DF Retro EX: Xbox One Reveal Revisited - Is 'TVTVTV' As Bad As You Remember?

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Continuing our look back at noted console reveals, Rich Leadbetter, John Linneman and Alex Battaglia tackle one of the biggest reveal disasters of all-time. Join the team as they return to May 2013 to revisit the unveiling of the Xbox One, the full debut of Kinect 2.0, the bizarre emphasis on watching TV, the baffling lack of game content and so much more.
 
In hindsight, having this reveal being so close to E3 forced them to hold back showing a lot of games which certainly didn't help. If they would have been just one event evenly split it wouldn't of come across nearly as bad.

The stuff with using kinnect to go full screen by pulling the window full screen is still so cringe. Why would anyone want to do that?

All you people watching Netflix on your Xbox are to blame!
 
Like many concepts from Microsoft they were too early and too clumsy. A digital only console would sell just fine to folks today.

if only Microsoft had removed the initial online checkin and the requirement for all profiles to be online profiles (aka gone back to a regular offline console like the 360, PS4, and switch) I would have still considered a purchase.
 
Like many concepts from Microsoft they were too early and too clumsy. A digital only console would sell just fine to folks today.

if only Microsoft had removed the initial online checkin and the requirement for all profiles to be online profiles (aka gone back to a regular offline console like the 360, PS4, and switch) I would have still considered a purchase.

I am in the very small minority that I actually liked their ideas for discs becoming more like a digital key but it doesn't matter when the way they talked about it was so ass backwards. I still wonder if they would have made it super easy to understand and thought it through a bit more (the plans were still clearly not finalized as they had no answer to how trading in games will work) I wonder if it would of been received better.
 
John made a very good point on that video. I remember before they release this event, many gamings sites and gaming forums was talking that bullshit about analysts saying mobile gaming and facebook would destroy traditional console games and John mention Microsoft could did this event as a countermeasure to this sittuation, like they're really believing in that analysts crap. Other thing they mention, Microsoft collection data from your Xbox 360 and discover most of the users spend time on their Xbox 360 watching Netflix. Well, was the recipe for disaster.
 
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I'll never forget it. Phil and Co made an absolute show of themselves up on stage. Talk shit the whole 360 gen then started off the next with this. Comedy gold.
 
I am in the very small minority that I actually liked their ideas for discs becoming more like a digital key but it doesn't matter when the way they talked about it was so ass backwards. I still wonder if they would have made it super easy to understand and thought it through a bit more (the plans were still clearly not finalized as they had no answer to how trading in games will work) I wonder if it would of been received better.

Yes messaging was a large part of the problem for them.

I can tell you how they universally would have gotten their online utopia to be 100% Approved though... make it optional.

They had a bunch of vague borrowing digital copieS, people speculated reselling digital stuff. In the end they should have done that only for digital. It would have been quite the carrot. Also. Everyone loves playing online game's together. No need to force those that didn't even want to be there.

tl;dr: hamfisted
 
The stuff with using kinnect to go full screen by pulling the window full screen is still so cringe. Why would anyone want to do that?

I did it all the time, and it's one of the features that I miss the most on the dashboard. It's the equivalent of swiping from the edge of the screen on a smartphone or tablet, so you can display all the active apps. It's quite common on any multitasking system, and very convenient. And it makes sense you need a gesture to provide that function on a "natural interface" system, instead of having to reach for a controller/remote and browse menus.
 
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I did it all the time, and it's one of the fearures that I miss the most on the dashboard. It's the equivalent of swiping from the edge of the screen on a smartphone or tablet, so you can display all the active apps. It's quite common on any multitasking system, and very convenient. And it makes sense you need a gesture to provide that function on a "natural interface" system, instead of having to reach for a controller/remote and browse menus.

Well clearly I am in the wrong then. I was never able to get any of the gestures to work in my household. Voice control was always sublime though.

Yes messaging was a large part of the problem for them.

I can tell you how they universally would have gotten their online utopia to be 100% Approved though... make it optional.

