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Machiavellian on 15 January 2023
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Ryuu96 said:
Machiavellian said:

This has nothing to do with me, I am speaking about the event itself and the audience that will be watching it.  The funny part is that I have read countless complaining on here about how MS has delivered nothing, shown nothing and need to impress this year with their games and then we get an event that doesn't cater to exactly the audience MS is trying to impress.  

As I stated, it really does not matter how clear MS is on what the event is, its not what the audience want.  This is the time to set the stage for the first half of the year.  If this event is not regulated by someone who specialize in presentations it's going to be a pain to watch.  I have been on way to many of these developers presentations to understand that how developers see express their content and how the gamer does is 2 different things.  Either way lets come back to this discussion after the event.

MS are not in the same position as Sony and Nintendo.  That is the problem, MS does not command the same attention, expectation or direction between Sony and Nintendo and trying to just do what they do, is not enough, they need to exceed expectations when you are in last place that you cannot even see the other 2.

Meh. I don't care what people who can't read think, I'm not sure why we should care either if we're personally looking forward to it and I see a lot of Xbox fans in the circles I browse who are looking forward to it on the basis of it just being those 4 titles. I'm looking forward to seeing more of Redfall, especially after that FarCry comparison, it absolutely needs a deep dive since there is still a lot of confusion surrounding it.

I'm also looking forward to Minecraft Legends, I always watch the ESO reveal events as well so I'm looking forward to that too, I don't care about Motorsport but that's okay, not every single thing in an event has to be catered to me. I absolutely can't wait until the Starfield showcase and I'm imagining an Avowed or Fable one in the future and would absolutely love those too.

The audience that will be watching it will be a hardcore Xbox audience, this event isn't aimed at having millions of eyes on it, it's not E3, it's aimed at an audience who are actually interested in seeing gameplay and not just marketing fluff with dozens of games announced via CG trailers which we don't see again for years.

You say it's not what the audience wants, I'm saying if it isn't what someone wants then they can just simply not watch it, Microsoft has made very clear what type of event this is, that does matter, they can make the decision now if they're interested in that or not, this event isn't for them, it's for the audience that actually wants to see gameplay.

This event literally is setting the stage for the 1st half of the year by focusing on 3 of Xbox's titles releasing in the 1st half of the year, actually showing us some gameplay for them and most importantly giving us release dates for them. Something we've been asking Microsoft to do, actually have a damn 1st half line-up and actually show us it, Lol.

Developers talking over gameplay is infinitely better than a show hosted by marketing folk.

As I said, it's okay to not be interested in this event but you can't say that Microsoft haven't been very clear on what to expect beforehand so if anyone goes into it and complains about a lot of gameplay from those 4 titles then they only have themselves to blame. People already have a show where Microsoft will announce dozens of things, E3.

I'm looking forward to it and I'd be looking forward to future events like this even if they have no new announcements because quite frankly Xbox has far too much already announced and people have been complaining for years now that they just want to see gameplay for the announced stuff. What I've wanted for years now is for Microsoft to actually tell and show us what we have to look forward to in the near future on a consistent basis.

If I wasn't personally interested in Starfield, I wouldn't watch the Starfield showcase but it doesn't mean it's a terrible idea, it just means it isn't catered to my personal interests. This Direct represents a change in Microsoft's marketing that I'm very much looking forward to wherein they actually advertise and show off their games properly and we finally have consistent things to talk about and look forward to in the near future.

Look at the sheer amount of stuff that Xbox already has announced, I look forward to having Directs on those in the future, a Direct focused on Indiana Jones? Sounds great, a Direct which has Perfect Dark, Avowed, State of Decay 3 as the focus? Sounds awesome, etc. I don't know their schedule but I really want deep dives into some of these titles when the time is right.

This is not about customers reading what the event is about, its about selling a system which is the Series Xbox and games to customers. You do not need to sell to the hardcore, they either already have a Series Xbox or are getting one. If MS focus is only on the hardcore  they will totally miss the window to impress customers looking for their next system.  Also I believe you are missing my point.  I am not making this point on a personal level, I will be watching the event because I like developer lead demos but as a developer I also have been through a lot of these during my career.  At one company I worked for they found out real quick how customer's perceived these type of events and they made sure to have a developer lead conference and a customer conference.  I did presentations for both events and even though the topic was the same for both, we had to drastically change the content for the different audience.  Look towards how Apple does these things to get a better picture.

From my point of view this event looks rushed.  Its like MS got all this negative feedback from the game awards for not showing anything so they decided to throw this event together.  Such events never go very well because it takes months to really get a good showing.  During our conference we planned these things for months, show demos to different groups of people and measured a lot of feedback to tighten our presentation.  There is always 2 people doing these presentations, one is the developer and the other is the product manager.  The developer brings the knowledge of the product, the product manager brings the knowledge of the customer and their expectations.  Its a delicate balance that takes a lot of time to get right and I feel this even is way to soon.  Now if MS has been working on this for months then that would be great but if its something thrown together since the end of January then I do not have high hopes on its impact.  

Reading a lot of different forums, even though MS has a lot of stuff coming, its not making a big impression on future consumers.  It not hitting where it should and interest is at a all time low.  I consider myself a hardcore Xbox consumer since its my main console but MS really do not need to sell to me.  I am going to play Redfall, Minecraft Dungeon and Forza because they are coming to GP.  MS need to sell to future customers why those games are worth their money because Sony and Nintendo still have impressive games hitting the market as well and lets not forget Sony has PS + Which is getting good content.  I still believe it pales compared to GP but it might be good enough.  Sony is ramping up production and MS want consumers who walk into a store look at both devices and choose the series console.