May isn't far away, and we'll soon be gearing up for a stacked summer of gaming announcements. In 2023, we have Summer Game Fest, we have the Xbox Games Showcase, and we'll probably see plenty of other smaller livestreams crop up over the next few months as teams begin to show off what's next for the industry.
This time of year often has us looking back though, to the showcases and E3 conferences of old that still live long in the memory. And, 2023 marks a special year for looking back - it's the 10-year anniversary of Xbox One.
Later in the year we'll probably start reminiscing about the launch of the console itself, and all that the Xbox One delivered over its 7-year lifespan. For now though, we've been thinking about the reveal of the console itself, which all kicked off in May 2013 with the Xbox One Reveal Event.
If you've been around Xbox for as long as we have, you'll remember this moment clear as day. Xbox came out swinging with its messaging around an 'all-in-one entertainment machine', and to say it backfired is quite a big understatement. The gaming community absolutely did not take to Microsoft's vision for the future of Xbox.
Here, we learnt about Xbox's wish to push TV and entertainment to the front of the business, and it quickly became a meme as 'TV TV TV' started to do the rounds in gaming circles. Other ill-conceived features like an always-online check-in became common knowledge at this stage as well - with this particular feature being reversed way before the console actually launched in November 2013.
Games were always a big focus for Xbox regardless of its reveal event messaging, which we learnt a lot about during E3 2013 where Microsoft showcased its impressive launch lineup and what the first few years of Xbox One would look like. Still, we haven't forgotten the reveal event to this day, and it certainly makes for an interesting talking point in 2023.
To start with, it reminds us of just how far the Xbox brand has come in the last 10 years or so. Sure, we're still left talking about a lack of exclusive titles from time to time, but gaming is very much the focus for Xbox, and that's something none of us were very sure about as the Xbox One Reveal event wrapped up on May 21st, 2013.
With Phil Spencer running the ship rather than Don Mattrick these days, Xbox's messaging around gaming is more focused, and Phil & co. have certainly made being an Xbox fan much, much easier over the last few years. We do have a bit of nostalgia for Xbox One at times, but honestly, we love where things have gone since, and we're excited about the future of Xbox and its growing list of game studios.
Still, every now and then it's worth a look back, and we're doing just that on the eve of it being 10 years since Microsoft's Xbox One Reveal Event. If you want to relive these old memories — and maybe look at how far Xbox has come since — we'll drop the full press conference VOD down below.
Did you watch the Xbox One Reveal Event live? Do you remember it as clearly as we do? Leave what you remembered most down in the comments section below.
Comments 63
I think that's one event people don't want to remember, that one event could of potentially cost Microsoft the whole gen.
The biggest downfall of Xbox
The launch line-up was actually pretty strong, so yeah that event really screwed things up.
If they'd had a half-decent event and not decided on the "must be bundled with Kinect" thing they could have potentially carried on the momentum from the 360 generation and not been in such a weak position by the end of the generation.
I feel we're at a crossroads now - either that event will be the point Xbox became the perennial "also ran" instead of the powerhouse of the 360 days, or it'll start to catch back up after this acquisition and big content starts arriving...
Xbox arguably still hasn't recovered entirely from the complete failure of Don Mattrick.
tv focused more expensive less powerful console was never a good idea
xbox hasnt recovered from this error
I've only started with the series X for Xbox and didn't following gaming media before either so really didn't know all the happenings of the Xbox one launch outside of reading year's after that it was bad. Media wise series X launch with a lot of buzz but they definitely drop the ball often and last year was really poor. Now personally i still have more than i could possibly play but the vibe around the platform was bad. This year they got off to a great start and then just fell flat on their faces again. Hopefully it's just the distraction of ABK because they really need to get back on track. I still think it's time for some new blood to come in and ensure that the studios are running smoothly and being held accountable and have support where needed. Phil sold the dream but now it's time for someone to come in and deliver the dream. He doesn't need to leave, just have some new folk's run things to report to him. Greeny is fun but legit they don't market anything outside of a tweet. He's just gotta go. If it's a budget thing then he hasn't convinced them for a bigger budget yet so still a failure in my eyes.
I remember watching that reveal. I was hoping for the next big thing from MS after the Xbox 360 but instead it drove me to the Playstation 4 that Gen. I eventually did get an Xbox One after the release of the One X. Once Mattrick was gone and the company remember it was a gaming company.
