MS Cancels 1 on 1 Interviews with GB, GI.biz, Tapezilla...MCV?: "Scheduling conflict"

Sean said:
Microsoft is in between a rock and a hard place. The execs are gonna get asked hard questions about the specifics of their DRM implementation, the power gap between PS4/Xbone, downclocking rumors, Kinect privacy issues, you name it.

From there the interview goes one of three ways:
1) They'll most likely spin their responses with stuff like "power of the cloud" or silly quotes like "if you're backwards compatible you're backwards!" and get shit on and laughed at.
2) On the slim chance that they do happen to answer honestly it'll backfire with headlines like "Microsoft exec admits PS4 more powerful".
3) And if they don't answer a question they'll get flack from the "details TBA lolol" crowd.

The only way to avoid the inevitable shitstorm is by either not saying anything at all or being more selective about which exec does the talking and who they talk to.
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I agree. They will be setting themselves up to have their heads taken off if they do these interviews.

IMO, they are waiting for Sony to spill all of its details before they start trying to explain anything.

It makes sense from a strategy perspective if they believe that both consoles will have similar systems in place. If they are right, saying nothing will shift some of the heat they are receiving onto Sony.
 
thumb said:
When you are inevitably given a vague answer or a "not talking about that" line, don't just dutifully write it down, FOLLOW UP.

Say something like:

"Our readers are very upset about these issues and they will not be satisfied by these answers. Do you understand that failing to provide details lets people imagine the worst possible scenarios?"

Get them on the record about this stuff. Make them uncomfortable if you have to. Make them state, in the affirmative, that they understand the damage they are doing.
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this isn't how you ask questions as a journalist. it's stating fact where there is none and injecting your opinion into the discussion.
 
PanicFreak said:
I agree. They will be setting themselves up to have their heads taken off if they do these interviews.

IMO, they are waiting for Sony to spill all of its details before they start trying to explain anything.

It makes sense from a strategy perspective if they believe that both consoles will have similar systems in place. If they are right, saying nothing will shift some of the heat they are receiving onto Sony.
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What is their left to explain they laid out their plans. It is basically everything that was rumored.
 
PanicFreak said:
I agree. They will be setting themselves up to have their heads taken off if they do these interviews.

IMO, they are waiting for Sony to spill all of its details before they start trying to explain anything.

It makes sense from a strategy perspective if they believe that both consoles will have similar systems in place. If they are right, saying nothing will shift some of the heat they are receiving onto Sony.
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A lot of it is tackled here:

http://news.xbox.com/2013/06/main
 
sykoex said:
Gerstmann responds to 1-on-1 cancellations.

http://blog.jeffgerstmann.net/post/52324436702/still-think-microsoft-canceling-things-is-no-big-deal

0EXolp2.jpg
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Man, why does Jeff always have to be such a dick when he talks to non- industry people.
 
REMEMBER CITADEL said:
In a way, it's both amazing and sad that this is a 17 page thread. Something like this would be unimaginable just several years ago, since the general public wouldn't even be privy to this information. Gaming blogs, Twitter, Pastebin and other similar outlets, GAF included, changed the game entirely and made everything more transparent. That's certainly a good thing - in theory. On the other hand, Pachter, Jaffe, Gerstmann and others are completely right; most gamers don't really understand jack shit about this industry and how it functions, and this wealth of information that is suddenly available to us leads to misunderstanding, overreaction, bickering, fanboy warfare and formation of crackpot theories more often than not. I honestly can't tell if we're better or worse off in this brave new information-laden world.
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Pretty off-topic: The history of transparency is very interesting. Transparency, a trend that would have been considered universally good mere decades ago, is slowly beginning to undermine trust and inhibit its development, -- something pretty fundamental to societies. The mechanization of social interactions is progressing at a rapid speed. Nowadays, we oftentimes consider people/institutions/movements the mute bearers (or targets) of the information everyone else formed about them; they're almost never allowed to be the ones to pass them on to us themselves, in a way where their personality/idiosyncrasy isn't blotted out. The latter would require trust and a relationship in which both parties are subjects, not objects, something transparency can't allow. Something our egomaniacal society can't allow.
 
