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Hi-Fi Rush Was a "Break Out Hit" For Xbox, Says Aaron Greenberg

XXL

XXL

Member
Larry David Reaction GIF
 
cireza

cireza

Member
Simply play the game and stop with that negative nonesense, game is fantastic.

I really hope that Microsoft will think about making a physical version with a kick-ass Steelbook, the art-style would be awesome on it.
 
Bragr

Bragr

Banned
SEGAvangelist said:
This is what I came here to say as well. If MS/Xbox didn't care about the game and was disappointed in the sales, they just wouldn't say anything because the future of the franchise and the nature of the release wouldn't matter. There is absolutely no reason for Greenberg to lie here.
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Well, the reason would be to paint Xbox and Hi-Fi Rush in a good light, turning away the bad press.
 
poppabk

poppabk

Cheeks Spread for Digital Only Future
Captain Toad said:
Refuted requires giving actual numbers, not meaningless vague statements like "trust me, the numbers are so great that we can't even share them".

Especially, coming from Greenberg who plays the role of Internet Xbox fanboy better than VP of anything and has been publicly contradicting himself for the last 10-15 years.

If you believe the public should know the success or lack of success of your software or hardware, share the numbers. But, refusing to do that while saying things are selling "well", is just hoping for your audience to be gullible.
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What? The metrics are only relevant to MS, and crazy console warriors. MS were happy to let the game speak for itself.
 
thicc_girls_are_teh_best

thicc_girls_are_teh_best

Gold Member
SEGAvangelist said:
This is what I came here to say as well. If MS/Xbox didn't care about the game and was disappointed in the sales, they just wouldn't say anything because the future of the franchise and the nature of the release wouldn't matter. There is absolutely no reason for Greenberg to lie here.
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There are lots of reasons for him to lie. Xbox has been having a really bad round of PR for the past few weeks; reporting of HiFi failing to meet expectations would just compound on the slew of other bad news that has come about. And would be yet ANOTHER Zenimax game not "living up to expectations" (others being RedFall reception, and Ghostwire performance on Series X vs PS5 despite an extra year of development).

There's also the fact that HiFi comes from Tango, MS's sole internal Japanese studio, and there's the ever-running narrative of Microsoft just being terribad at courting Japanese developer support. If they want to retain at least respectable optics in that regard, they don't need reports of an otherwise refreshing nugget of a game from their internal Japanese team, failing to meet internal sales/revenue expectations, even if there's a chance said report(s) could be true.

Also not to mention, it's news that could reflect poorly on Microsoft in terms of management and/or internal expectations of acquired publishers...when they're currently trying to acquire yet another massive publisher in ABK. Would not really reflect well there.

I'm not saying any of this to state definitively that Aaron Greenberg is lying, BUT it doesn't dismiss the possibility he is. Not to mention, this guy has been very disingenuous and misleading in multiple instances in the past on Twitter, so I wouldn't say he's the most blindly trustworthy mouthpiece to listen to.
 
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J

j.k.2021

Banned
thicc_girls_are_teh_best said:
There are lots of reasons for him to lie. Xbox has been having a really bad round of PR for the past few weeks; reporting of HiFi failing to meet expectations would just compound on the slew of other bad news that has come about. And would be yet ANOTHER Zenimax game not "living up to expectations" (others being RedFall reception, and Ghostwire performance on Series X vs PS5 despite an extra year of development).

There's also the fact that HiFi comes from Tango, MS's sole internal Japanese studio, and there's the ever-running narrative of Microsoft just being terribad at courting Japanese developer support. If they want to retain at least respectable optics in that regard, they don't need reports of an otherwise refreshing nugget of a game from their internal Japanese team, failing to meet internal sales/revenue expectations, even if there's a chance said report(s) could be true.

I'm not saying any of this to state definitively that Aaron Greenberg is lying, BUT it doesn't dismiss the possibility he is. Not to mention, this guy has been very disingenuous and misleading in multiple instances in the past on Twitter, so I wouldn't say he's the most blindly trustworthy mouthpiece to listen to.
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So, Tango Gameworks started working on their next big game weeks ago along with expanding their staff means nothing?....Lol.It's not just Greenberg.
 
