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[Yoboman]

Its actually quite impressive how consistently they've gotten it wrong this year

First was the third party game show in May. Something MS hyped up - the first ever games running on next gen consoles. This was to be a huge moment. It ended up being such a disappointment MS had to apologise for mismanaging expectations

Then they had another chance in July. This game showcase was infamously mocked due to Halo and Craig but the overall event felt poorly executed and highlighted how far MSs first party was

The next event was to be September - price, features, Series S etc. Except they lost the reveal to a 1am leak. A complete disaster - and the bad thing for them is it was one of their more positive bits of news. But they really screwed up the marketing again

Otherwise, a lot of information on the platform has been released. But its scattered across social media and blogs that the actual execution and PR generated has been minimal

I think they've done great on the hardware front, but their marketing team should be looking for new jobs

 

[M1chl]

I agree.

 

[Phrixotrichus]

Kind of mindboggling that a multi-billion dollar company is so consistently failing with all their marketing/pr.
How has their marketing team not already been let go....

 

[Mr. PlayStation]

“I think Xbox has done a great job, they’ve got ton of first party studios that are hard at work on creating the most powerful creative games, game pass brings you the best games across 4 generation of consoles and we can’t wait to bring you the fastest and most powerful console in the world at the best price points”

- “

Spoiler: Papa Phil

Kindly read that in Phil’s voice

”

 

[M1chl]

Makes you wonder why their marketing team hasn`t already been completely replaced.

The issue they probably don't have one. If we are not talking about ads obviously. Because all the talking was from the interviews and from the heads of Xbox. Phil Spencer, Greenberg and Major Nelson. But mainly those two. Which caused insanely confusing message, which then resulted in delayed Xbox Showcase, which just showed, that they have zero message and zero vision.

 

[FunkMiller]

It's a department of a much larger company that is under intense and constant pressure to be profitable to keep shareholders happy. It saw its market share dwindle considerably last generation, and knows it has a massive uphill climb if it wants to get ahead again.

They keep making mistakes, because of all of this pressure to succeed, perform, and 'beat the other guy'. They also don't have a clear, unambiguous strategy. This is always terrible for marketing.

Mix in the fact that some senior members of staff act like children (especially those in marketing), and you have a recipe for disaster.

 

[danielJackson]

Indeed.

Also while Playstation have ads on tv, magazines, web banners, sports and so on, I cant remember seeing any xbox ads in last 10 years.

They are like 3/4 dead here and this doesnt help

 

[Spaceman292]

At least it isnt as bad as the beginning of last gen.

 

[MrS]

They still don’t understand that games are the only things that matter to gamers. New games, specifically.

 

[kraspkibble]

i disagree.

sony is the one who hasn't been great. Microsoft have done a good job so far I think. the biggest issue is not getting Halo out for launch but whatever.

tell me, how much is the PS5 and when is it coming out?

 

[The Hamburglar]

Op you missed the fact nothing was shown on a series x

 

[keram]

Its actually quite impressive how consistently they've gotten it wrong this year

First was the third party game show in May. Something MS hyped up - the first ever games running on next gen consoles. This was to be a huge moment. It ended up being such a disappointment MS had to apologise for mismanaging expectations

Then they had another chance in July. This game showcase was infamously mocked due to Halo and Craig but the overall event felt poorly executed and highlighted how far MSs first party was

The next event was to be September - price, features, Series S etc. Except they lost the reveal to a 1am leak. A complete disaster - and the bad thing for them is it was one of their more positive bits of news. But they really screwed up the marketing again

Otherwise, a lot of information on the platform has been released. But its scattered across social media and blogs that the actual execution and PR generated has been minimal

I think they've done great on the hardware front, but their marketing team should be looking for new jobs

It doesn't mater ... Phil is still confident

 

[whitesugar]

MS almost always falter when they have to back up their endless talking

 

[DJT123]

They're not doing a good job marketing. With the services they have on offer they shud be makin' hay.

 

[Yoboman]

i disagree.

sony is the one who hasn't been great. Microsoft have done a good job so far I think. the biggest issue is not getting Halo out for launch but whatever.

tell me, how much is the PS5 and when is it coming out?

Who said anything about Sony?

 

[keram]

i disagree.

sony is the one who hasn't been great. Microsoft have done a good job so far I think. the biggest issue is not getting Halo out for launch but whatever.

tell me, how much is the PS5 and when is it coming out?

