Xbox Employee Recalls 'Sheer Hate & Vitriol' The Community Team Received In 2013

I voted with my wallet and just didn’t bother with the Xbox one 🤣

I bought PS4 at launch and delayed Xbone until July of 14. The thing that really moved me to Xbone was expansion storage was available much sooner than PS4.

Amazing to see where Xbone started vs ending up with One X. Felt almost like two generations in one.

I bought an Xbox Series X on launch day, with my last Xbox being the Xbox 360. I feel like I didn’t miss out on much by not having an Xbox One. The initial policies killed my interest in getting one at first, and now I can play the whole Xbox One library with the Xbox Series X’s better processing.

As much as I detested the direction the company took, I never once blamed anyone but Don Mattrick. I certainly never bugged anyone via twitter or any sort of social media.

I do remember the extreme Xbox fanboys that made it unbearable to express dislike with the direction, though. Many still today defend Mattricks Always Online approach. Xbox community got very defensive and very toxic real fast.

Don’t think I cared to re-engage with the Xbox community until the Series X was revealed and this site rebooted.

@Fenbops
That's the way to do it. I waited until 2014 when all the launch units (which tend to be the most faulty ones) were out of the way, they unbundled Kinect and dropped the price to $400. Also helped all this was happening just a month before Forza Horizon 2 came out and that was one of the best games on the market for any console at the time. Sending death threats or saying other stuff to low-level employees who don't make the initial, very stupid decisions Don Mattrick made doesn't help anybody, including the person getting all ticked off.

I remember making the choice to go PS4 after having owned a 360. I was certain Xbox was going to go down like Dreamcast, but then one day I see a Xbox one S going for cheap and as I'm buying it the sales assistant tells me about gamepass. Well, my PlayStation soon was devoured by dust. Series X was a no brainer for me, especially after hearing about them buying Obsidian and Bethesda.

Honestly, it still feels like a ridiculous overreaction. It wasn't that bad. Sure, it wasn't the hardware that the 360 was at its time, but it was an excellent console in a great generation.

I skipped that entire generation, even being an avid console gamer.

The 360 was amazing when it came out, but when the PS4 and Xbone launched, I remember thinking "wtf, these aren't even as good as my fairly normal PC". Very underwhelming, and at no point did I feel compelled to buy either. It kind of forced me to be a PC gamer that generation, as it was simply better, and I could play most of the same games at 60fps etc.

This time it's completely different. The Series X is incredible, and has made me love console gaming again. The retroactive enhancements, FPS boost, quick resume and sheer horsepower are all game changers, as well as Game Pass. I now much prefer the Series X to PC gaming.

I got an OG Xbox after a price cut. I thought I'd give it a try, I had a GameCube at the time.

Xbox 360 on launch day. What a console!

PS4 launch day... Xbox One around six months later when I realised that I missed the Xbox eco system and 'feel' too much, played the hell out of Peggle 2, at the time an Xbox exclusive. Love the Peggle games. 🤷🏻‍♂️🤣
I quickly came round to enjoying my Xbox One more than my PS4.

I got the One S on launch day

I got the One X on launch day

I got the Series X and S on launch day

It's safe to say I only had a short holiday from Xbox. 🤣
I play PS and Nintendo too, but just exclusives.
Xbox is THE platform, for me anyway.

The Sony lot are get similar abuse and hate online in recent times. People need to realise hate and abuse has no place online or anywhere.

@Handy_Man Not quite the whole library.... You missed out on Kinect! 😜

I do feel bad for the overall staff due to the failure that Mattrick was.

It always takes just one person....

I'm sure fans felt it was bad at the time but boy what a turnaround. By the time I came to get an Xbox One it was a few years in. I got a prime day deal bundled with Kinect (which was on its way out) and it was fantastic. Have the kinect set up in our living room as it is a far better way of letting my parents talk to their grandchildren through skype than us all crowding round a small tablet screen. I loved my XB1 and still love it even though i've moved on to a Series S, which really just feels like an extension of and faster loading XB1.

@JetmanUK

I still rock Peggle 2 on occasion, super addicting and fun game.

@JetmanUK I did have Kinect on Xbox 360, but it’s true that I can’t play any Xbox One Kinect games.

@aj102404 Yeah it's great isn't it.

Have you played Roundguard? It's very similar, lots of fun.

I must admit, I wasn't overly thrilled with the Direction or choices they appeared to want to take the Xbox One in on the run-up to launch but I also expected to own the console to keep playing the games I wanted.

It was a tough decision trying to decide which Console I would buy first and whilst PS4 seemed cheaper (mostly because it didn't have the Camera bundled in with every console), for me, it worked out as the 'more' expensive option.

Because Xbox had made Gold 'essential' to online gaming, I already had almost a year of Gold left at launch. On Playstation 3, I had no need of PS+ but would need it to play online on PS4 - an additional cost on top of the console. Also, as CoD: Ghosts was better on 360 and got the DLC earlier, I bought it on 360 and the Season Pass too which transferred to XB1 as well as my progression so that saved me restarting and buying another Season Pass to play on PS4.