@Wheatly Very interesting take, indeed.
The reveal that destroyed xbox brand for many years to come... Don mattrick is a legend it took him one event to take down +12 years of work done to make the brand ahead of sony... And sony just had to exchange a game (making fun of xbox DRM and blocking game exchange) to win the gen
Now after 10 years xbox is still to recover from that event and still hated by most of the community....
But to be honest xbox seem to not yet get what gamers want and how to menage their studios to make the best out of them
@Tasuki i was a fanboy and xbox one was that useless ugly console in my room that i never turn on and had to buy a PS4 to poay persona 5 and i used it till i bought xbox series X thinking xbox will turn things around they are trying.... But seem they need alot to catch up and to improve as a gaming company
If they hadn't forced Kinect I think it would still be going strong. People like having a choice. The Xbox One was over priced after they removed the Kinect requirement. At times it feels like they are doing everything they can to kill the Xbox brand.
@Wheatly I get why they started down the path of a new Kinect. The success of the Wii and the first Kinect made Mattrick think it was a good idea. Just let it stand on its own. The pack-in was obviously a bad idea. The price was bumped up $100, cheaper APU was chosen, and 10% of system resources were reserved for Kinect.
I’ve always loved the Xbox One console design but I do remember there being a lot of criticism from people about the way the console looks and perhaps that also didn’t do Xbox any favours back then as well.
So much to unpack here... so many reasons this felt worse at the time than it would be today, but still would be bad today.
Mattrick was such an arrogant, out of touch, jerk. Not missed him at all.
It took over a decade to build the brand and 45 minutes to destroy it for the next decade. That takes talent. Even Jim can't muster that kind of talent, much as he tries.
The icing on the cake was going into the presentation with "#dealwithit", and exiting the presentation with "We have a box for those people, it's called xbox 360".....Nothing like a bad presentation filled with bad news that starts with getting flipped the bird and ends with pointing downward.
@Krzzystuff I envy you not having to have watched this trainwreck unfold in slow motion. It's one of those things that it just got worse the more you watched it, and you waited for it to get better, and then it just got worse.
There's an irony that the lasting image of that presentation was ending the last, IDK, 1/5 of the show which felt like it was 2/3 of the show was having Activision there drooling over the dog in Call of Doggy Ghosts. That Xbox today is revolving around CoD while Sony grasps at it with it's little Gollum hands when it was that game that sent the Xbox straight to the abyss is just....funny? Sad? Ironic? Tragic? All of the above?
Shew boy talk about a bad day lol.
This event drove me to buy a PS4. That and Bloodborne
I'd say Matrick's time as Xbox head was pretty commercially successful until this showcase. He got Netflix to offer streaming services on a console for the first time ever when streaming was primitive, he pushed the very successful connect device and the kept a good stream of first party and third party games coming in following on from Peter Moore. The Xbox one itself was a decent console. The problem was Matrick was thinking way too far into the future and got wrapped up in all the things this machine could do beyond gaming. The worst part was that his exec team (including Phil Spencer) and the marketing team let him push forward with awful messaging. In the end it lead to his demise. Since Phil Spencer has taken over his a done a good job of rebuilding positive mindshare from a hardware and consumer practice point of view.. but the gaming side.. he and Matt Booty have not been great at all.. Moore and Matrick delivered far better output in their tenures. The next head of Xbox needs to focus on game output - and the effective management of studios and deadlines.
I still remember watching that disaster. Awful, lead me to skip an entire Xbox generation.
@Sam_TSM Nah, it's not age. AAA games on the Xbox One and PS4 Gen to even now in the Series X & PS5 Gen have feel too dependent on rehashes, Remasters/Remakes, & Reboots. For every new idea like Hi-Fi Rush there's a hundred games you've already seen and played before in some fashion. That's part of the reason Indies are such home runs now - they not only haven't stagnated like AAA games, but gotten better, and have more eyes on them than ever as well. These factors along with the rise of the F2P model have left us in a very strange place in gaming overall.
@Sam_TSM It's the focus on graphics above all else, inherited from PC where that's pushed by hardware vendors. It's caused budgets to balloon to push hardware to the edge which in turn caused game design to have to be stagnant to both allow the graphics push and to try to be everything to everyone all the time to get maximum sales to pay for the huge budgets. Games were designed around the game in the past. Now they're designed around the visuals and letting game creators feel like they're making movies, or on the other side, making glorified slot machines.
