Was it all just a big misunderstanding?

Fan reaction to the unveiling of the Xbox One was merely the result of a misunderstanding, according to a Microsoft exec predicting an all-digital future.

Director of product planning Albert Penello is the same guy that yesterday claimed that many of the Xbox One’s online features would return once people had ‘calmed down’.

He’s obviously doing the rounds on the American interview circuit at the moment, but his latest comments to Rev3Games seem especially patronising, as they imply the whole U-turn debacle was simply because Microsoft was misunderstood…

‘People got in their minds that what we were trying to do was evil or anti-customer when, in fact, we were looking at what Steam does, we were looking at what iOS is going, we were looking where the customers were going and saying ‘I think we can actually give you a better all-digital experience,’ said Penello – apparently ignoring the vast difference in pricing on iOS and via Steam sales.




‘So was I surprised that people had a reaction to it? No. I mean, we knew it was going to be a controversial decision. Was I surprised how negative the reaction was going to be? Yes.’

‘We were surprised at how vocal it was, we were surprised at the reaction and the assumptions that people had about what we were trying to do. So we did the famous ‘180’.’

As we suggested to Phil Harrison at Gamecom the fact that Microsoft was surprised by the reaction implies a company worryingly out of touch with the desires and expectations of most gamers, but Penello continues:

‘Nobody debates there’s going to be a world, whether it’s this gen, or next-gen, that discs are going to go away, it’s gone away in just about every medium.’

‘I think if anything we thought it was going to happen sooner than the customer. We took a hard stance on it.’

Perhaps if £50 price tags also went away Penello’s comments might seem more reasonable but trying to rewrite history and paint gamers as confused Luddites doesn’t seem the most sensible of tactics…



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