r/XboxSeriesX May 07 '20

Anyone else underwhelmed by that Inside Xbox? Discussion

I don’t think there was any actual gameplay other than that one game which looked like a top down stick shooter.

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u/HorizonLost May 07 '20

Oh boy here we go again, people who hyped themselfs into oblivion got disappointed, go figure.

They said they want to show us something every month until the release of the Series X, so why would they just bring out all the heavy hitters at the first event?

We saw some new IPs which is great, so lets just enjoy what comes next.

People treating a half an hour appetizer as everything MS has to show, smh.

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u/torontoLDtutor May 07 '20

They advertised this footage as gameplay. The issue isn't hype, it's false advertising.

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u/ignigenaquintus May 07 '20 edited May 07 '20

It’s a marketing mistake, you want to rise the hype little by little, always up, never down. They raised the hype very fast (probably because Sony had not revealed much about ps5) and now, after the first game presentation didn’t maintain the same level of hype, even if in the next months we see more exciting games, this gives an opportunity for Sony to take the momentum from them, not to mention that by making the events structured as presenting a AAA game that people really look forward with new games from smaller developers the hype that those events will generate will be compromised, particularly because they aren’t good at that (you have things like E3 for that)

It’s difficult to know what Sony would do now, but simply mentioning a few big games (second parts of AAA games) and showing the console in June would totally give them the advantage in term of hype, from that point onward it would depend on price and game presentation, and Microsoft would have to step up their game (pun intended) big time for those events if they want to arrive to November in the lead.

I hope that the exclusives look good because otherwise they have a problem, I was going to buy both (plus a new TV), but if I like what Sony would reveal about ps5, maybe I would change my approach and buy ps5 only and wait if XBX series X get some interesting games down the line. It’s too soon to tell, but for the time being I didn’t saw any title that either you couldn’t play in PS5 or current gen, or looked that would make me want to buy a new console for them. Anyway, it’s still a long wait till November, anything can happen.

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u/HorizonLost May 08 '20

How did they raise the hype level very fast? The announced the console and how it looks like at the game awards to the suprise of everyone. Then they revealed the specs at a blog post and after that, invited Digital Foundary and others to look at the thing.

The hype was generated by the people just as it was with this event.

I saw posts where people speculated that MS will have new footage of Cyberpunk, maybe the new Batman game will be shown, the Series S will be revealed, Microsoft baught Techland and/or CDPR etc.

The reality with Sony is that they can do pretty much what they want and people gonna eat it up. Mention God of War 2 or Spiderman 2? Boom, done, event over everbody excited af. Oh but these games gonna release 3-5 years from now and we only saw a logo? Still hyped!

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u/ignigenaquintus May 08 '20 edited May 08 '20

“How did they raise the hype level very fast?”

Well, maybe you could say that they allowed for it to raise too fast, as companies should take people and customers reactions into their marketing strategy, but also, nobody forced them to show the console so soon or to give more details than the competition, they wanted to do it before Sony so they would have the hype momentum, but by Sony just waiting that backfired them, they can’t continue giving information at the same rhythm, showing the best games, the price and release date too soon, then they wouldn’t have more relevant news to give and it would be Sony who would be the only horse in the hype race.

They could have waited before showing pictures of the console and instead do it more or less at the same time than Sony, they could have waited to offer all technical specs and do it with leaks a little at a time, they could have just given the names of the indie or not AAA games instead of showing trailers and official presentations for games still on development, they didn’t need to schedule all this right now. Granted, the potential customers like it, having as much information as early as possible, but the hype would die if it is not feed, and you want to arrive at November at your peak, nobody is going to make a definitive purchasing decision now (unless they made that decision long time ago due to being able to buy both or by showing brand loyalty).

The point is that blaming the customers is like saying that marketing and promotion doesn’t work, and it does, that’s why companies pay for it, and because it does it affects the potential customers, and therefore companies are responsible for the amount of hype, and if customers get too hyped out with very little that’s something that any company tries to take into account, because they know they can influence it, therefore it is, ultimately, their responsibility.

What if it would be the other way around?, what if customers wouldn’t like the product and would have chosen to take the decision of not buying it?, would you have blamed the customers too or would you have blamed the company for either not making a compelling product or not promoting it effectively? Well, this is the same, they raised the hype too fast (or allowed it to rise too fast by mistake) and now they can’t keep up with that rhythm and therefore, in my book, this was a marketing mistake.