The industry changed and not for the better. The "indies" are doing the heavy lifting now.
Xbox one was terrible and permanently ruined xbox forever . Had they just made something as simple as an Xbox360 “2” with just a new controller and new parts inside , who knows how things could have been . i honestly think that gaming would have been better today because of tense competition
One of the worst launches ever
It is a miracle that Xbox didn't die from Don Mattrick
@nomither6 x1 was just an Xbox 360-2. Problem was it wasn't an Xbox 720, more like an Xbox 575 and with a mandatory spy cam/hot mic from a known government surveillance company and game reuse fees. And a total tool insulting customers.
Still one of the best looking consoles I have seen to date. It was just too far ahead of its time with many features and the reveal was terrible.
What a disaster this was. I remember being both crushed and astounded that they had self inflicted so much harm and were SO FAR off the pulse of what gamers wanted. It was a classic mistake of metrics led design and marketing. They had seen the huge numbers of hours put into things like Netflix on 360 and tripled down on that, without actually considering if that was the right thing. Stats don’t fall the whole truth, you have to have your finger on the pulse. Similar with Wii & Kinect.
I agree with some other posters here that the first year or so was actually pretty good despite this, but the damage had been done and the exclusives soon dried up.
From a position of strength in the 360 gen, Xbox has been repairing this mistake ever since.
@TakeItEasy “And sony just had to exchange a game (making fun of xbox DRM and blocking game exchange) to win the gen”
That was super smart, and quick thinking on their part. It went viral. But also not focusing on Kinect or TV, no always online and many other small decisions instantly made PS4 the favourite. This conference was the biggest self one I have seen in gaming. I couldn’t believe they could be so off the ball.
The final nail in the coffin was the famous $399 PS4 price reveal, $100 less than XBO. As a witty comment on the YouTube video of that announcement neatly summed up “YouTube hasn’t removed the video, usually bullying isn’t allowed”. DAMN!
@themightyant
What you're failing to remember is that Sony had many of the same features lined up for the PS4 yet because MS went first with the reveal of the Xbox One and Sony saw the huge outcry from the fanbase, they had time to make changes before the reveal of the PS4. So had Sony actually gone first, the same thing could have happened to them. So it wasn't that Sony was super smart or had their hand on the pulse of gamers better than MS, its that they got lucky by MS going first with the Xbox One reveal and made appropriate changes for the PS4 reveal.
@RIghteousNixon To be fair though, Sony had leaders at the time that could read the room and make popular decisions with customers while Xbox had a leader that said #deal with it and "we have a box for them, it's called Xbox 360".
Today the tables turned and Jim is matrick reborn. But that was quite a moment when Sony had management that listened and Don just doubled down on flipping everyone off.
@RIghteousNixon "It was just too far ahead of its time with many features"
can you please elaborate? The launch PS3 i believe is still the most ambitious console ever released and kinda suffered the same fate as the X1, BUT ONLY because of how expensive it was.
what justified the X1 being $100 more with weaker hardware and forced kinect garbage ? what was ahead about it and what features ??
@themightyant
I dont know how someone like Don matrick was assigned as Xbox head... Basically sony just had to reveal anything and win the gen, a free win
And he didnt just give them a win that gen but also made xbox a public enemy, you can see the hate they get by gaming community and journalist seem to squeeze it, if you go to N4G or Kotaku...xbox being attacked by both journalist and the community is a dialy routine
From where i see it, xbox have to do wonders to get back, they need heavy marketing (xbox suxks soooo much at marketing) and provide legendary exclsuives (good games will be attacked and underrated like with as dusk fall psychornaut 2 hi fi rush high on life....)
And they need to bribe big youtubers and journalist... Yes i said it because i feel sony maybe doing it as all sony games getting always great reviews and marketing done by youtubers, and all sony bad practices nd anticonsumer action are kept hidden and never speak off or lightly spoke about, when xbox for any small mistakes get humilated and aggressively critisized by journalists and youtubers
It su*ks for xbox
That announcement was why I went from 360 to ps4. Even after they backtracked on it, I was convinced they might one day just go back to their original plans with the xbox so I never bought one.
The Xbox Series X however is my console for this gen and I am loving it.
@Boldfoxrd yep , the ps5 sucks; it never fails to amaze me how fast the tides turn . it’s like a cycle .
