I honestly like Spencer. I don't know what they were thinking after E3. It obviously didn't work out how they thought it would.

9NAdn7U.gif
 
T

Triggerhappytel

Member
Nightengale said:
So, how about you finally take off your vision from your closet and start telling us up-front in proper detail, how your vision actually is in practice?

Let us judge it on its full merits, pros, cons, etc... instead of your so-called sugar-coatings of 'ITZ DA FUTURE111"

These kind of words mean nothing if you aren't going to take the skeleton out of the closet.
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Exactly. Exactly. They've said time and again that they had this vision and they weren't clear with their messaging and so on, but I call bullshit. You have our attention now Phil, and you've made it quite clear that the intention is there to bring back these policies in the future, so why not stop beating around the bush and explain in precise detail what those plans were and how they would benefit the consumer.
 
F

FairXchange

Member
By sugar-coating he means referring to the 24 hour DRM check-in as some kind of value proposition, or the carrot on the stick promises of family sharing and the like.
 
J

jhmtehgamr20xx

Banned
They didn't sugar-coat it, and they didn't sugar-coat some of the responses at the time, either.

In fact I'd say their ballsiness were good if they were able to convince people those policies were worth it...which they didn't....which is why they removed them.
 
R

rjinaz

Member
Spider_Jerusalem said:
I still have to understand why hes'gone. At first it looked like he simply wanted to stop following/posting game news, yet he continues doing it on twitter. Did I miss something? Specific problems with NeoGAF?
Click to expand...

Twitter is one thing. Maybe he'll eventually even stop with that. But GAF can be quite time consuming, reading all the threads, reading every single post that was contributed to said threads. Writing responses. What he could spend 10 minutes doing on Twitter could equate to hours if he were here. People account suicide for a reason, sometimes you just need a clean break from the things that got your priorities out of whack so you can sort them out. Sometimes people do that in steps, and him cutting out GAF could be the first step.
 
Ascenion

Ascenion

Member
Well at least he knows there is a problem. All that said, I've forgiven them. We all make mistakes even diabolically evil mega corporations. Besides at this point it doesn't matter what the Xbox One was going to be because that isn't what it is. Now as for its other problems like the price....
 
P

ProfessorMoran

Member
DidntKnowJack said:
And yet after all this time they won't admit it was bad policy rather than bad messaging. No Phil, we got the message loud and clear.
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This. They released an inferior product designed around nuAds and tried but failed at pushing DRM due to the backlash. Yet they still think it's the messaging.
 
dcx4610

dcx4610

Member
I don't think the consumer was ready at all for Microsoft's vision. If they thought their sales weren't hot now, they wouldn't be happy if they went through with their original plans.

No disk drive, all digital, no used games, DRM. Now imagine the same Xbox One hardware at $500 with those missing features.

I'm a physical media guy but I do praise Microsoft for trying to go digital. The problem is that there are still a lot of people that don't have good internet connections, there are bandwidth caps in place and a lot of people share and want to sell their games.

The big problem is that the changes benefited Microsoft since they could control the content and make more money. It hurt the consumer. Their vision was all about them and their profit.

If they would have announced an all digital XB1 with a Steam-like game system, cheaper prices, selling used games, etc. then it would have been a totally different reaction.
 
R

RE_Player

Member
jelly said:
Yusuf Mehdi
Click to expand...
He has always been the MS suit that rubs me the wrong way. The way he has carried himself at presentations and interviews like that really highlight how much of a suit he is.

Phil Spencer on the other hand seems rather nice and in touch with the gaming community and business at large. He is surprisingly open with his Twitter account for an exec.
 
T

ThoughtsOfSpeaking

Banned
Im not convinced that if spencer was in charge things would be any different.

One thing I have notice time and time again on this forum is Microsoft executives do their damndest to come across as human and as "truely for the gamers" then start spewing the most ridiculous corperate spin once they feel they convinced have people.

It happened with lobb, it happened with Nelson, it happened with Whitten it happened with penello and don't you worry, it will happen with spencer.

Its a product of the Microsoft machine as a whole.
 
