Anyone else underwhelmed by that Inside Xbox?

[u/BCRplus44]

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

[u/HorizonLost]

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.

[u/ignigenaquintus → u/HorizonLost]

“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.

[u/HorizonLost → u/ignigenaquintus]

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.

[u/ignigenaquintus → u/HorizonLost]

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?

[u/HorizonLost → u/ignigenaquintus]

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?

[u/ignigenaquintus → u/HorizonLost]

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.

[u/HorizonLost → u/ignigenaquintus]

If you buy a new TV, i'll strongly recommend the LG OLED C9, it's a great TV and you are ready for the new generation.

If you are not invested in any brand and don't own any games and could want to get back in the game, Microsoft got you covered with the Gamepass, a great value for Money proposition.

Sony got something similiar with Playstation now and i had the opportunity to play Metal Gear Solid 4 for the first time which was awesome.

[u/ignigenaquintus → u/HorizonLost]

Thank you for the tip, I have been researching a bit lately and I was thinking about either the C9 in 65” or the CX because I heard the size of 48” would be particularly good for gaming. But yeah, one of those two.

I would definitely check Gamepass and PlayStation now, problem is that I live in a place with very crappy internet...