• Hey, guest user. Hope you're enjoying NeoGAF! Have you considered registering for an account? Come join us and add your take to the daily discourse.

EDGE: Why "increasingly frustrated journalists" need MS to reveal its new Xbox

Dabanton

Member
Yes I know cheeky thread title but interesting article. Although a lot of it is trying to get devs to trip over themselves and reveal something they shouldn't. Nice attempt at least on the part of EDGE. And I thought they had a solid source for news of this machine? From the tone of this article that source must have dried up.


Patrick Bach, executive producer, DICE
Can you talk about the two next-gen consoles?
“No.”

Amid a torrent of damaging rumour and speculation around its next console, someone, somewhere at Microsoft is calm. They insist that they won’t be rushed into revealing their plans for 360’s successor; that it’s all under control. We’ll show it off when we’re ready, they say. Having their hand forced by Sony’s PS4 event would be a sign of weakness. It’s good to keep people waiting. It builds anticipation.

They’re wrong. The messaging that Microsoft usually seeks to control so tightly has taken on a life of its own in the last few months. Instead, our next Xbox story and a multitude of leaks and sources reported across the games media have filled that void – and the picture being built of the next Xbox in the minds of the games-playing public is a poisonous one.



Jade Raymond, managing director, Ubisoft Toronto
Do you think Microsoft need to get a move on and confirm their next console?
“Are they working on a new console?” [laughs]
This silence… is it frustrating?
“It’s funny because you know the last generation we were working on Assassin’s Creed 1 and I remember we were talking about it like three years before we got the consoles and everything. So I guess it’s a different approach this time, but in some ways it’s good because in games we’re always excited by the next tech. There’s still a lot of innovation happening on the current consoles and there’s a lot of innovation happening on different platforms, so it’s nice we’ve had a bit more time to focus on stuff that’s still coming out on the platforms that we currently have.”


Marcin Iwinski, co-founder and joint CEO, CD Projekt
The Witcher 3 has been confirmed for PS4 and PC, but we’ve got a situation where no-one’s allowed to talk about what Microsoft’s doing next…
“Do we? Is there something coming? [laughs]”
I assume you’ve signed NDAs and so on – is it frustrating that you can’t talk openly about this?

“We’ve signed NDAs so we can’t talk about the NDAs! [laughs].”
We ran a story in February saying the next Xbox was always on, always connected and might not play secondhand games. Does that affect development of The Witcher 3 at all?
“Obviously we haven’t shared anything we know, and I have no knowledge of anything like that… we’ll wait and see and as it is with every platform it’ll be [revealed] step by step, bit by bit. Definitely what is happening – and again we don’t have any confirmed information on it – but it all goes this way: it’s the digital revolution. More downloads and streaming.”


One has to wonder how long Microsoft is going to allow this to continue. The latest of many rumours suggests it’ll be at least another month; another month of escalating negativity, another month of leaks, another month of awkward interviews with game developers skilfully dodging questions under NDA.

Another month in which editorials like this will be written by increasingly frustrated journalists who just want this ludicrous shadow-chasing to stop. The next Xbox exists, and it’s not the disaster the internet thinks it is – Microsoft just needs to show it to us to make all this go away.

http://www.edge-online.com/features/the-long-silence-why-microsoft-needs-to-reveals-its-next-xbox-and-quickly/
 
H26Z_Obama_DealWithIt.jpg
 

RoboPlato

I'd be in the dick
The dev comments trying to avoid even mentioning Durango have been getting increasingly funny and sad lately. I feel bad for the devs. Microsoft should just acknowledge the fact it exists just to let them off the hook in interviews.
 

UberTag

Member
"The next Xbox exists, and it’s not the disaster the internet thinks it is."
We've been given no reason to think otherwise. Perhaps if some of the non-disastrous details were to leak out instead of the disastrous ones, we'd have just cause to think otherwise.

There are non-disastrous details, right? Ones that don't make it seem inferior to the PS4 in every way fathomable? Those exist, right?
 