Bpatrol said:
Man, why does Jeff always have to be such a dick when he talks to non- industry people.
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When your career is based on the lowest form of journalism in the entire world, even lower than tabloid magazines, you have to make yourself feel superior to someone.
 
Yeah, I love Jeff Gerstmann. But this is the first time I've ever lost respect for him.

That's an awful reply. He'd have probably been better off just not replying.

I get the impression they get annoyed by being caught up in the politics of the game industry.
 
It's really not a big deal. I wonder if they are now doing an exclusive interview with one outlet now. My company does the same thing, the difference is that the media that covers oil and gas doesn't run to twitter when cancellations happen. But things like this happen. Another thing may be PR seeing how terrible the execs did at the reveal and deciding the less interviews the better or none at all. I remember us making sure the CEO of our company didn't speak after an event.

Everything is not a conspiracy or designed to hide the truth. It's just how things happen. I am not trying to talk down to anyone or act like I know more than you. Just conveying what happens behind the scenes. For a "journalist" to run to twitter because an interview got cancelled is pretty damned unprofessional. It happens every single day.
 
I dont think it has anything to do with not wanting to talk to a specific group of people for the fear of being asked tough questions. Places like GB and MCV arent gonna go up against MS on behalf of the consumers. Thats laughable. They would softball their questions, writeup whatever is said without any tough follow ups and mail the article/video/PRblog back to their site.

These arent the people that will cause them headaches.

It does sound like scheduling problems. Or maybe something else.
 
This is the thing, I feel exactly as Bosman said.

Look at Steve Jobs at Apple conferences. It's conversational.

Companies that aren't adapting to these new communicational paradigms.

Viewers are watching a livepstream, and want to see a personality. They'll believe someone genuine. They KNOW, when something is planned and executed.

We value transparency. And there's been NONE from this stupid situation.
 
Its very, very clear they want to control the message. They will only speak to sites where they know they can.

expect major coverage from polygon.
 
LiquidMetal14 said:
Period. There are some in this thread that are reasoning to see some good in this.
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Yup. I honestly believe Microsoft is gonna shutup, and release this thing in November to the ignorant masses and hope they don't realize or care about all this shit and they can get away with it. Neogaf and gaming site readers are the minority of console buyers after all...

Or they could be waiting to see the response they get from E3 and think over the summer on what they are going to do. Though I think the former is more likely to happen.
 
Don't really see anything wrong with Jeff's response. Non-committal? Sure, but he also doesn't have to put up with people throwing lowkey insults at him either.
 
REMEMBER CITADEL said:
In a way, it's both amazing and sad that this is a 17 page thread. Something like this would be unimaginable just several years ago, since the general public wouldn't even be privy to this information. Gaming blogs, Twitter, Pastebin and other similar outlets, GAF included, changed the game entirely and made everything more transparent. That's certainly a good thing - in theory. On the other hand, Pachter, Jaffe, Gerstmann and others are completely right; most gamers don't really understand jack shit about this industry and how it functions, and this wealth of information that is suddenly available to us leads to misunderstanding, overreaction, bickering, fanboy warfare and formation of crackpot theories more often than not. I honestly can't tell if we're better or worse off in this brave new information-laden world.
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Isn't it the gaming's press job to explain how the industry works? Oh that's right. They haven't done that job in a long long time. They want to blame the gaming public as being misinformed. Maybe they should inform them, then. Being the press and all that.
 
10k said:
Yup. I honestly believe Microsoft is gonna shutup, and release this thing in November to the ignorant masses and hope they don't realize or care about all this shit and they can get away with it. Neogaf and gaming site readers are the minority of console buyers after all...
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The flawed part of Microsoft's strategy is that, aside from Wii emulation strategy*, it'll still have the price of a new system** that will only really sells to the minority found on sites like Gaf. And at the moment it's alienating this audience. Here's hoping the system tanks (as these policies are awful. Hopefully Sony's approach will remain as it is and ignore the DRM & online checking bullshit, otherwise they too can shove it).

*Lower specced, relying on TV aka mainstream focus
**360 launch price, which iirc didn't begin to take off until later in it's life (certainly not in the first few years)
 
I can't really fault MS even though it is shady. I mean why bother with interviews if it's just going to be the same questions about DRM, always online, used games, etc.