I cheered when Phil came on at 34mins, lol
RIghteousNixon wrote:
Did they really though? I remember well that it was RUMOURED, but history suggests it's never been factually true that they actually were going down that route. There's simply never been solid evidence to support this, in fact there's plenty of evidence to show this was not true. Not least the PS4 doesn't have some hardware the XBO had that Microsoft had to bypass in the firmware to change their plan last minute, it was too late to change the actual hardware itself.
As for having plenty of time to change everything, the 2 conferences were on the same day (10th June 2013) the Xbox one finished at 10am the Sony one started 6 hours later. That's not long at all to make huge changes to a consoles whole strategy that had been years in the planning. Far more likely IF they ever considered it, it was dismissed long before. At the very least SOMEONE from Sony or one of their partners would likely have let slip and corroborated this in the 10 years between, but they haven't. In fact Shuhei Yoshida and others have stated that things like always online were in fact never considered. Highly likely this was always just a rumour.
@TakeItEasy I think you need to reread what you wrote and get some perspective. No I don't think news media and Youtubers are paid off by Sony for positive reviews. That's echo chamber chat, if true it would have leaked, this sort of thing always does.
The reality is games like Psychonauts 2 WERE widely praised, it won several awards and was nominated for several more including Game of the Year at the TGAs. Scored a great 89 on Opencritic... frankly what more do you want?
Hi-Fi Rush I expect will be nominated for some awards too at the years end, but it's also likely to be a much tougher year this year in 2023 than 2021 so probably not as many. Personally I thought it was mostly great but had some frustrating elements and i've mostly forgotten about it quite quickly.
I haven't played As Dusk Fall's yet, but it polarised players even here on Pure Xbox, many couldn't get on with it. I am still looking forward to playing it eventually though.
As for High on Life, it was a completely divisive game. Personally while it had some nice elements of world building I thought the 67 on Metacritic was generous, as I thought it was mostly dull gameplay and tedious infantile humour I didn't find funny. That's not to rip anyone that liked it, we all like different things, but that's just my subjective take.
Frankly I don't think any of these have been treated unfairly. Do you really think something like High on Life deserves more praise? I think it's a great example of the sort of poorer exclusives Xbox has had.
What I feel Xbox really need it exclusives of the same quality as things like Zelda, Mario & God of War. But more importantly they need to do this CONSISTENTLY year in year out. Other than in 2021, which was a great year for them, they just haven't delivered these consistently. Even their flagship game Halo: infinite has seemingly failed.
That's on them, no one else, and they need to do better imho. Xbox have been their own worst enemy and it's mostly down to them where they are in the race. Personally I think it's finally coming, but it's been a long slow wait. I say that as someone who was a Day 1 XBO owner, despite the awful 2013 conference this article discusses who waited most of last gen for a wave of exclusives that just never came.
Funny thing is, I used the phrase, 'TV, TV, TV' immediately after the reveal when talking to two of my friends (so did I start the meme? ), and the decision was made a couple of days later for the three of us to invest in PCs instead of getting an Xbox One. I actually did still pre-order the Xbox One, but my two friends did not.
However, PC gaming was a fraught experience for me. My first PC cost me £2000, and caused nothing but problems; many a gaming night with my mates became a non-starter because at least one of us (usually me!) just couldn't get a game we wanted to play running. So, about 3 years after getting my first PC, I bought a replacement that cost £2600. Yes, games are cheaper on the PC, but the architecture required to run them? Not so much...
During this same period, I not only bought the Xbox One, but the Gears of War Xbox One, and later an Xbox One X. It was a very expensive period for me, but the thing I truly learnt during that time is that gaming on a PC is not always straightforward, is often very expensive and stressful, and pales in comparison to playing a game on a console wherein it is as simple as insert disc and press play!
It is a perfect example how to damage a brand & product...
Whilst it was a 'disaster' for Microsoft and almost led to them quitting the Console business, it also triggered a 'big' change for them.
By the time the XB1 launched, virtually everything, bar the Kinect bundled in, had been back-tracked and within a few months, even that was gone - along with Don Mattrick and Phil Spencer took over.
Of course it was too late for the 'base' XB1 - too soon to 'end' the generation and too late to change its specs. But that didn't stop them completely changing their gaming business model and are now a very different 'brand' under new management. Unfortunately, some of that 'legacy' is still brought up whenever Fanboys want to take a dig at Xbox.
