Microsoft Microsoft Employee speaks out

Sara · Jun 20, 2013

I DON'T know if this is real, but this is spreading like wildfire in the Internet. A MS employee who basically was working on the One sent this to a few press gaming sites:

http://www.heyuguysgaming.com/news/12507/heartbroken-xbox-one-employee-lets-rip-must-read

If this is real, I have to say, wow... This would've made the One a ticking time bomb waiting to go off. Can you imagine the reactions to this if the system was released and the main huge feature was declared a demo from 15-45 minutes instead?

I seriously got turned off the system on this news. And I mostly believe it because they're feeding us all this bs all this time and keeping the answers vague. I see it happening.

I also see some MS fan going into rage about the changes and posting this just out of anger on the changes to the One.

If it's fake, which so far they're not doing anything to stop this rumor. I stand where I am. It can be deleted btw if it is fake.

Daydreamer · Jun 20, 2013

It's clearly fake. Just someone trying to ruin Microsoft's reputation further. Purposefully contradictive lies disguised with sincerity.

Edit:
Probably the best comment on that article:

I’m sorry to whichever Xbox employee wrote that emotional piece but just no. I understand that it’s frustrating to be told that all the work you did will not be used, I’m a programmer and can understand that feeling completely.

Having said, the dude said just some wrong statements and shows the complete disconnect from reality their developers must have had. First of all, developers do not see the money from used game sales, at least not directly. Publishers make 98% (with a tiny sliver going to the retailer and to Microsoft as a licensing cost) of the money from the sale of a used game. The developer sees none of that. The developer gets paid a salary to develop the game as any software developer does when they’re making software for a client. In this example the publisher is the client and they pay the developer a consistent salary for the product they produce. Whether the game sells 0 copies or 1 billion the developer got paid for the work they did.

Having said that, publishers have been known to give developers a bonus depending on certain milestones being reached post release (high metacritic scores, number of games sold, that kind of thing). And I’m sure a game that sells well enough to recoup the publisher’s investment in the game will see the developer get more work from that publisher but those are both indirect ways of getting money and aren’t guaranteed in either case. Publishers have also been known to close studios before a game release or fire large amounts of the employees to save costs.

Next, this notion that “people just didn’t understand the positives”….no, we all understood what sharing a software license means. What the person failed to realize is that as long as the physical medium of the disc is around, people don’t want to be forced into a licensing structure. They could have built their architecture the exact same way they did and only have it apply to digital versions of games giving consumers the choice of which kind of media they want to own. A licensed game they can share (under whatever specific sharing plans) but comes with whatever restrictions that entails (no reselling obviously) or a physical disk they can lend, resell, play offline, whatever.

The fact that the guy talked positively about online passes (saying they just weren’t implemented “correctly”, yeah there is no “correctly”, it’s DRM) and season passes has me very skeptical of this person’s motivations (and the a** kissing of publishers that he said “didn’t approach Microsoft”). Season passes work well when the quality of all the DLC content you’re getting is great because then you’re getting a deal on good content. That ideal breaks down when some of the DLC is bad because then you just paid for sh*t ahead of time. That’s not consumer friendly, that’s taking advantage of consumer trust in the developer’s ability to not release s*it content.
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And also this:

I’d like him to explain to me how region locking the Xbone so that it couldn’t be used in places such as Japan would benefit consumers?

He talks about everything being done for “gamers,” but that hardly seems to be the case. Keeping Gears of War as an Xbox exclusive was a win for gamers? Not if you are a gamer with a PC or different console. I personally hate exclusives. I understand why companies get them and use them, but it means if you don’t pick the “right” system, you miss out on a bunch of fun games.

Also, the whole pre-owned games thing was more than gamers screwing publishers out of revenue. Suddenly I can’t lend a game to a friend. I can no longer rent a game to try it out and see if I like it before buying it. And there were no benefits given to justify these changes. The potential for a lower sale price does not mean that publishers were do it, and with the Xbox’s restrictive fees on patches and the way they seem to hate independent developers, I don’t think we could really expect a price drop.

The reason used games are such an issue, is that the publisher’s don’t price competitively. Look at Steam, games that are only months old are reduced to 50% or more in sales, and even regular price drops faster than a console version of the same game. It’s not our fault that the pricing system is so broken for consoles, and we shouldn’t be punished for it. Change the way console games are priced, then we can talk removing used games as options.

Also, he goes into the family share plan, but “sharing” isn’t the right word. If it was sharing, then it wouldn’t only be for 15-45 minutes. I can share a game with a friend for as long as they want it, or until I want it back. Also, he says, “Regardless of where they are in the world.” This is a blatant lie, as if you were in the wrong region of the world, you wouldn’t have access to any games, let alone ones that were shared with you.

I can’t read any more of what this guy says, he’s trying to milk sympathy, but doesn’t get it at all. He doesn’t understand what people were upset over, and he doesn’t understand just how anti-consumer most of the Xbone’s original policies were. He’s comes off as an idiot, and if people this deluded were working at Microsoft, then no wonder the Xbone turned out how it did.
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Fellangel · Jun 20, 2013

Yea this article reeks of fakeness. I seriously do not believe this.

Also, this comment:

Regardless of how cool or how much better the technology is, one simple truth about business remains; you CANNOT sell consumers something they are unwilling to buy. Microsoft must adapt and change to target the needs of the market or risk failing with their product, which is why them changing those policy’s is a good thing.
As even though their ideas may have been interesting, consumers had no interest in them.
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Ars Nova · Jun 23, 2013

If an unemployed twenty-two-year-old could've written a better letter in five minutes, an official Xbox employee wouldn't be caught dead writing that horse hock. That motherf#%ker doesn't work for Microsoft, he works for Run-On Sentencesoft.

Not to mention family sharing sounds really dull and I haven't heard anyone talk about it being exciting.

Vagineer · Jun 23, 2013

This is fake. It would take better than that for me to believe what the guy said. It's just some guy who wants to ruin Microsoft's business.

Sara · Jun 23, 2013

Yeah, sorry guys, I just found an article from IGN it's fake.Took MS long enough to respond to it.

http://www.ign.com/articles/2013/06/21/on-xbox-ones-social-network-canceled-family-share-demos

Plums · Jun 23, 2013

Locked on request of the OP~

/characterlimits2g

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Microsoft Microsoft Employee speaks out

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