It’s About Time We Cut Microsoft Some Slack
By Jordan Helm on November 16, 2015
It’s been nearly two and a half years since the Xbox One’s, quite frankly, disastrous reveal. With it, all the dire public relations Microsoft gave to both press and fans alike around the time speculation and controversy was running off like a snowball mid-avalanche. Safe to say Xbox One did not have the greatest of build-ups and launches as a result. Worse, coupled with Sony’s sheer dominance — if not on its own launch prowess, then on its own equivocal consumer appearance — and how it was (and still is) seen as the preferred choice for the current generation. Obviously, alongside both a PC and Wii U, but that’s just me and my own preferred tastes — you won’t hold that against me, I’m sure.
My point is, 2013 — and all the baggage of brash bollocks and blasphemy it brought with it — equated to nothing short of an open season to criticize Microsoft for all the bad decisions they’d made. And, in much the same fashion, to praise Sony’s opposing such potentially harmful practices. Praise, not celebrate or, God forbid, blindly worship — that’s the underlining detail and point here. Because for all the deviations Xbox and Playstation had two years previous, it’s 2015 and times have changed significantly. Microsoft are in a better, if not dominant, position and with people like Phil Spencer at the helm, Xbox One in both brand and appearance, has changed so significantly it’s almost unfathomable to think this is the same device that had to have Kinect plugged in to even work. And to make this point hit home, that backwards compatibility would never work. Yeh, how times have changed, huh?
I’m not here to blow Microsoft’s trumpet by any means, nor am I going to veer the opposite way and claim Sony are still the superior greater sentience in the pantheon of video game giants. Why? Because I’m not some blindly submissive super-fan having decided to conform to one platform and criticise anything and everything not pertaining to that given publicly-trading company. That, and I feel it’s necessary (finally) to give praise to a company who have set out to at least make their platform as appealing to its target market (be it those already in possession of an Xbox One, or those still undecided) by way of its library, if not through its hardware or any other means. People don’t buy consoles to watch TV…or maybe they do, and I’m amidst an unbeknownst minority even within the vast landscape that is the internet.
There’s no ignoring Xbox One’s disadvantages; the ongoing debate on graphical fidelity and resolution resulting in many a news piece stating a multi-platform title on Microsoft’s console will run at 900p, compared to PS4’s 1080p resolution. But the debate on performance, in conjunction with simply enjoying a game, is a can of worms I really don’t want to pointlessly flood/poison this piece with. The fact is 2015 has seen a respectable affair of releases that, at the very least, make those undecided want to think a little harder on whether an Xbox One, just might, be worth it. Halo 5: Guardians, Rise of the Tomb Raider; both titles receiving unanimous praise despite their minor, though vocally-abhorrent, complaints. And those titles that around the corner: Gears 4, Crackdown 3, Quantum Break. Beyond that: Re-Core, Scalebound…and more resonant, indie releases in the shape of Below and Cuphead most notably – the latter of which I gave high praise and expressed almighty anticipation for during my recent converging on EGX. Yes, some of these titles aren’t completely exclusive, but such a list only makes me genuinely more interested to see what Microsoft have up their sleeves and what they could possibly pull off in the coming months and years.
Yet it’s not always about the games and with Xbox One’s backwards compatibility finally rolling out, I’m more pleased to see Microsoft willing to get some sweet revenge on Sony by way of some rather cheeky promotional material. “Oh, but Sony did it better; they’re just copying off them; my PS4 doesn’t even need games from older consoles for me to enjoy it”. Fair enough, that’s your stance/opinion on the matter, but to focus on Microsoft’s latest little ‘troll’ on Sony a bit more, I prefer a company having a little dig at as much as themselves as well as a competitor — so long as it’s justified and within reason. Besides, what was that one line Phil Spencer ushered during the opening lines of EA 2014? Oh yes: ‘…we share a common purpose with our friends at Sony [and] Nintendo…’
That’s precisely what we need more of in our industry, and by extension, the entire community and culture we’re a part of. Friendliness, respect, admiration for another’s creativity and achievements. Sure, criticise when things go belly up and companies/developers/publishers require calling out and put under the microscope. But none of this no-name, anonymous shit-flinging and console war rubbish. Again, I point to the head of Xbox and recent comments he offered in an interview with GameSpot only a couple of months ago; Mr Spencer saying he finds this behaviour ‘distasteful’. When the head of [maybe] your favourite platform sees next-to-no value in this whole affair, what does that say about the potential disconnect between consumers and creators from the other end?
Microsoft aren’t as evil, wicked, corrupt as some of you might think and if we’re really going to balance this out with a bit of criticism, wasn’t it Sony – during their initial PS4 reveal – that said they would start charging people for their online service? Safe to say their recent line-up hasn’t been as exemplarily as it has been in the past. Couple that with the price of Playstation Plus going up, are Sony really all that invulnerable and immune to, at the very least, some discussion that’s not all sugar-coated and sweet?
Xbox is in a far better position now than it has ever been. It may be lagging behind in sales and (for the long-run perhaps) cursed with the dreaded 900p tag, but I’d be lying if I said I myself haven’t had prolonged moments wherein I’m considering when the best time might be to purchase an Xbox One. This, coming from someone whom still vouched I’d never remotely be interested in Microsoft’s current-generation machine just ten months ago. That, for all my gaming needs, a PC/PS4/Wii U combination was all the hardware I’d never need. Such a drastic shift in both personal thinking and public perspective can be traced all the way back to early 2014 and while some people may have had more light shed on them, we should be praising the entire Xbox team — from PR to developer staff alike — for making that famous one-eighty invert feel less like a brash sign of desperation and more a mature, professional understanding on what we, as a community — as consumers — want the most: games.
Games, games…and more games. I sincerely hope Xbox One will build on what’s been a promising 2015 in the next twelve months. That content from first-party, third-party and other external means can help rebuild the Xbox brand to that of the Xbox 360 heights. Sony did it with the PS3 during the closing years of the seventh generation, whose to say Microsoft can’t do the same? Well, certain corners of the community obviously and that’s where my message-come-request stems from. Let’s recognize all the right Microsoft have done while, indeed, bringing to light any and all wrongs they may still unfortunately deliver. Same goes for Sony, Nintendo, Sega, Ubisoft, Konami (God help us), Square Enix…whoever. Let’s not turn Xbox into this generation’s boogeyman and cut the folks up in Washington some slack
http://www.hardcoregamer.com/2015/11/16/its-about-time-we-cut-microsoft-some-slack/177469/
Personal Note: Yes, I knew it was long so get over it!