So whilst this was probably the Lowest point for MS/Xbox, it also triggered them to take gaming 'seriously', merge Xbox from its 'small' separated section off of Microsoft and integrate it in to become MS's Gaming brand everywhere (not just Consoles), build up their OWN first Party Studios and introduced a more Service driven business model.
@themightyant
i think we are in the same boat just we need to clear some points:
im not sure if journalist getting paid but their is definitely something going on:
1.do those journalist/youtubers use xbox hate to get the most of views and followers to their articles/videos?
2. why do they ignore in a lot of times bad sony practices or approach them in a friendly way (if it was xbox they will masacre them)?
3.are they afraid to lose exclusive access to PS exclusives and interviews so they are always taking sony side?
4. or all of the above
also i dont think hi fi rush deserve more recognition but seem that any game from xbox is getting attacked one way or another (their was just a humor about hifi rush beng a failure and everyone putting it in headlines and discuss it like its a confirmed thing!
finally yes i think xbox need big guns to earn their respect back thats why i said good games won't do the trick they need at least 2 heavy AAA hitters GOTY material game score destroyers each year to make a real comeback
and you know and i know that xbox now isn't capable to make it but they may in the future as they fail and try again till they get it right.
but one thing that always annoyed me....why Microsoft is spending billions on acquisition but they spend like 10$ on marketing, i see playstation everywhere (youtube ads, soccer matches tv.....) comeon lot of poeple doesn't even know xbox you need to make a huge marketing compaign
@TakeItEasy I think we see what we want to see. Personally I don't see Xbox being dealt with more harshly than Sony by the PRESS. In fact in the last couple of years i've seen Sony getting a lot more negative press, even within their own communities. For example as someone who visits both sites daily there have generally been far more negative Sony articles on Push Square for example than negative Xbox ones here over the last couple of years.
But all of them, and social media thrive on discord, they will post almost anything to divide fans and kick off discourse to gain more engagement. Social media in particular can be horrifically tribal, and both sides have their share of obnoxious trolls, fanboys and the like.
When you say Sony's bad practices, what do you mean specifically?
Personally I think Microsoft's position is less to do with what the opposition is doing (it's still a factor) but MOSTLY down to themselves, especially the decisions of their past and inability to make the sort of games that sell consoles consistently. There is FAR too much finger pointing about what the opposition are doing rather than being self critical. If MS get just their own house in order they will be competing much better. I agree on the Xbox marketing front seems weak, but frankly you have to have the games to market first. They pushed Halo: infinite pretty hard (at least here in the UK it was everywhere) and i'll be expecting similar with other tentpole titles like Starfield. But they need to be great games first.
@themightyant
you need to visit N4G and kotaku then
by bad practices i mean:
*no backward compatibility despite even xbox can run PS 1 2 3 on emulators.
*some backward games are available to play on PS5 but you have to buy them again...
*70$ remaster
*10$ next gen upgrade (big scum)
*blocking games from GP
*paying for big IP to make the exclusives
*buying exclsuive contents in many big AAA games
*PS accounts always getting hacked
*the lawsuit in UK about scamming poeple while charging for games.
*bad porting to PC
for Xbox yes they have the studios and money but i think they still make the same mistakes (redfall recently being always online DRM 30 fps only) and most importantly i don't trust them when it comes to choosing the right project to invest in and games to devolop also i think studios are out of their control and emplyees are somewhere in the building eating donuts
@nomither6
You could just google it as there have been a few articles written about how the Xbox One was ahead of its time and they are spot on. First and foremost was its focus on tv. Modern consoles are used just as much for non gaming entertainment as they are for gaming now. They have absolutely become set top boxes used to control all of the entertainment in one's living room. MS just focused too heavily on it at the time. Another was voice control. People just weren't ready for it, but now we have Alexa's everywhere. Hell, I have one in my kitchen, bedroom and bathroom and using voice control is 2nd nature now.
The Series S is basically very very close to what the Xbox One was feature wise. It combines a UHD Blu-ray player with OneGuide TV functionality, access to apps such as Kodi and the ability to integrate OTA using the Xbox One TV tuner.
@UltimateOtaku91 Whats the excuse for this gen?
Say what you want, but under Don Mattrick xbox actually had high quality exclusives at launch, series x and s had NO EXCLUSIVES at launch. People forget that phil was deeply part of dons team.