Soon, Soony, Tomorrow

 

[-Arcadia-]

The fact that a leak was their only competently executed event of the year, says everything.

Moreover that the information in that leak, about two tweets of content, in their proposed event which has also leaked, would have been stretched out to an hour.

That’s right, an hour to discuss the content of two tweets. This wouldn’t have entirely derailed the good news, but it certainly would have put a damper on it.

When your marketing actively works against your product, it’s time to have a harsh self-analysis, and think about how you can alter your course. Because it needs major alteration.

 

[Rolla]

I actually felt bad for Halo as an IP.

It's a game that holds significance as a pillar of gaming for me, personally. But to see what it has become over time... To the point where today it's ridiculed and dismissed is a surreal thing to experience.

For me, these constant stumbles indicate a problem at the XBOX leadership level.

 

[-Arcadia-]

And for the love of everything, shut Phil up. He will outright lie about events that are a month, or weeks away, like we’ll never find out or notice that none of this is true.

When someone’s whispering in your ear how amazing something is going to be for months, and it’s not amazing at all, that just makes the marketing stumbles that much worse.

 

[ZippyTheOtter]

I think there was a market shift no one was prepared for. Over the last generation, video games became bigger than movies and music dollar wise.

Both those industries are known to be stubborn in their ways. It'll take a while for the money hats to get on board.

To sum up and be on topic, Microsoft's marketing (personally feels like to me) is treating games as a side investment, rather than the powerhouse it could potentially become.

There's some smart cookies there with Game Pass efforts though.

 

[INC]

i disagree.

sony is the one who hasn't been great. Microsoft have done a good job so far I think. the biggest issue is not getting Halo out for launch but whatever.

tell me, how much is the PS5 and when is it coming out?

Why say anything?, when you can sit back and watch the competition hang themselves, like they have been doing.

I wouldnt say a good job at all, apart from the series S price, but even the series S has had nothing but criticism

And your questions will be answered tomorrow (probably), then sony has all the headlines and buzz, and ms isn't gonna be talked about for a few weeks, unless its being compared to Sony.

 

[FunkMiller]

i disagree.

sony is the one who hasn't been great. Microsoft have done a good job so far I think. the biggest issue is not getting Halo out for launch but whatever.

tell me, how much is the PS5 and when is it coming out?

When you have both mind share and market share, you can afford to be quiet... until you’re good and ready to speak.

Sorry, but you can’t equate the position Sony are in going into this generation with the one XBox is in. Marketing Ps5 is frankly a fucking doddle... just say here’s the Ps5, and here are the games on it. Xbox has the harder job of trying to lure all the people back that left last gen because the XBone didn’t have enough exclusive games.

The fact that they’ve decided to just give up on exclusive console games altogether is going to go down as the single dumbest thing anyone has ever done in the video games industry.

 

[Veysetia]

I don't know about that, I'm leaning more towards Xbox than Sony this year and it's because of Microsoft's marketing *shrug*

 

[-Arcadia-]

I actually felt bad for Halo as an IP.

It's a game that holds significance as a pillar of gaming for me, personally. But to see what it has become over time... To the point where today it's ridiculed and dismissed is a surreal thing to experience.

For me, these constant stumbles indicate a problem at the XBOX leadership level.

Halo (specifically 2) felt like the Star Wars of our generation back in the day. There was nothing like it in gaming at the time. It was special and revered beyond anything.

To see it stumble and stumble over a decade, to the point where it’s most notable achievement is creating a meme mocking it, is quite the fall.

343 and the Microsoft leadership that enable them, need a harsh review, and that’s a kindness compared to the hideous job they’ve done.

 

[New Yorks Finest]

God this site is toxic with cancerous warrior haters and their never ending concern threads every..goddamn..day.

OP you a ride or die Sony ? Zip it! We already know.

On or after Nov 10th plus DFs vs analysis OP will be missing in action..facts.

 

[Birdo]

I disagree. Marketing is the only thing they have done right this year. Keeping us fully informed all the way (Unlike you know who).

It's software where they tripped over.

 

[Phrixotrichus]

i disagree.

sony is the one who hasn't been great. Microsoft have done a good job so far I think. the biggest issue is not getting Halo out for launch but whatever.

tell me, how much is the PS5 and when is it coming out?

you`re kind of the only one making this a "vs" thing.
Any ulterior motives?

 

[Yoboman]

I actually felt bad for Halo as an IP.

It's a game that holds significance as a pillar of gaming for me, personally. But to see what it has become over time... To the point where today it's ridiculed and dismissed is a surreal thing to experience.