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u/HorizonLost May 08 '20 edited May 08 '20

So what you're saying is basically that MS should have done everything like Sony? Don't Tell anyone about anything and wait until leaks and speculation are out of hand and force you to react.

My point is that sooner or later you have to start somewhere and you cant expect a company to always tell people to keep their expactations in check no matter what.

I can blame a company when they straight up lie to us like BioWare did with Anthem. In this case however i'd say Microsoft could have handled the situation diffrently sure but the fact that people are deeply upset and disapointed is because beforehand this sub for example made the event something it wasn't.

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u/ignigenaquintus May 08 '20 edited May 08 '20

“So what you're saying is basically that MS should have done everything like Sony?”

No, HorizonLost, what I am saying is that this marketing strategy didn’t worked out as they intended. No need to do everything like Sony, but the accelerating the timeframe to give information about the XBX series X didn’t worked for them, that’s not like “doing everything like Sony”, you don’t need to show the same kind of information as the competence, but going first or reacting are two different strategies, and Sony has an advantage reacting because they have a bigger name in many countries, you could have denied that to them, if they reveal a controller you reveal something else that sound like bigger news and make you look good in a comparison, but you showing the console, the full technical specs, the first batch of games still on development (for prior generation), all while Sony has just shown a controller and some technical details (mostly focused on the ssd), makes you face the risk of wasting ammunition and we are still in may.

I don’t see Sony “wait until leaks and speculation are out of hand and force you to react.”, I see them trying to control the leaks but not rushing the news just because of them.

“My point is that sooner or later you have to start somewhere and you cant expect a company to always tell people to keep their expactations in check no matter what.”

Agree, but there is a big difference between having a plan that tackles that issue (not telling them to tackle their expectations but maybe limiting the amount of information until you know you can start to push without running out of ammunition months before release), or whatever other strategy, the point is this one has put Sony in a good position regarding the hype race without Sony needing to do anything but showing a controller and talking about the ssd (wether you believe the 12 control units super special ssd will truly make a difference or not).

Microsoft, I.e. could have not make any announcement and just release the content, and they could have called it some small studios third party game presentations, rather than announcing it as first time we will see next gen gameplay. I think these things make a huge difference, they used the term gameplay because they wanted to rise the hype, they talk about third party and not small studios or in some way clarify that there wouldn’t be AAA games except for AC:V because they wanted to rise the hype. And again, they wanted for it to rise because that’s why you announce an event instead than uploading a video, and if the news that would have been revealed so far would have been more limited people wouldn’t be so hyped already and talking about Sony being in trouble (which they might very well be, or maybe they are smarter we give them credit).

Hype must go up, always, if at some point hype goes down that’s your fault, you can control it almost completely (except for real leaks), and particularly when you announce an event, the way you announce, the delay between the announcement and the actual event, the language used to describe the event, etc... And now we know they announced the event immediately after they asked the developers for something next week, so it wasn’t a part of a larger strategy, they came with it on the spot because they needed to keep flowing people with news so the hype wouldn’t came down a bit. When you do things like that chances are you are not going to be able to keep up with the rhythm, you need a plan of when to release what and only make adjustments if truly necessary to react to the current situation (including what the competition does).

See the stuff about the teraflops, it was a marketing point for XBX series X, so while Sony downplayed it as not relevant Microsoft made a big deal about it, Sony made a big deal about their SSD, Microsoft downplayed it by stating that their own SSD was very fast as well and the only difference (huge as it might be), was in the charging times. This is the hype race as usual. What is not a hype race as usual is when you show your console and the competition a controller, when you show third party small studios game trailers that are under development and had been under development for prior generation consoles and your competitor still is 1 month away to show their console and any game presentation. You have hyped people making a big deal about teraflops, so, people want to see the graphic advantage that those 12 teraflops they have been told make. Now, is that sensible if you know the development cycle of games?, obviously not, but a company should take into account that was what it would happen, they actually know that’s what IS happening because they have access to social media too, and with that information you market the event accordingly, using the right language rather that design it to generate as much hype as possible by calling it third party gameplay of the next gen, and only include one AAA game in there with no gameplay in it.

Again, they are sprinting as if the release date is in June or July, not November, they are hyping every possible piece of information by using misleading language and announcing a 25 minute presentation of a dozen trailers of relatively minor games (except one already announced) a full week before. Don’t blame people for believing the hype, they aren’t hyping themselves out of nowhere, maybe disproportionately but you only see a generation change every 7 years or so and Microsoft isn’t new at this, they knew people need little to fantasize about it. See what Sony does, wether by design or out of necessity with a single controller picture, with no event advancing it, people go hyped.