@TakeItEasy The thing is I don't see many of those as 'bad practices', just different approaches. Most are blown out of proportion by people trying to force a tribal argument, and some I don't recognise at all. In answer to just a few
The thing is Xbox doesn't really have proper backwards compatibility either. You don't insert an OG Xbox disc or Xbox 360 disc into an XBOne or XSX and it plays it off the discs. They have a fake software version which has pros and cons.
Don't get me wrong it's great, but it isn't proper backwards compatibility either. You have to download a specific made for BC version of the game Microsoft have created at relative great expense and effort. The disc, or license if you owned it digitally on X360, is just a key of sorts to allow you to run this new download version. Microsoft themselves have said it's prohibitively time consuming / expensive. But it is a clever approach.
But it's also quite limited. Last I looked it was only about 6% of all OG Xbox games (about 60 of 1000) and 25% of Xbox 360 (550 of 2150).
But the reality is more complex as most of those games are the better ones which have had better remasters anyway.
PlayStation offer a different option. Full backwards compatibility with PS4 and a retro gaming service with around 500 games on it with PS+ premium. It's just a different approach, I don't see it as a 'bad practice' per se, not when I remember how expensive the PS3 was because they had the PS1 & PS2 chips inside... it's part of why they lost that generation, too expensive at launch much like XBO.
Regardless backwards compatibility is pretty niche. Though I prefer the clever Microsoft solution there are pros and cons to each.
TakeItEasy wrote:
This sucks on paper. But it's one or two games that are actually full remakes not remasters. The two I played were actually both pretty great when I played them... but I didn't pay anywhere near $70. Though in hindsight I would have for the Demon's Souls remaster, that was a masterpiece. TLOU Pt 1 was great too, a full remake, but should never have been £70, problem was the price not the quality.
Frankly i'd rather pay £70 for great games, that are usually feature complete, with no MTX etc. than pay £60 for ones with MTX, battle passes, cut up into DLC etc. as so many games are now. Obviously the downside to this is there is a next gen upgrade fee. No way to avoid that short of making PS4 versions also £70... which would be worse.
This sucks. But they are all at it. Plenty of GOTY/Award nominees like Immortality, Death's Door, Tunic, etc were all timed Xbox exclusives on Game Pass. Some haven't made it to PlayStation yet. Next few weeks of game pass alone has The Last Case of Benedict Fox, Ravenlok, Cassette Beasts etc. all coming to Game Pass but not coming to PlayStation at all yet.
Not a fan of this at all, gaming should be more inclusive than exclusive. But it's a handful of titles really. Plus what is worse the occasional exclusive or buying up Bethesda and taking Doom, The Elder Scrolls, Fallout, Redfall, Starfield etc. off the table. All games that would have otherwise come to other consoles.
Again not a fan. But if you know your history and coincidentally, in article about Don Matricks Xbox era, that was when this practice really started with AAA with Microsoft paying for timed COD map exclusivity and timed exclusivity on Skyrim DLC etc. it had never been so high profile before that.
Fact is MANY PC ports are awful right now. But in fact most PlayStation ports have actually been really excellent, as was noted by Alex Battaglia / Digital Foundry when he used many of them as great examples when doing his state of PC gaming and ports video a few months ago. TLOU Pt 1 is awful but it's more the exception than the rule.
So I guess my point is that this is all perspective. As someone who plays on ALL platforms they all have things they are better and worse at. But few of these are really 'bad practises' just different approaches that are usually blown way out of proportion.
@themightyant
"Different approach" i call that total greed why to pay 10$ next gen upgrade when its free upgrade on xbox
And why should i subscribe to 24$ monthly subscription to play a limited selection of old games some i already own?
Why should i pay 70$ for a remaster such as spiderman despite being good or not? Resident evil remakesis 60$ and thats a game changer
Sucks? Yes paying not to benifit gamers or put a game on your service instead paying million so a game isnt on other console service is total dirt
You know what forget about it i swear your wearing a blue shirt adios
@TakeItEasy Call it what you like, it's an honest appraisal from someone who plays on ALL consoles. They each have their pros and cons. Xbox does some things great, others not so great. Same as Nintendo, Sony, Steam etc. none are perfect.
@themightyant
I play on all platforms and playing on all platforms doesnt make you neutral... And obviously your not
@themightyant "As for having plenty of time to change everything, the 2 conferences were on the same day (10th June 2013) the Xbox one finished at 10am the Sony one started 6 hours later. "
Don't forget Xbox had their first conference over 2 weeks, almost 3 before the more infamous E3 one with the first unveiling, the above event was 5/21, which went down like a lead balloon for all the reasons represented in gory detail (viewer discretion is advised) above. Sony had 2, almost 3 weeks to listen to the feedback and rumors coming out of Xboxes obviously troubled product and start making plans/adjustments to capitalize on that before the big E3 day.