J

jaypah

Member
I agree. The whole "always online DRM 24 hour check in" was sugar coated under talk of the cloud and how being always online wasn't a big deal because it was going to be fucking awesome to be always connected! They tried to run the "games games games!" defense while everyone was saying, "wait...we can't trade games?". They tried to drown bad news with good news at every turn. That is the definition of sugarcoating.

Naturally I agree that the better plan was not to do dumb shit from the start. Ah well, lunches were eaten, .gifs were made and market share was shifted. Hopefully a lesson learned.
 
C

Cow Goes Moo

Member
jelly said:
Yusuf Mehdi
Well, it may not matter so much to Microsoft. Sure, core gamers complain, but the folks who don't really pay attention and who just want a fancy box will be fine with Microsoft's Xbox One. "In a broader set of community, people don't pay attention to a lot of the details," said Mehdi. "We've seen it in the research, we've seen it in a lot of the data points."
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Click to expand...

holy shit I can't believe he would say that to the public
 
C

Chill Penguin

Member
BronsonLee said:
Methinks that research may have been a tad off..
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They definitely misread how informed the marketplace is these days. Doubt they expected the intense scrutiny their policies, hardware, software, and pricing would be put under. The demographics of gamers is getting older and older, it's not like 1990 where everyone playing games is like 10 years old and couldn't care less about this stuff.
 
P

PhatSaqs

Banned
RE_Player said:
He has always been the MS suit that rubs me the wrong way. The way he has carried himself at presentations and interviews like that really highlight how much of a suit he is.

Phil Spencer on the other hand seems rather nice and in touch with the gaming community and business at large. He is surprisingly open with his Twitter account for an exec.
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Yeah I agree. MS needs to muzzle Yusef. The dude comes off as smug as fuck.
 
A

Auto-Reply

Member
when you're going to say something to a consumer that might put them off, it's better to just be direct and honest, rather than trying to sugar-coat something that might be controversial.
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Is that a sugarcoated "We weren't wrong with the shit we dropped due to the outrage!"?
 
E

ElTorro

I wanted to dominate the living room. Then I took an ESRAM in the knee.
ProfessorMoran said:
This. They released an inferior product designed around nuAds and tried but failed at pushing DRM due to the backlash. Yet they still think it's the messaging.
Click to expand...

They can change the messaging, they can't change the box. That's why they aren't criticizing the box' design decisions publicly. They surely still believe in NuAds. However, they might doubt by now if bundling Kinect was a good idea.
 
B

BRocknRolla

Member
Want to create an all digital console? Fine by me. Here are a few bullet points I'm going to need though:

-Ability to move my content licenses whenever I want.
-Ability to transfer my content licenses to others should I so choose.
-Ability to sell my content licenses to others.
-Variable prices based on actual market forces. (Which nothing but "good will" can seem to control on a closed platform without competition.)

Give me these things and I'll gladly accept most of what was proposed. Hell, even an internet check to play games. The difference of course is, this would be giving me rights. MS's plan never offered anything but taking them away and ephemeral promises that somehow this was all in my best interest. Honestly, they could create something revolutionary, and I'd fully support them in it.

No amount of sugar-coating their initial message, or being direct with me for that matter, could have convinced me their initial proposition was the right decision.
 
N

Neuromancer

Member
J

jaypah

Member
Triggerhappytel said:
Exactly. Exactly. They've said time and again that they had this vision and they weren't clear with their messaging and so on, but I call bullshit. You have our attention now Phil, and you've made it quite clear that the intention is there to bring back these policies in the future, so why not stop beating around the bush and explain in precise detail what those plans were and how they would benefit the consumer.
Click to expand...

If we are heading for an eventual digital future it's going to come with some kind of drawback. Some kind of "con" just by virtue of being different from what we are used to. They have nothing to gain by talking about it right now. I can see being honest about it when that time comes but just pissing people off about stuff that isn't happening yet is a dumb ass move even for MS.
 
S

Silky

Banned
Spencer's cool people. He's probably one of the folks who pushed for Killer Instinct, so he's cool in my book.

At the same time, this is real obvious PR nshit anyone would say
 
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