Sony tried to repeat its E3 conference salvos against Microsoft during its Gamescon showing yesterday, by making some snide remarks against Microsft; however, this time around, it simply wasn’t as effective, given that Sony’s entire Gamescom conference had come off as hollow, and that Microsoft has, after all, made a 180 from its earlier, anti consumer stance. So it just came off as forced, contrived, and honestly, a bit pathetic.
Microsoft, however, thinks that Sony’s Andrew House, in bashing the Xbox One reversal, may have missed the point entirely.
“The thing I love about the space we’re in is you’re always going to get feedback, whether it’s on your Twitter feed, whether it’s in NeoGAF, whether it’s in Eurogamer,” Microsoft boss Phil Spencer said. “People are going to tell you in comment threads how they feel about decisions. The two-way conversation we have with our customers is a strength. Certain people have tried to turn that into something that’s a bad thing about what we’re trying to do, and I just disagree.”
He further went on, “We built a platform for gamers. Gamers invest their time and their money in the things they want to play, and they’re going to invest their time in telling us what they love about the platform, and they’re giving us feedback on areas where they have more critical feedback. That two-way conversation with gamers has to be core to who we are as a platform. And if we don’t have the capability of listening and reacting to what people are saying about our platform, then we’re being too disconnected from customers who make investments in our platform and the games we build.”
Honestly, he may have a point- for a situation where the console manufacturer tries to not respond to consumer feedback (no matter how vitriolic) just for the sake of ‘consistent messaging, see Nintendo and Wii U.
(Thanks Eurogamer)