So did Microsoft. The chatter, at the time, was that yes, this above media event was a disaster, but, of course, "that was for investors, and media, and general audiences so of course it was about TV and football, but E3 was coming up in weeks and that would be gamer focused and all about the gamer features, just wait for E3, that'll be the event they show us the box for gamers! " If MS had listened to the feedback in May, and course corrected for E3, they could have changed the optics and messaging, made the prediction true, and delivered an E3 X1 unveiling targeting gamers. But, no, Matrick wasn't listening, knew he was "right" (and the guy STILL believes he was "right"(!)) and doubled down on selling his tv box with kinekt and physical DRM.
Sony meanwhile had the same nearly 3 weeks to listen to the feedback and retool their messaging and planning to be able to take advantage of Matrick pouring gasoline all over One Microsoft Way. They were no doubt going to do just that anyway after the disaster May X1 reveal, but Matrick handed them the ultimate gift by being totally tone-deaf between May and June, not listening to the feedback while Sony did, doubling down on the unpopular concept, making it worse, and then being flippant about it to the media that questioned it.
The physical DRM thing was not possible to be totally cloistered in an MS vacuum. These things are done with publishers in advance. Publishers had been very vocal about the problem of physical resale around that time, and wanted to do anything to stop it. I find it markedly implausible that Sony was not also a part of those conversations with partner publishers and the goal of physical DRM considering how prominent even publicly that topic was in the industry at the time. Even in the incredibly off chance that Sony was not a part of that conversation (which is about as likely as finding out that we live in an alternate universe created by sentient machines) They would have been aware of it from conversations with partner publishers tipping them off about the direction and making plans one way or another.
Not knocking Sony on any of that. The physical DRM thing was what the INDUSTRY wanted. Matrick took the hit for making it public, and Sony, at the time, had competent, grounded leadership in Kaz, Andy, Shu, Jack that could actually read the room and deliver what people wanted. Not like their leadership today. Sony did it right, MS did it wrong. It's what that lead to that's an insufferable mess of armored war ponies and ABK nightmares.
@TakeItEasy #4, all of the above.
There's absolutely an unspoken handshake with some publishers. They don't say anything. But yet it's very clear an outlets access to them comes with a short leash and the publication is expected to portray them positively. It's not stated in words, yet it's very clear. Sony and Nintendo are two of those. MS at least many years ago, was not.
Plus sewing discord and arguments is how media makes all their money. Doesn't matter if it's video game blogs or major news outlets, the money is made from conflict, period.
And Bias. PS is more popular, more famous, more globally available, with more nostalgia attached to it, and with the solid reputation of their games, it's more easily overlooked that everything they do automatically has good reasons and is well meaning, etc. It doesn't hurt that from 1995 to 2005 and then from 2007 through 2017 or so they really were the "good guys" overall against overbearing competitors. It buys them a lot of leeway in terms of benefit of doubt in the public/media mind until they burn one bridge too many. Trashing Xbox means trashing a modern product. Trashing Nintendo or Playstation tends to be trashing people's fondest childhood associations and becomes personal.
In terms of games reviewing high, though, all the above plays out, but there's a simpler factor involved. Sony generally applies their Hollywood know-how to make general audience, mass market blockbuster games. It checks off all the box, is inoffensive, non-polarizing, everything for every one products that is naturally built to sell high and score high for the same reason Transformers and Marvel movies sell big. Microsoft games tend to be more niche, more divisive, more experimental. That's going to split reviews right off the bat, because it's not often a "made to sell" mass market product. Sony seems tied to a model that every game needs to be a mass market box office smash at launch. That requires a certain type of game. MS seems happier making a bunch of niche games to satisfy a bunch of different groups one at a time. TBH I kind of like that latter idea better, for me "mass market" never means much and usually isn't for me at all. But it's just a different market approach. The result is all of Sony's games come away commercial and critical smash hits because they're engineered specifically to be that. MS's games, at least so far, aren't engineered for that result. That's a marketing miss, but a satisfaction hit if you're in the niches they serve.