Another month in which editorials like this will be written by increasingly frustrated journalists who just want this ludicrous shadow-chasing to stop. The next Xbox exists, and it’s not the disaster the internet thinks it is – Microsoft just needs to show it to us to make all this go away.

The only way it's going to "go away" is if almost every single rumour about the system ends up being the complete opposite. I don't think that's going to happen.
 

sangreal

Member
Jade Raymond, managing director, Ubisoft Toronto
Do you think Microsoft need to get a move on and confirm their next console?
“Are they working on a new console?” [laughs]
This silence… is it frustrating?
“It’s funny because you know the last generation we were working on Assassin’s Creed 1 and I remember we were talking about it like three years before we got the consoles and everything. So I guess it’s a different approach this time, but in some ways it’s good because in games we’re always excited by the next tech. There’s still a lot of innovation happening on the current consoles and there’s a lot of innovation happening on different platforms, so it’s nice we’ve had a bit more time to focus on stuff that’s still coming out on the platforms that we currently have.”

Assassins Creed 1 was announced after 360 was already released... It was revealed at E3 2006. Maybe she was talking about it for 3 years in private, but then that wouldnt make the situation different at all

(and as a ps3 exclusive)
 

R3TRODYCE

Member
Rush an announcement and make a bad first impression or craft a good announcement and make a good first impression; yes rush it for the journalists so they can bad mouth it if it's not a good announcement.
 

Flamfas

Member
MS really should say something soon. Even if a lot of the rumors end up being false, they've been out there for a while, and MS has nothing to say to discredit them. It's forming a bad public opinion on the console.
 

AkuMifune

Banned
The only way it's going to "go away" is if almost every single rumour about the system ends up being the complete opposite. I don't think that's going to happen.

Yeah, the feeling that they are going to fuck this up keeps building. It's going to be hard for them to win back our hype from the PS4 even if they do the complete opposite.
 
Rush an announcement and make a bad first impression or craft a good announcement and make a good first impression; yes rush it for the journalists so they can bad mouth it if it's not a good announcement.

If announcing the existence of a new system 6-8 months before it's supposed to launch is "rushing", then they're in trouble, imho.
 

Alucrid

Banned
This is not a good answer to the question/problem at hand. Microsoft is currently being run very poorly and all you can do is post a picture in response?

Microsoft needs to create some momentum for this thing and start creating some good press.

You missed the joke, didn't you?
 
Microsoft is getting tons of bad press lately. It's weird. A couple years ago it was the darling of all gamers and the western gaming media to a fault.
 
This is not a good answer to the question/problem at hand. Microsoft is currently being run very poorly and all you can do is post a picture in response?

Microsoft needs to create some momentum for this thing and start creating some good press.

Wow, have you been living under a rock for the past few days?
 

Jackl

Member
This is not a good answer to the question/problem at hand. Microsoft is currently being run very poorly and all you can do is post a picture in response?

Microsoft needs to create some momentum for this thing and start creating some good press.

Maybe reputation wise.

Financially they've still got 60bil on hand, only 14bil in debt, and their stock is the same price it was 5 years ago. They can play this game for quite sometime.
 

BorkBork

The Legend of BorkBork: BorkBorkity Borking
This is not a good answer to the question/problem at hand. Microsoft is currently being run very poorly and all you can do is post a picture in response?

Microsoft needs to create some momentum for this thing and start creating some good press.

Do you know the context of this picture? Because it's a pretty hilarious and appropriate meme response (if there ever is one).
 

tfur

Member
Unless Microsoft does a vault and lands a 9.5 or 10 in the reveal, they are going to be shived in the kidneys and liver.
 

Dibbz

Member
This is not a good answer to the question/problem at hand. Microsoft is currently being run very poorly and all you can do is post a picture in response?

Microsoft needs to create some momentum for this thing and start creating some good press.

It was probably a joke in reference to the Sweet Billy stuff.
 