For me, these constant stumbles indicate a problem at the XBOX leadership level.

I agree, not that I'm a hard-core Halo fan but I have great memories of it when it was a powerhouse and seeing it become a joke is just sad

There is a clear developer management issue there as well. It should have been clear to MS that 343 wasn't ready for launch and that Halo wasn't where it should be for public showing

 

[Ar¢tos]

It's like you don't know it's 2020...
Even companies are affected.

 

[Yoboman]

I disagree. Marketing is the only thing they have done right this year. Keeping us fully informed all the way (Unlike you know who).

It's software where they tripped over.

Keeping us informed is different from generating excitement. Which is the purpose of marketing. There just isn't a lot of excitement for the new Xbox. They should be riding a redemption wave like Sony and Nintendo have managed to do in the past

 

[GHG]

It's crazy to think the series S leak (if not intentional) actually did them a favour.

The video that subsequently leaked which was apparently going to be streamed was terrible on so many levels. Either they realised that and decided to leak it or someone in the organisation took it upon themselves to save them from yet another blunder this year.

It could have been so simple as well, they were getting everything right up until around March this year.

 

[DeltaPolarBear]

It's crazy to think the series S leak (if not intentional) actually did them a favour.

The video that subsequently leaked which was apparently going to be streamed was terrible on so many levels. Either they realised that and decided to leak it or someone in the organisation took it upon themselves to save them from yet another blunder this year.

It could have been so simple as well, they were getting everything right up until around March this year.

All the mistakes they are making, were set in motion at least 4 years ago. What you are really saying, is that they were able to hide the cracks until March, when they were forced to actually deliver on their empty promises.

This isn't some minor stumble, this was a mistake that could have been predicted. And even the very thing you claim was a positive, the Series X, is now in itself a barrier as it makes Series S looks bad.

 

[Vasto]

People see what they want to see.

 

[Humdinger]

They sure do seem to stumble more often than they get it right. It's been evident the whole generation. They've certainly had their PR successes - the Xbox One X, for instance. But there has been a lot of ineptitude there, too. I'm not sure what the cause is, but I just get the impression that the marketing team doesn't have a good handle on how "core gamers" think about things. Part of this is that MS is prioritizing the mainstream market, which is not a great way to approach a new generation, imo.

It's kind of funny to watch them flop sometimes, so I have mixed feelings about it. We've gotten some funny memes from it, lol.

 

[Hendrick's]

It has been mostly positive actually. Too many Sony shills in the media make it seem worse than reality. Still I agree Greenberg should have been let go years ago.

 

[Ass of Can Whooping]

It's pretty amazing after they started so strong coming of the game awards

 

[Bitmap Frogs]

Kind of mindboggling that a multi-billion dollar company is so consistently failing with all their marketing/pr.
How has their marketing team not already been let go....

Greenberg is a trashfire.

 

[Klayzer]

Why say anything?, when you can sit back and watch the competition hang themselves, like they have been doing.

I wouldnt say a good job at all, apart from the series S price, but even the series S has had nothing but criticism

And your questions will be answered tomorrow (probably), then sony has all the headlines and buzz, and ms isn't gonna be talked about for a few weeks, unless its being compared to Sony.

This may come off as being a Sony kool aid sipper, but i think they played this year perfectly. They gave ample amount of time for their last PS4 exclusives to shine without being overshadowed by the PS5 incoming tsunami of news.

Their 3rd party partners games like FF7:R, Nioh2, etc also did well. Everything was up across the board except for hardware sales. Now this last quarter of the year is focused on the PS5.

Objectively looking at their game plan from afar, they are more ready for next-gen than the competition judging just on games that's close to ready for the new systems.

 

[TheAmazingSpiderMan]

MS seem to think shouting 12TF of power is enough marketing. That is what stands out for me from all their supposed ‘marketing’ and that’s why they want people to know.

A shame none of the power has been seen.

 

[Bitmap Frogs]

MS seem to think shouting 12TF of power is enough marketing. That is what stands out for me from all their supposed ‘marketing’ and that’s why they want people to know.

A shame none of the power has been seen.

The last time Xbox knew how you generate hype for a console launch was during the 360 days with the OG team and Peeetah Moore.

They were so fucking good the brand survived a 60% failure rate on the console.

