On May 21 when Microsoft announced its newly re-designed Xbox One, fans had been waiting for the announcement for a long time. While it seems as though Xbox has been around forever, this is only the third major overhaul since its introduction in 2001, and fans were anxious to hear how the new design compares to the next generation Sony PlayStation 4.
The internal components of both gaming systems are very similar – custom AMD x86 processors, 8 GB of memory and 500GB of storage. Both boxes are black, and the controllers have been updated, although they are still recognizable from past iterations. Of course, true gamers know it’s not about the hardware, it’s about the games and here Microsoft seems to have an edge with its commitment to launch at least 15 exclusive games in the first year.
The Xbox One Debacle that Everyone Saw Coming
On the other hand, no amount of exclusive games could overshadow the outcry from users upset over Microsoft’s ill-conceived – even idiotic – policy that required the Xbox One to connect every 24 hours to check for updates. Beyond the 24 hours, users would have been unable to continue playing even games they own on the console. Microsoft also announced that the limit if playing on a secondary or friend’s console would be one hour, after which a connection would be required before play could continue. Microsoft would enforce both these time limits even when the user played off-line, disc-based games.
Microsoft tried to position this as a benevolent attempt to ensure that players never had to wait for updates and that games would always load quickly, but the users recognized this draconian policy as an attempt to control their ability to enjoy freely products they had legally purchased, and they made their displeasure known.
A somewhat harried Mattrick told the world through an interview with CVG “Fortunately we have a product for people who aren’t able to get some form of connectivity – it’s called Xbox 360. If you have zero access to the Internet, that is an offline device.” He went on to discuss one user on a nuclear sub, as though that user were the only one who might have a legitimate problem with the policy. Gamers were not amused, and the outcry continued.
Within a week after the terms of use became clear, Microsoft posted a new announcement from Don Mattrick, President of Microsoft’s Interactive Entertainment Division. Mattrick’s most recent announcement completely backtracked on the much-despised policy. Mattrick proclaimed Microsoft’s willingness to listen to its customers’ feedback, and the company rescinded the connection requirements as well as restrictions on regional play and on re-selling, sharing or renting disk based media. While some of the furor has died down, gamers have been left with a bad taste about Xbox One.
It’s hard to believe that a company with Microsoft’s resources didn’t invest in a little market research before introducing the now rescinded policies. They might have learned how important the ability to share games actually is to the user base, or that people might actually want to play a game at a friend’s house for more than one hour at a time. Even more importantly, they might have learned how to position the “always connected” Xbox One in a way that users would embrace – as in, rapid game loading and no waiting for updates to download or reboots after updates – rather than positioning it as a licensing check.
A few weeks after announcing the new position, Mattrick announced his departure from Microsoft to become CEO at Zynga. Let’s hope he learned something from the Xbox One fiasco, because it’s doubtful that Zynga could survive a similar PR mess.
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