Abriael_GN

Abriael_GN

RSI Employee of the Year
thicc_girls_are_teh_best said:
There are lots of reasons for him to lie. Xbox has been having a really bad round of PR for the past few weeks; reporting of HiFi failing to meet expectations would just compound on the slew of other bad news that has come about. And would be yet ANOTHER Zenimax game not "living up to expectations" (others being RedFall reception, and Ghostwire performance on Series X vs PS5 despite an extra year of development).

There's also the fact that HiFi comes from Tango, MS's sole internal Japanese studio, and there's the ever-running narrative of Microsoft just being terribad at courting Japanese developer support. If they want to retain at least respectable optics in that regard, they don't need reports of an otherwise refreshing nugget of a game from their internal Japanese team, failing to meet internal sales/revenue expectations, even if there's a chance said report(s) could be true.

Also not to mention, it's news that could reflect poorly on Microsoft in terms of management and/or internal expectations of acquired publishers...when they're currently trying to acquire yet another massive publisher in ABK. Would not really reflect well there.

I'm not saying any of this to state definitively that Aaron Greenberg is lying, BUT it doesn't dismiss the possibility he is. Not to mention, this guy has been very disingenuous and misleading in multiple instances in the past on Twitter, so I wouldn't say he's the most blindly trustworthy mouthpiece to listen to.
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First rule of PR. Debunk rumors only when you can do so with absolute certainty. Otherwise, simply don't comment.

Grubb's clout-chasing bullcrap isn't nearly relevant enough to lie for. It doesn't go anywhere beyond the console warriors on social media and specialized websites, and that's not even close to touching Microsoft's bottom line.
 
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J

j.k.2021

Banned
Pelta88 said:
"Break Out Hit." is probably a true statement. Greenberg's job is PR.

But what I'm certain of is that XBOX/Greenberg wont provide numbers. I mean, "Break Out Hit" in the context of Gamepass isn't exactly an insurmountable milestone.
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What?Their entire business model now revolves around game pass.Imagine asking about ticket sales from Netflix....🤦‍♂️
 
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Bumblebeetuna

Bumblebeetuna

Member
SEGAvangelist said:
This is what I came here to say as well. If MS/Xbox didn't care about the game and was disappointed in the sales, they just wouldn't say anything because the future of the franchise and the nature of the release wouldn't matter. There is absolutely no reason for Greenberg to lie here.
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Pretty much. But you’re going to see a legion of people who are always negative towards Xbox claim that he is lying. It’s the same people who claimed for years that GamePass is a huge money loser and then when Phil says it’s profitable they have to claim he is lying or engaging in double speak.
 
Topher

Topher

Gold Member
j.k.2021 said:
It does.Their first party games always stay in game pass and there is zero incentive to buy them.That's what they want.Subscriptions over sales.
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Not true. Phil Spencer said Game Pass accounts for no more than 15% of their game content revenue and he does not expect that to change. If Microsoft wanted subscriptions over sales then they would not be selling their games on Steam.
 
Pelta88

Pelta88

Member
j.k.2021 said:
What?Their entire business model now revolves around game pass.Imagine asking about ticket sales from Netflix....🤦‍♂️
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You're so quick to damage control that you forget Netflix actually reports the state of its business in terms of profit, revenue, subscriber growth, and how well their IP is actually doing 4 times a year. Gamepass or even XBOX on the other hand jump through PR hoops to obfuscate the actual state of the XBOX business and hide their stats.
 
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thicc_girls_are_teh_best

thicc_girls_are_teh_best

Gold Member
j.k.2021 said:
So, Tango Gameworks started working on their next big game weeks ago along with expanding their staff means nothing?....Lol.It's not just Greenberg.
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You mean that JRPG which is just rumored and won't even be released for another 4-5 years if it turns out to be true?

Abriael_GN said:
First rule of PR. Debunk rumors only when you can do so with absolute certainty. Otherwise, simply don't comment.

