With Microsoft’s Xbox One reveal only a week old, since then, the Internet has seemingly been ablaze with anti Xbox stories and how evil Microsoft might turn out to be with its new and unrevealed policies. There’s a lot of speculation, and it’s perhaps some of the bigger websites that are spinning a more open minded attitude towards the Xbox One. However, there’s one voice that can’t be ignored as an Internet reader, and that’s those who claim to be fellow gamers on various message boards and comment sections. These are the supposed real people, the target audience so to speak, but with complete freedoms to say what they like in the absence of no journalistic integrity attached, they are not bound by the same rules as similar gamers who work for websites.
If an outsider were to solely focus on what’s being said in various comments, it would be easy to conclude that vast numbers of gamers are not happy with the Xbox One’s potential at the moment despite Microsoft’s constant claim that E3 2013 will be the real revelation. Whilst now it has reached far beyond just showing off a few games and reeling in the core gamers, there’s a shift in focus on the hardware and how Microsoft intends to deal with the speculative arguments thrown up against it. However, there’s one massive factor that many fail to recognize what with the online petitions and forum/ comments solidarity core gamers seem to have.
Microsoft isn’t worried at all.
From all the vocal ramblings beaming around the Internet, Xbox One has bigger fish to fry, and whilst many of the comments are negative, people are still talking about the Xbox One console. Imagine, post reveal a complete silence on the matter and how that would actually spell a greater PR disaster than what is purported to be now. No, Microsoft has gained momentum from all the news articles, editorials and user comments making the Xbox One hot property in the face of all its often warranted criticism. It seems weird, but the reality is, Xbox has a massive fanbase what with 70 million odd units sold of the Xbox 360. How many of those customers sit on website forums or post comments on popular websites each day bringing their fears and concerns to the public sphere? Not many – and it’s this fact that Microsoft is not spilling the beans and bowing down to the vocal minority until it’s ready to.
Xbox One is being talked about a lot on the Internet, but as a games console about to be released, anticipation is high as there is evidence which suggests it’s the most desirable item on online stores such as Amazon. It’s certainly not the Internet moaners adding the console to their wishlists, but masses of people who are genuinely excited for the new console regardless of its negative connotations. There’s faith, that Microsoft won’t let the consumer down considering its successes with the Xbox 360 and after all its problems – which were overcome. Following the most dire situation of the RRoD, Microsoft still pulled through, even though the Internet would have you believe it was the end of the company in the console market.
E3 is a massive platform, with far greater magnitude than a small reveal on Microsoft’s home turf. The eyes of the world will be watching and in attendance, and it’s here where Microsoft will detail its plans with the Xbox One and showcase its software amidst some stiff competition from Sony and Nintendo. The Internet is very much about the here and now, and so a few weeks might seem like an age away when in reality it’s not at all. What has to be put into perspective here is that Microsoft have had plenty of time to build for this moment, will have foreseen some of the backlash and will move forwards accordingly.
The fact remains that there are likely to be millions of consumers who don’t care about Kinect being mandatory and always watching (even though this has been debunked several times now), who won’t be bothered by having to be connected to the Internet, and not caring about whether they can trade in games or not; and those that are concerned will either accept the terms of the console or simply not buy one when it releases – the fundamental choice of what to buy hasn’t been taken away.