They had a bunch of vague borrowing digital copieS, people speculated reselling digital stuff. In the end they should have done that only for digital. It would have been quite the carrot. Also. Everyone loves playing online game's together. No need to force those that didn't even want to be there.

tl;dr: hamfisted

People still ilke to claim it couldnt play used games which is flat out wrong, but again the messaging was so bad that people just ran with it. The meme's were sublime though.
 
At least a focus on other media means Xbox can play HEVC video from NTFS drives :lollipop_smiling_face_eyes:
glares at PS4 :lollipop_angry_face:
 
That console reveal was awful. I still purchased it at launch because all my friends were on Xbox. I was so disappointed with it and I felt like I threw money away on it.
 
Very interesting. I've only watched 25 minutes during lunch but two things I picked out so far.

1) If all the data Microsoft had suggested most people were watching Netflix on their 360, was this because people were buying the console as an alternative set top box to do so rather than for gaming? And why was nobody seemingly playing any games? The Xbox 360 had many great titles to play. And this would have been data from the mid-way point in the 360 lifecycle when Xbox One design is already in progress.

2) John seemed to think that the Xbox Series X is having the same UI as the Xbox One family (which we know is true) but still running at 1080p? On the XSX? That's shit if true.

And a 3) They mock the Xbox One UI design with its app snap features but it looks like Sony is going to be doing something similar (at least with overlays) for the PS5. 😂
 
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Very interesting. I've only watched 25 minutes during lunch but two things I picked out so far.

1) If all the data Microsoft had suggested most people were watching Netflix on their 360, was this because people were buying the console as an alternative set top box to do so rather than for gaming? And why was nobody seemingly playing any games? The Xbox 360 had many great titles to play. And this would have been data from the mid-way point in the 360 lifecycle when Xbox One design is already in progress.

2) John seemed to think that the Xbox Series X is having the same UI as the Xbox One family (which we know is true) but still running at 1080p? On the XSX? That's shit if true.

And a 3) They mock the Xbox One UI design with its app snap features but it looks like Sony is going to be doing something similar (at least with overlays) for the PS5. 😂

1. I think the numebrs go out there at some point but it wasnt that people werrent playing games it was simply that the number of hours they were watching Netflix eclipsed it in a way that was shocking to Mattrick.

2. The One and the Series X(maybe S) will share the same UI but a redesign is apparently coming. I would have to imagine it will run in 4K as originally it was going to run in 4K on XOX but they gave that RAM back to the developers.

3. Not sure.
 
It's my memory that they deliberately planned two events, one to show the media features with a gaming showcase to follow. In retrospect, media first and games second was a big mistake. If they'd done it the opposite way around, show a bunch of games, then later reveal all the bonus media features it would've been better received.

Snap was awesome. I still miss it.
 
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It's my memory that they deliberately planned two events, one to show the media features with a gaming showcase to follow. In retrospect, media first and games second was a big mistake. If they'd done it the opposite way around, show a bunch of games, then later reveal all the bonus media features it would've been better received.

Yes, especially since the game lineup they showed at E3 was really solid, but it got mostly overshadowed by all the storm about DRM and kinect (plus price and performance... really I don't think TVTVTV was the real issue there)
 
Yes, especially since the game lineup they showed at E3 was really solid, but it got mostly overshadowed by all the storm about DRM and kinect (plus price and performance... really I don't think TVTVTV was the real issue there)

I went with bone over PS4 at launch because of the line up. Forza, Dead Rising 3, Ryse and Killer Instinct was much stronger than Killzone and Knack. Resogun ended up being a big game for them but we didn't know until after the launch.
 
The 360 was a fantastic console with a focus on being a gaming machine. The PS3 tried to be a jack of all trades and was over engineered.

Than they traded places and the PS4 was simple and concentrated on being a gaming machine and xone tried to do too much.

This coming gen it looks like they are both on the same page
 
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I turned it off as soon as I saw Mattrick. That guy is such a clown.

I feel sorry for him watching this presentation, knowing what was to come. He looks like a sad, little puppy dog (as well as a fish out of water).
 