Grubb's clout-chasing bullcrap isn't nearly relevant enough to lie for. It doesn't go anywhere beyond the console warriors on social media and specialized websites, and that's not even close to touching Microsoft's bottom line.
Click to expand...

Grubb is, whether rightly or wrongly, one of the most prominent "insiders" in gaming and has a lot of clout in the space due to that. I do think part of that is him clout-chasing but it doesn't change the fact he has the clout.

That said, I don't think he does it for console warring; personally he seems more like a Nintendo/Microsoft guy, more of the former than the latter, but into the ecosystems of both more so than Sony from what I've noticed. So he wouldn't put out something potentially negative relating to Xbox just for lolz or console wars.

And again, even in this statement there's a lot of PR in Aaron's tweet. What are these "key measurements and expectations"? Are any of these financially-related? If not, then it doesn't actually invalidate Grubb's statement; the game could have met other expectations in say number of downloads or number of people who reached a certain point in the game, but still have sold low relative to expectations for sales and revenue.

It's just impossible to parse that in large part because Aaron is a marketing/PR guy and would not get specific like that in any statement. Gotta obfuscate as much as possible, he learns a good deal of it from Phil.
 
DaGwaphics

DaGwaphics

Member
It's blatantly obvious that MS has to look outside sales alone to judge projects going forward. Probably some mix of tracking subscriptions along with user engagement and things like that. They have largely moved on from the old model even though they continue to support that option.
 
K

Kvally

Banned
j.k.2021 said:
It does.Their first party games always stay in game pass and there is zero incentive to buy them.That's what they want.Subscriptions over sales.
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I buy all of their first party games on day one. Fuck Game Pass. Game Pass is only 10-15% of their revenue anyway. Remember, most people don't have Game Pass, and Phil already said that Game Pass is already at its saturation point at 10-15%.
 
ChiefDada

ChiefDada

Gold Member
HiFi Rush could very well have been a financial success, but that doesn't change the fact that Aaron Greenberg did NOT refute what Jeff Grubb said about the game's financial performance. As others have already said, the definition of "key metrics" is critical here. Remember, this is Xbox we're talking about. It is not unreasonable to say their definition of success has steered away from sales data, and instead focuses on player engagement with it's continued focus on Gamepass.

Tangentially related: Microsoft picked the worst person to deliver the rebuttal if credibility and goodwill is/was of any importance to them in this situation.
 
J

j.k.2021

Banned
thicc_girls_are_teh_best said:
You mean that JRPG which is just rumored and won't even be released for another 4-5 years if it turns out to be true?
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If Hi-Fi Rush was a flop then expanding the studio is the last thing they would be doing.Also, They would be taking time off to change next game from being a flop instead of moving straight to next one.Try using your brain sometimes.It helps.
 
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feynoob

feynoob

Banned
thicc_girls_are_teh_best said:
You mean that JRPG which is just rumored and won't even be released for another 4-5 years if it turns out to be true?



Grubb is, whether rightly or wrongly, one of the most prominent "insiders" in gaming and has a lot of clout in the space due to that. I do think part of that is him clout-chasing but it doesn't change the fact he has the clout.

That said, I don't think he does it for console warring; personally he seems more like a Nintendo/Microsoft guy, more of the former than the latter, but into the ecosystems of both more so than Sony from what I've noticed. So he wouldn't put out something potentially negative relating to Xbox just for lolz or console wars.

And again, even in this statement there's a lot of PR in Aaron's tweet. What are these "key measurements and expectations"? Are any of these financially-related? If not, then it doesn't actually invalidate Grubb's statement; the game could have met other expectations in say number of downloads or number of people who reached a certain point in the game, but still have sold low relative to expectations for sales and revenue.

It's just impossible to parse that in large part because Aaron is a marketing/PR guy and would not get specific like that in any statement. Gotta obfuscate as much as possible, he learns a good deal of it from Phil.
Click to expand...
Even though Aaron words are PR, the guy is more reliable than Grubb.
 
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