 

[KingConan]

Phil Spencer reminds me of Geoff Keighley whenever a big event is coming up, always hyping it up to the max, even if they don't have much to show. And the trailers of their shows consist of huge "WORLD PREMIERE" prompts (yeah no shit, why should they show old trailers?) and CGI cutscenes instead of actual gameplay.

 

[wipeout364]

I think they have been fine but not great. I also think Sony has pretty much been meh as well. The only thing I have seen that kind of impressed me was the Ratchet and Clank demo. I think if anybody is low on cash they should skip both systems for a year. That said at least with the Series X you will be able to carry your full library forward and sell your one S or One X and put it toward the cost.

Sony has been incredibly quiet about a lot of things which is really odd. Price, backward compatibility, memory expansion price, differences between disc and no disc versions other than the obvious. They certainly are acting like they are the company with most to hide.

 

[pasterpl]

I don’t agree with the op, ms is leading this new gen with lots of transparency, we have seen and know much more about xbsex vs ps5, they do deserve praise for this. They Have delivered 2 game focused events afterwards and these were not that strong, but still quite exciting (some new ips, lots of games to look forward to), the only thing that I would like to see more of was actual gameplay, but this will come.

edit; checks op post history

 

[BlueXImpulse]

i disagree.

sony is the one who hasn't been great. Microsoft have done a good job so far I think. the biggest issue is not getting Halo out for launch but whatever.

tell me, how much is the PS5 and when is it coming out?

Tune in tomorrow.

 

[LokusAbriss]

The reveal of the XSX was pretty cool. Everything in 2020 was a shit show. I would even go so far and say that it was worse than their 2013 E3 reveal.

All the stumbling and confusing messages were lame. Nothing really robust was shown and the important first party titles don't even have a release window.

Still like the products a lot, but the marketing and messaging was exceptionally bad.

 

[LeftThumbstick]

I’d say the opposite actually.

I literally know NOTHING about the PS5 and we’re a month or two from it being on our shelves.

We only found out what it looked like just two month ago while the X had its reveal away back in 2019 iirc. How much does the PS5 even cost? Who knows.

there’s a difference with being disappointed than them stumbling.

 

[Data Ghost]

lets not forget the Xbox price tweet which took them 3 attempts to get the price right. Such schoolboy errors.

Saying that I am really looking forward to the Series X. So much so that if i cant get hold of a PS5 as well due to manufacturing problems/scalpers, I will be perfectly happy with just the one next gen console.

 

[AlexxKidd]

I made this post last Thursday. I actually tried to give them credit for the "leak" because at least they didn't embarrass themselves with their games again lol.

In that sense I agree. After hyping up their May show as "Next gen begins" it ended up being a joke with no gameplay. Their first party showcase in July was a disaster with their reported $500 million Halo launch title looking like something out of 2014. At the very least this week was a "win" for them in that nothing went wrong besides the leak.

I think the trick for Xbox is to not show any games and only focus on hardware and subscription services. Once they start trying to show actual video games everything falls apart.

 

[Rolla]

and CGI cutscenes instead of actual gameplay.

For me, this is a huge problem in our industry/hobby. Used as a quick fix but ultimately, over time, erodes consumer faith. I tend to stay away from companies that rely on it. Haven't purchased a Ubisoft game in years for example.

The contrast of pushing slick CG and the shock that comes with actual gameplay weighs heavily on my gaming soul. It's like a tax on fun. So now when I see CG in place of where gameplay should be or is expected I automatically write the ip off.

On the flip side when a game debuts showcasing slick gameplay I'm all in for day 1. "Arkham Knights" and "Black Myth Wukong" gameplay being two recent examples.

 

[supernova8]

For me it's the whole 'hey look we're hip and cool! meme here meme there! memes everywhere! playful Twitter, let's pretend we're all teenagers!" They cannot seem to take themselves seriously.

It's the small stuff like how Xbox Twitter seems to use emojis far too often to the point it's like "wait this is a big corporation right?" Scrolled through their Twitter and it was every 2 or 3 tweets. For Playstation I literally had to scroll for about 30 seconds before I found any emojis at all.

Also the stuff like Aaron Greenscreen with that Xbox Series X fridge thing. It's hit fever pitch recently, I just find it to be cringe.

Contrast that to Playstation where the big wigs practically never break character, or if they do it's in one of those 'oh shiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiit' moments such as:



When was the last time we had a good commercial from Xbox since the 360 era?

Last one I remember is:



and that's back in like 2005? And Microsoft even chose not to have it on TV - it would've been glorious. Simple but great.