The fault rests with whoever agreed to put these features into the X1 and the game publishers that lobbied for it. Now if Sony ends up having a similar feature then i'm sure MS will crawl out of their little shell.
 
Silly.Mikey said:
Made by itself + a forum that is mostly pro-Sony = this is what you get. Yes some stuff does deserve backlash but the amount of MS hate and name calling on this forum is insane.
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Every time I read this forum is pro-Sony I remember the countless vita threads last year. Just because people have high expectations for the PS4 doesn't mean this forum is "mostly pro-Sony".
 
Bpatrol said:
Man, why does Jeff always have to be such a dick when he talks to non- industry people.
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Because people like:

MooseKing said:
When your career is based on the lowest form of journalism in the entire world, even lower than tabloid magazines, you have to make yourself feel superior to someone.
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This.

Let's not kid ourselves, there has been a lot of bad blood between enthussiasts, press and developers.

But Jeff is being fair.
 
TheBaronOfNA said:
Because people like:



This.

Let's not kid ourselves, there has been a lot of bad blood between enthussiasts, press and developers.

But Jeff is being fair.
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Jeff was kind of an asshole to one of the guys first. He just asked a normal question.

"gangstagames asked:
Does Microsoft cancelling the post-E3 roundtable mean anything?

That thing was so important that I hadn’t even heard about until right this second!!!11"


Was that sarcastic tone necessary?
 
dongasaurus said:
Guys, this doesn't matter.

It's about the games.
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Well considering my biggest way to play most games is through renting and with the XBone not supporting rentals (yet), this is kind of a huge deal to me.

Some of the features they've talked about are great, yes. I play my 360 all the time over my PS3. But they're opening up a huge can of worms with this one. And this has already made my choice extra easy as to what machine I'm going to buy come this fall.

And if things don't get better from Microsoft, I'll actually not buy a console for once. And that's a pretty big deal for me since for as long as I've had a job, I've made sure to own every console and handheld (minus the dozens of iterations Nintendo likes to put out, I just keep to basic one).
 
Mikey Jr. said:
Jeff was kind of an asshole to one of the guys first. He just asked a normal question.

"gangstagames asked:
Does Microsoft cancelling the post-E3 roundtable mean anything?

That thing was so important that I hadn’t even heard about until right this second!!!11"


Was that sarcastic tone necessary?
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Jeff has being sarcastic since... the beginning of time.
 
That guy shouldn't have called Jeff an asshole, but there is a lot of anger and confusion out there now. People misdirect anger when they are pissed off.
 
TheBaronOfNA said:
You don't visit his Tumblr very much, don't you?
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Not really. But these are the people that visit his site, pay for his memberships, click his ads, watch his videos.

He picks and chooses those questions. There is no reason for the sarcastic tone, especially if someone asks a very normal question, which that guy did.
 
this is history in the making, chaps. First time I'm seeing such...confusing events, to keep it polite
 
Jesus. Nintendo fucked up bad leading up0to the WiiU launch and are hopefully about to turn it around but as bad as Nintendo did Microsoft took fucking it up to a whole new level

Sadly I think MS wont get as impacted early on as Nintendo due to dudebros.

Microsoft will send 500+ million to make sure they control the message this fall
 
richisawesome said:
So, let me guess - Polygon and IGN still have their interviews?
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They can't cancel the interviews with the large outlets for fear of the backlash it could cause. If those outlets aren't getting information and interviews they don't have any reason to pull punches because they don't have to curry favor with MS.

The smaller outlets don't have that luxury. MS needs to limit bad exposure as much as possible with all the bad pr floating out there so the small outlets can fall by the wayside without much impact. A lot of the smaller outlets won't push back too hard because they're in a more precarious position and they need access to MS even more than the large outlets. So most of them will pull punches and stay mum in the hopes that they'll get full access at a later date.

Add in the smart move to release the details on renting, lending, and used games BEFORE E3 and it seems they're hoping that that turd will be buried under the upcoming onslaught of E3 news and won't be revisted. Knowing most outlets won't revisit something that old without some new tidbit, which MS won't provide, they'll minimize the negative impact of the anti-consumer moves they're taking. It's the EA-Sim City silence strategy taken to a new level and it'll probably work unless the press stands up and really keeps hounding MS.
 
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