Look, in a game of chess, you don’t need to copy your opponents moves to have the same goal for victory , both players react to each other’s moves. In a boxing or mma fight if you swing constantly and your opponent just evade you or absorb those punches somehow then you are going to be out of gas and you aren’t going to be able to stay in the fight. That’s all I am saying, this is a long fight, you can make people cheer for you with some good punches, but if you expect to continue with the same strategy you need to really make the fight end right then, and if you don’t and you miss and punch yourself in the face maybe don’t blame the public for having been cheering you because they had absurd expectations of you to win easily or whatever, you know most of them are not experts, they see you acting as if you had this when maybe the reality is that is going to be a long fight. Perhaps a better example would be an athlete at a race, if they start too strong the crowd cheers for them and they run out of steam long before the finish line they can only blame themselves for not saving enough energy, they can’t blame the public for expecting that he was going to sustain that rhythm. With a hype race is the same, either your next event or reveal or news is at the very least as good as the prior one or you didn’t pace yourself and you are in trouble. Small news can be thrown without making an event or making a big deal about them, but make sure you still have enough stuff for the sprint and don’t make big deals if they are not bid deals because people would start to question your credibility when they got hyped with prior promises.

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u/HorizonLost May 08 '20

Hype must go up, always, if at some point hype goes down that’s your fault, you can control it almost completely

This here is where i think your argument is fundamentaly flawed. Hype SHOULD always go up, yes, in a perfect world it will do that but this is not that. Even if you have the most cautios and honest marketing campaign you could think of, you do everything perfectly, you show real gameplay that is 100% representativ, people will always, based on their own ideas or snippets from tweets, media and so on, make your game something it's not and fits their own idea.

Even if we are five to six months out with the release of the new console, this here is absolutly the right timeframe with the now canceled E3 around the corner. As i said, you have to start somewhere and to pick up on your pacing reference, you can't come out of the gate with your first party heavy hitters and expect this to carry you till release. This event was there to give some smaller studios (with Ubisoft beeing the exception) a platform and it did.

Granted, they used the word "gameplay" a little to freely but i learned not to trust even the supposed "real gameplay" the AAA industry serves us.

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u/ignigenaquintus May 08 '20

I really think that we are mostly in agreement just that I put the focus on companies responsabilities because I understand they have bigger capabilities (including knowing people’s expectations in real time through social media and such), and you put the focus on people’s being company’s fans rather than critical potential customers. You said it yourself:

“Granted, they used the word "gameplay" a little to freely but i learned not to trust even the supposed "real gameplay" the AAA industry serves us.”

Yeah well, but HorizonLost, not everybody has learned to not trust yet, most don’t, and companies know it, companies know many people want to believe because prior desire only makes the purchase act more pleasant. In other words, the first rule of marketing is this, never assume you are representative of the average target customer for whatever market. Other rule would be this, know your target group. They know what the average potential customer is thinking and is expecting and what they need to say or do to change said ideas, and if they don’t, that’s their fault, particularly from a huge company like Microsoft, they have ample resources to do this flawlessly unless something that couldn’t have been predicted happened, and that hasn’t been the case.

Although they have already acknowledged that they committed a mistake with the terminology they used and in creating false expectations of course they would say the same even if they wouldn’t agree to that, so we can forget about their apology as some sort of proof of anything.

So, you in for Xbox SX or thinking about it?

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u/HorizonLost May 08 '20

I guess you are right in that we agree mostly but through diffrent views. I am deffinitly in for the Series X, day one, some games we've seen at the event have peeked my intrest. I'll wait what Sony's gonna show and decide then if i keep my preorder or not. What about you?

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u/ignigenaquintus May 08 '20

I am going to buy a new TV for them and most probably buy both but that event was a little disappointment for me because I was looking for an exclusive that would catch my eye. Now I want to wait to see the exclusives from here till November and then decide.

I haven’t played in a long time, 20 years ago I was playing games at a good level in PC (competitive stuff for the time, quake2, quake3 and CS, and of course consoles since long before that), but then life happened and I got completely disconnected, so it’s not like I am tied to any platform because I don’t own games on either of the current gen. I only need one excuse really (in the form of an exclusive), I am looking forward to reconnect with my past self, lol. So however they look it would be a huge huge improvement for me though.

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u/[deleted] May 08 '20

Apparently “heavy hitters” to you is gameplay.