The Hermit

Member
While I do believe the nextbox is always on, I also give ms the benefit of the doubt that theres something else in that thing...
 

Dipswitch

Member
Their silence indicates to me that they think they're holding a winning hand. And that they believe the media impact of a full reveal of the machine and its associated capabilities will be more effective than Sony's carefully measured information release.

I don't think they really give a shit if the media is getting frustrated. As long as developers/media partners have the info they need to develop their products, then everything else is gravy.

Time will tell however.
 

DopeyFish

Not bitter, just unsweetened
edge, how entitled can you possibly be?

microsoft works on their own timetable, not that of the journalists.
 
I'm not buying it anyway so the longer they can wait and allow for more of these rumors and leaks and Twitter train wrecks to come out the better for me. I find it all very entertaining.
 

Godslay

Banned
Can't wait another month or so for a reveal? Ms isn't doing any damage waiting to reveal. I don't see how this is an indictment of how ms is ran. Goddammit some people.
 

rouken

Member
How is not announcing it bad management? I thought the 360 was announced in the same timeframe as what is happening now with Durango?
 
If announcing the existence of a new system 6-8 months before it's supposed to launch is "rushing", then they're in trouble, imho.
lol.

They'll announce their shit when they want to. They have a calendar and a plan, and they're not adjusting it for thirsty press or gamers. Deal with it. Are developers working on games? Yes? Then simmer the fuck down with the rhetoric.
 

Orca

Member
If they went to Walmart or most other retail outlets and polled 1000 random game buyers I doubt the majority have any real opinion about next-gen consoles.
 

x-Lundz-x

Member
I like Jade's comments about still having innovation on current consoles. Like what exactly, finding more efficient ways to cram in Doritos ad's on the dashboard?
 

LQX

Member
Maybe MS is just not prepared yet. And yes there are a bunch of negative rumors out there but why further add to it by potentially botching a planned unveil? People just have to be patient and wait like they do for plenty of other products that have a set date for an announcement. The gaming press is really showing itself to be like children.
 

LuchaShaq

Banned
6 months ago I would have been excited to see the new xbox revealed and been ecstatic to buy 1 day 1.


Now I doubt I'd even watch the event and I doubt I'll ever own one.
 
I like Jade's comments about still having innovation on current consoles. Like what exactly, finding more efficient ways to cram in Doritos ad's on the dashboard?

Have you seen how many flavors of Doritos there are?

It's gotta be a nightmare figuring out how to advertise all of them.
 

tfur

Member
Microsoft is getting tons of bad press lately. It's weird. A couple years ago it was the darling of all gamers and the western gaming media to a fault.


No duffle bags to give out yet.

But, at least they have Polygon this generation, where no duffle bags are required...
 

Godslay

Banned
6 months ago I would have been excited to see the new xbox revealed and been ecstatic to buy 1 day 1.


Now I doubt I'd even watch the event and I doubt I'll ever own one.

What's changed? You didn't know dick about it then, you don't know dick about it now.
 

Kazerei

Banned
Yup. We're so desperate for info on the next Xbox that we've made a huge deal out of a MS employee's tweets.
 

dokish

Banned
This is not a good answer to the question/problem at hand. Microsoft is currently being run very poorly and all you can do is post a picture in response?

Microsoft needs to create some momentum for this thing and start creating some good press.

Where have you been for the last week
 

Opiate

Member
I have a lot of concerns about the next Xbox, but sympathy for the poor journalists who thrive off tech reveals and blockbuster previews and exclusive interviews just aren't among them.

I would be perfectly happy if they did not exist, so I do not mind if they are starving. My distaste for the hype machine spans virtually all tech fields, from hype surrounding Apple's next iPhone to reveals of new televisions to the reveals of new gaming machines.

This is how tech journalism deserves to be treated:

http://www.theonion.com/video/sony-releases-new-stupid-piece-of-shit-that-doesnt,14309/
 
Top Bottom