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Due to time differences I had to stay up until 2am to watch it, I was so fucking damn excited for it as I love and still do my 360. I didn't even make it to the end of the show before switching off and going back to bed.

The highlights the next day were both the memes and GAF meltdown and myself feeling so disappointed that I emailed my former boss at msft to roast him "Well look at that you've now worked on two of the worst console launches of all time!" (FYI He also worked on the Sega Saturn launch) :messenger_tears_of_joy:

If john reads this I'm referring to magnobitch (Ask Rich).
 
The reveal was from a European view point rather strange and felt like they gave up and purely concentrate onward on the US market where TV is important (fair enough, its their home turf).
Till today Microsoft never managed to recover back to the glorious Xbox360 days in Europe, such a shame but good for Nintendo I guess.
 
I managed to survive for the second time this presentation, thanks to DF guys. They really thought that casual TV viewers will buy the Xbox One.
 
On top of the less powerful hardware, I dont think Windows 10 kernel + D3D12 was a good idea.

But at least it has been the only non-hacked OS machine I can remember. Even when EDGE has webkit built-in. I guess no dev cared about XBOX One since there was already a DevMode.
 
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What an absolute bomb that was! So glad I didn't pay attention to consoles back then, that would have been a gut punch.
 
I watched this earlier.

I feel like the big mistake Microsoft made was that the fact that people watch Netflix on their machine more than anything else doesn't mean that that's WHY they buy the machine. It's not the marginal selling point.

It'd be like saying people buy a PC for Minesweeper because they spend loads of time playing it.

Of course, the other big mistake was not seeing how quickly smart tvs would become so ubiquitous.
 


Now put a mpv based media player that can access the UHD Blu Ray Player and we are good to go.
 
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Of course, the other big mistake was not seeing how quickly smart tvs would become so ubiquitous.

I think t it was quite appropriate to that aspect of the market, an Xbox One could turn any regular TV into a smart TV. As a matter of fact I thought the mistake was thinking there would be a big market for smart TV features, considering I don't know anybody who owns a smart TV and never saw one in real life except for demo rooms.
 
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I remember this reveal because it was so cringe and out of touch I was baffled beyond belief that MS emphasize TV content over gaming.
 
I think t it was quite appropriate to that aspect of the market, an Xbox One could turn any regular TV into a smart TV. As a matter of fact I thought the mistake was thinking there would be a big market for smart TV features, considering I don't know anybody who owns a smart TV and never saw one in real life except for demo rooms.

Seriously? Can you even buy a tv that's not a smart tv anymore?
 
Thanks for the thread poops.
Will def give it a watch later after i finish my pokebowl with extra soy
 
I think people overreacted and made it seem worse than it was. Especially since they had two presentations, one for the reveal and one for the games. Some people just can't use the wait and see approach, insecurities imo!
 
Fv1v9eK.gif
 
I think people overreacted and made it seem worse than it was. Especially since they had two presentations, one for the reveal and one for the games. Some people just can't use the wait and see approach, insecurities imo!

No it was bad and totally usa = the whole world.

From UK watching it, as a 360 gamer, I puked. Matrick was so far up his own arse.

I was waiting for that water cooler comment but missed it.

 
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2. The One and the Series X(maybe S) will share the same UI but a redesign is apparently coming. I would have to imagine it will run in 4K as originally it was going to run in 4K on XOX but they gave that RAM back to the developers.

The Series X is using the CURRENT UI from the Xbox One X, which is fine. The only thing being redesigned is the store.
 
Seriously? Can you even buy a tv that's not a smart tv anymore?

Depends on the kind of "smart" you're looking for I suppose. I mean sure most TVs have apps like youtube and some kind of web browser, but not that many have voice/gesture commands and user identification. (well last time I bought a TV was in 2013 to be honest).
 
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The TV thing was bad, but the consumer-hating bullshit in terms of online enforcement and the arrogant pricks defending that bullshit in interviews were much worse.
 
Funny thing is that like the PS4 reveal event, I didn't watch any of it. I watched their E3 2013 showcases instead which were both good, Xbox being better but overshadowed by that horrible event and all the negative feedback from fans.
 
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