Another aspect that helped me decide to buy XB1 first was the games. Only Killzone: Shadowfall appealed of the exclusives and only Infamous looked interesting in the first 6months or so, but on Xbox, we had Forza Motorsport 5, Ryse, Dead Rising 3 and Titanfall all releasing between Killzone (as PS4 launched a week earlier) and Infamous so it made more sense to buy XB1 with Kinect first and pick a PS4 after Christmas.

Because I'd been undecided, I did follow the developments after that E3 disaster so was aware they'd back tracked on most of the things that went badly and 'boosted' the CPU too. The product wasn't the 'same' as described and within 6months, even Kinect was optional so apart from being a bit underpowered compared to PS4, the things that upset gamers (Always Online, TV - they scrapped Xbox Entertainment Studios, TV Listings etc, forcing Kinect and its always on Mic/Camera) had all been addressed. Back Compat added a 'big' library of games to the system - even if not 'new', it certainly increased the number of games, started ID@Xbox too and acquired a number of Studio's from Mojang, Oblivion & Double Fine to Ninja Theory, Bethesda and Arcane so even without 'Game Pass', they addressed the 'Xbox has no games'. Now with Xbox Publishing too, I can't see people saying 'Xbox has no games' or only having 1 type of game (third Person story driven cinematic action adventure or Online Multiplayer only for example) but offering a wide variety of games.

They were never going to 'scrap' the XB1 to start again so had to 'work' with it and make plans to never be in the same position again. The redesign of the XB1 really helped - it was the 'cheaper' console now, looking more premium in my opinion too having launched more expensive and the XB1X was the most powerful console so addressed the 'Games run 'better' on PS' issue.

As bad as 2013 was, it was a valuable lesson to MS and it seems they learned incredibly quickly and put the 'right' person in the position to put things right - even if he felt a bit out of his depth. It was 'never' going to be an overnight fix and something they'd have to fight against for the entire generation but apart from a 'few' miss-steps (Scalebound, Lionhead Studio's, Series Launch games etc), its been mostly positive and now 8yrs after the launch of the XB1, and shows MS learned from the past. No longer the 'weakest' on the block with 'no' games and arguably, the most consumer friendly, most inclusive and accessible platform on the market today.

@Carck NXE "Wii haven't copied anyone Wii swear!!"

I didn't buy any consoles that generation- had moved from PS3 to my first PC build.

It seemed both shady and like a scam at the time. In retrospect I still don't understand the initial Kinect requirement. I'm still a fan of the entertainment center concept and I see what they were going for trying to make the Kinect mainstream, but forcing it was a bad idea.

I also feel like the Kinect was the inferior motion control hardware. The functionality just seemed so limited compared to the Wii approach.

To this day the xbox one was the worst thing to happen for console gamers..
Thank goodness for the Xbox one x and series x and s

Well lets be honest when the guy running the show says something like "you want a xbox you can play offline then buy a 360" you should expect that kind of backlash

Kinda funny though that everything people complained about back then, always online DRM, no used games or gamesharing and requiring a paid subscription to access your games was bad but that's pretty much what gamepass is but that's fantastic 🤔

Guess it really is a case of getting your marketing right

I remember when this happened. Was still mad about my third replacement 360 they sent me got red ring again. I said well they are done for this Gen. But they got their stuff together. The Series S is great and I love access to all the old games.

Personally it's the most memorable moment of any E3. The reveal, the plan, the internet going apocalyptic.
Then Don Mattrick responds to an interview question that was "what if you don't have the internet in your home"
His reply "then buy a 360"

The next day it was Sony on stage and at the very end of Sony's press conference Jack Tretton walks out and you can read his expression it said "OK here we go, xbox has blown it and now we're going to take that disaster and own the entire next generation in the next 5 minutes..."
He then said "for example,PlayStation won't place any restriction on your purchase you own the right to do what you want with that disc, loan to a friend, trade in at retail or keep it forever, you won't need to go online to verify your right to play that game, and it won't stop working if you don't"
Next day Microsoft says "I think we've screwed up, last night's plan? It's gone, all of it.

Yup, that right there was history. If you haven't seen Jack Tretton deliver his death blow, take a look it's a real classic moment.

To be fair I’m not surprised they get the hate. I voted with my wallet and traded my 360 and games for a PS4, I was so looking forward to the Xbox One. But Tv Tv Tv Television Television didn’t sell it to me, neither did the price or the mandatory Kinect or the utter total mess they made communicating the DRM requirements and always on connectivity of the system Microsoft gave out.
But once Uncle Phil launched the One S I grabbed one.

The mixed messaging from all the executives with them all saying different things was the biggest turn off for me, thru seemed utterly confused in disorganised and that’s not how you need to be for a product launch.

I was so so so glad when Mattrick was fired, he can say he left as much as he likes but he was fired.
That Game On documentary shows they didn’t listen to the team behind the 360 and just went with others who clearly were utterly clueless about gaming, thinking everyone wants a TV console in their living room..

That Terri-bad launch was the final deciding factor for me going with PS4.

I didn't want them to abandon Kinect.