@TakeItEasy so only your view is right? Ok then, glad we cleared that up
As I said it’s just a different perspective
@NEStalgia I still think there would be something obvious in the physical hardware or firmware on PS4 if that were the case, they can’t change that this late in production, otherwise it would be too easy to crack to allow second hand games. This is evident on XBO but not the PS4.
Personally I think the more plausible story is Sony were likely laying false narratives, like they did when lying to devs about the amount of RAM they had in PS4. They told devs 4GB of GDDR5 which would have compared unfavourably to 8GB of GDDR3 on XBO. But at release it had 8GB GDDR5 which surprised many devs and apparently Microsoft.
@themightyant I see your point on hardware, but it's just a near impossibility Sony wasn't involved in developers pleas to end used games. Game stop gate was the industry swear word at the time. Dlc and season passes began mostly because if it. We know Sony didn't have a hardware lockout solution but that doesn't mean they didn't have a solution or that they didn't have a bad solution (and it's not like hardware lockouts are a slam dunk, see also 10NES).... If Sony DIDN'T have a physical DRM planned they were ignoring developers completely. And that's not likely given they were bending backwards for devs after the PS3 debacle.
We don't know what their solution was or if it was a sucky one (I mean they're the ones that picked CSS for DVD 😂) but for that time period saying they didn't have one while the industry begged for it and ms delivered it would imply they were tone deaf and incompetent. Jim, I could believe that. Kaz, Andy, and Shu, no.
But they were smart, read the room, cut it probably at the chagrin of publishers and here we are in their Monopoly as a result.
@NEStalgia finally a wise man i like your analysis and i spoke what is in my mind better than i ever would
@NEStalgia and by the way, about your point on "hollywood know how" thats very precise and those games are made to target the general audience (gamers and casuals"
While i don't like cinematic games ( i was actually fascinated by those type of games in my teen years)now i feel limited and chained on those games, do this do that you cant go here go there, cutscene press x.... I feel that my gameplay experience will be so similar to others that i can just watch it on youtube and finish it.
But its true that those games are loved by moat poeple and they will continue to have success and sony is good at those
In the other hand xbox will excel in my favorite genre which is RPG because of bathesda and obsidian, but they have to make cinematic games to make those casuals and also gamers that love the genre to their platform (hellblade can be the one along perfect dark and maybe indiana John's)
The only thing I liked about the 2013 dashboard was it being Windows 8 like (as getting into dual screens in consoles, phones, dual app/games being a thing, syncing data between devices, casting my phone to the TV so it's useful for apps not on the TV I can use then the TV version of the app being the only way to do things, and picture in picture more these days) and Kinect was used better then for gestures I think...... well besides being for those select games........ maybe I don't know yet I haven't looked enough at it.
Other than that yeah the event was....... and the messaging was..... as bad as people say it was. Like I use apps with the Xbox but making it a box for media I mean if people wanted a Nuon (DVD player game console that's niche) or something else to have a media hub device or fit in with streaming) then sure but they didn't. People wanted a console. Many times customers see a media remote and go why would i need that.
I see need for it but do I use it myself no not really the buttons/touchpads on whichever PS/Xbox are good enough and the UIs work well. The Xbox One/360 I prefer the layout of then any past Sony PS2 & 3 UIs for watching DVDs/Blu-rays. PS4 was good enough too and using the touchpad is fun. XD
Still having an Xbox One looking 360 E was nice (the design is what it is I don't mind it or hate it I'm indifferent to it) at least to have a later 360 model that lasts which is a plus.
So other than the dashboard that went away sigh and
I hate how the internet portrays that event.
Everything that MS said that day has happened, and we're all fine with it.
>Everything is always online
>Physical/used games are nearly irrelevant
>Our consoles serve as convenient multi media devices to the point where standalone DVD players just don't exist
All that has happened while Microsoft has been the only platform that truly respects digital ownership and game preservation.
The Kinect was apparently gimmicky *****, but I guess we have plenty of space for more expensive and less functional gimmicky ***** like, VR, the switch as a console, and dumb adaptive triggers.
I'd much rather have the 3rd or 4th gen Kinect than any of the crap we have now.
Don was RIGHT!
@themightyant i don’t think the launch ps3 was bad practice at all . they did the right thing for gamers , people just couldn’t afford it & that’s on them , not sony
Hands down the WORST xbox console ever by microsoft. The xbox 360 will be hailed to be the best xbox console and the series s/X are also failing at that too.
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