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What memories do you have about Don Mattrick introducing Xbox One?
- Thread starter fireflame
- Start date
lol that's some fine revisionist history you've got there. Microsoft's exclusive lineup was just as bad as Sony's (I'd argue significantly worse, since Sony had some incredible games like Bloodborne and Helldivers), it was nothing to write home about at all. And you do realise Quantum Break came out a month before Uncharted 4, right?
Anyway, on topic. I remember the unveil where they put all the multimedia bullshit front and centre and ended it with some pretty rubbish game demos. The rumours were the elephant in the room but they completely avoided them up until Phil Harrison accidentally let it out during an interview and then the internet exploded. It was mindblowing at the time, such incredible arrogance just because they beat Sony and Nintendo in the US.
I'll put it to you this way: my mother STILL believes the Xbox one is listening in on people.
That's the impact it had, years later!
That's the impact it had, years later!
I remember the DRM policy being so confusingly presented that it made me wonder if they even had a concrete plan in place
Revisionist history much? Quantum Break came out the same time Uncharted 4 did, and we all know how both fared critically and in terms of sales. Whilst it is true the PS4's launch line up was fairly lacklustre, so too was the Xbox One's.
Around the time you're talking (up to 2016), the PS4 exclusives wise had titles like Uncharted 4, Bloodborne, InFamous Second Son, The Last of Us Remastered, Driveclub, Killzone Shadow Fall, The Witness (timed), Final Fantasy XIV, Ratchet and Clank, The Last Guardian, Helldivers, Street Fighter V and more, so it wasn't the complete disaster you make out. Infact, the PS4 arguably had a stronger exclusives line up than the Xbox One, especially if we go by critical reception.
I just remember it being like the biggest WTF ever for a console reveal. I was a 360 fan and I knew right then and there that Microsoft had ceded the generation to Sony. It was one of those how could you be so stupid moments. They've only just recently started to get their credibility back. The whole thing was an utter fiasco.
The only memory I can recall is the one where he basically kneecapped Microsoft by saying something along the lines of, "We have a system for those who don't want to get the Xbox One (or don't have constant internet access), and that's the Xbox 360."
Hell knows that it is thanks to Phil that Microsoft was able to make some kind of recovery, but Don basically gave the PS4 the entire generation before it even started by being a fool with DRM and thinking that the Kinect was going to be "The future of gaming."
Hell knows that it is thanks to Phil that Microsoft was able to make some kind of recovery, but Don basically gave the PS4 the entire generation before it even started by being a fool with DRM and thinking that the Kinect was going to be "The future of gaming."
I think the Xbox One's original vision would not see has much pushback in today's gaming climate.
kind of crazy how a single line can torpedo a billion dollar brand
It was so bizarre. The PS4 had already been revealed with much positivity, so I was sure Microsoft would carefully counter them. They had a few months to prepare and then.... Confusion. I was perplexed but how little they offered.
The irony of it is that Google Stadia is Don Matricks original vision taken in an even worse direction.
I invited a couple of friends over for the reveal. I just sat there thinking wtf is this shit? Where are the games? At the end we just sat there with nothing to say.
At that point I switched over to PS4 being my main platform. I did eventually go back to Xbox around the time BC was announced.
I was also stunned at the focus on Cable, since even back then it was apparent to me that video streaming was where it was at. If they built a great gaming machine as a first priority it would be able to handle streaming apps no problem.
At that point I switched over to PS4 being my main platform. I did eventually go back to Xbox around the time BC was announced.
I was also stunned at the focus on Cable, since even back then it was apparent to me that video streaming was where it was at. If they built a great gaming machine as a first priority it would be able to handle streaming apps no problem.
I hope, but I have some issues in my personal life that is killing a lot of my interests. Reading, doing martial arts, video games, etc. I just built a computer with an i7-8700K CPU and 2080 GPU. Hope it will last me some years.
Yeah, somehow a Sony video was the most memorable part of Microsoft's reveal.
Don Mattrick also ran Zynga into the ground right after. Not without pocketing around 18 million dollars for leaving though. I wonder what company/brand he is destroying right now.
Do we know this for a fact?
The only rumour I had heard was that Sony was going to pack in the camera originally, but cut it at the last minute.
Although the camera did make its way into the Killzone launch day bundle (which is what I bought)
Don Mattrick and Terry Myersons were the worst 1/2 combo in gaming history. As awful as Mattrick was for vision and communication, it Terry Myerson who wanted Xbox to go away and starved the brand from recovery intentionally. Mattrick put Xbox in the emergency room. Myerson went in the emergency room and tried to finish the job by choking it out.
2008 to late 2017. That's the Mattrick/Myerson combo. Step back and look at the start of the decline and near death of the brand. Not a coincidence.
The Xbox One reveal by Mattrick in 2013 wasn't the start or end of anything. It was the eye of the storm. Fortunately the storm passed when Myerson left only recently.
2008 to late 2017. That's the Mattrick/Myerson combo. Step back and look at the start of the decline and near death of the brand. Not a coincidence.
The Xbox One reveal by Mattrick in 2013 wasn't the start or end of anything. It was the eye of the storm. Fortunately the storm passed when Myerson left only recently.
I mean E3 2011 and 2013 where he put the XBOX brand in the IR and Sony just took back the crown like it was nothing.
He almost killed MS, got a package, jumped to Zynga, killed it, got a fat package.
Meanwhile, Phil Harrison is saving the XBONE and prepping Scarlett to not be another XBONE reveal.
He almost killed MS, got a package, jumped to Zynga, killed it, got a fat package.
Meanwhile, Phil Harrison is saving the XBONE and prepping Scarlett to not be another XBONE reveal.
Sadly my man Don killed the console and a big part of the brand that day, it hasn't recovered since then and probably will take a while to.
But well, with a new generation hopefully we will start in a blank state and my man Phil is doing good work there. Let's hope the next Xbox Vs the PS5 have a equal userbase!
But well, with a new generation hopefully we will start in a blank state and my man Phil is doing good work there. Let's hope the next Xbox Vs the PS5 have a equal userbase!
I remember a massive over reaction on the internet.
I'm not what you would call a hardcore gamer, and I'm one of the few people that loved Kinect. I also didn't mind the changes to DRM ( I have a 100% digital library) yet talking about how excited I was for the console was met with abuse.
I had to stay off the internet that week.
I'm not what you would call a hardcore gamer, and I'm one of the few people that loved Kinect. I also didn't mind the changes to DRM ( I have a 100% digital library) yet talking about how excited I was for the console was met with abuse.
I had to stay off the internet that week.
pretty much just this and finding out he wasn't the dad from Full House.
other than that xbox made it clear I was not their customer, so I more or less ignored him.
This got clouded by the always online talk, and I got a taste of the always online thing on the 360, and it did not taste good. After a RROD repair I received a new/refurbished 360, and it wasn't connected to the digital games I had bought. I had to be online to play the games, which at the time was difficult because I had just moved and didn't have internet.This was before you could transfer the licenses yourself, eventually I had to write down all my games (about 100 XBLA titles) and call the support and get them transfered to the new console one by one.
Right, but initially didn't they say it only had to do an online check every 7 days? If it was every 5 minutes that's a different story, but if you only had to connect to the internet AT LEAST ONCE in 7 days, that would work for most people.
I remember thinking that if they could have put it in a box offered by cable providers it would've been a surefire hit. I was surprised at the outrage on the Internet over having to use the Internet on a game console whose reason for being was using the Internet.
The craziest thing was, the dystopic vision of publisher control, of physical games being license checks on what amounted to a digital copy where half the fun was tied to if you had an Internet connection, that came to pass. Most games released this gen had extensive patches on day 1 to add multiplayer, graphics settings, or essential bugfixes, you need the internet to play single player games at this point.
I couldn't imagine a person who was in the market for a 500 dollar console who didn't have internet, and I was optimistic about Kinect, mostly because I'd never used one. I was excited about the controller, since it looked comfortable and pretty much like a refinement of what worked before. I always was surprised at how badly they messaged it.
Honestly the name was, if anything, dumber and less marketable than Wii U, which could have been marketed well, if the kooky meth addicts who did Nintendo's marketing then had the good stuff.
They fumbled selling people on:
A) a continuation of what was selling already. Being marginally less powerful than the PlayStation 3 didn't stop the 360 and the kinect was selling like crazy
B) that did the things people did the most with the 360 (boring ass games and TV)
C) using Xbox live, a service so integral to the console that its name implies that it is the living breath within the fancy plastic box
Microsoft has the worst marketing team and the most tasteless, uncharismatic executives in the industry, which is really an accomplishment in its own right, is my ultimate takeaway from the Xbone reveal
The craziest thing was, the dystopic vision of publisher control, of physical games being license checks on what amounted to a digital copy where half the fun was tied to if you had an Internet connection, that came to pass. Most games released this gen had extensive patches on day 1 to add multiplayer, graphics settings, or essential bugfixes, you need the internet to play single player games at this point.
I couldn't imagine a person who was in the market for a 500 dollar console who didn't have internet, and I was optimistic about Kinect, mostly because I'd never used one. I was excited about the controller, since it looked comfortable and pretty much like a refinement of what worked before. I always was surprised at how badly they messaged it.
Honestly the name was, if anything, dumber and less marketable than Wii U, which could have been marketed well, if the kooky meth addicts who did Nintendo's marketing then had the good stuff.
They fumbled selling people on:
A) a continuation of what was selling already. Being marginally less powerful than the PlayStation 3 didn't stop the 360 and the kinect was selling like crazy
B) that did the things people did the most with the 360 (boring ass games and TV)
C) using Xbox live, a service so integral to the console that its name implies that it is the living breath within the fancy plastic box
Microsoft has the worst marketing team and the most tasteless, uncharismatic executives in the industry, which is really an accomplishment in its own right, is my ultimate takeaway from the Xbone reveal
I also remember when pre orders for both went live, PS4 was killing Xbox one. It wasn't long after that Microsoft backpedaled on pretty much everything from the original reveal.
So, is Phil "Two Watches" Spencer a regular occurrence I have just never noticed or was it a special one-off fashion statement for this special day?
I thought it was all really fascinating, how such a large company could get it so wrong. The amount of goodwill they burnt through in such a short amount of time from the successful 360 era was mind boggling. The entire thing (not just from Mattrick either) felt rushed, as MS execs were all giving different answers to the press on some of the big questions, or simply leaving it as 'we'll have more to share later', which didn't help things.
If it's just a quick ping, then absolutely, unless you actually don't have internet for whatever reason. Today I think it would work better, but at the time it wasn't a good idea to sell the system imo. The used games scenario was big as well, and Sony obviously took advantage of that in their PS4 PR.
What is he doing nowadays? Just living the life in his mansion? He had a short stint at Zynga after he left Microsoft.