The Dorito Pope spoke it and thus it came to pass; the Xbox One GamesCom 2013 press conference was not public nor was it live-streamed from a dedicated Microsoft site or made easily available to the gaming public. Big gaming sites weren't satisfied with this insular way of thinking and decided to give Microsoft a hand by making the press conference public for everyone to see. So behold, the live footage from the XB1 conference courtesy of Gamespot.
Microsoft held a small, private press meeting for the Xbox One earlier today before Electronic Arts and Sony rolled out some very large-scale and impressive live conferences for gamers, consumers and electronic entertainment enthusiasts alike to partake and consume like the information-hungry beings that we are.
However, GTTV host Geoff Keighley had confirmed just a day earlier that Microsoft would not be broadcasting their media conference publicly.
The news was odd and jarring because previously Microsoft's own Phil Spencer had made it public during a podcast interview with Major “Flip Switcher” Nelson that they would be holding a press conference to roll out new information on Xbox One and its exclusive games and content. Funnily enough, before Spencer made that information known there was word circling the block hinting that Microsoft would not be hosting a GamesCom press conference at all and instead they would only have a showfloor exhibition with playable Xbox One games and the typical media assault of press releases, screenshots and trailers on the back-end media channels like Gamespress or the FTP outlets.
However, Microsoft managed to surprise everyone by not only hosting a press conference for the Xbox One, but making it a private affair at a quarter of the time that both EA and Sony would be using to peddle their new products that help usher in the next-generation of gaming.
The pageantry of competition seemed to have become lost on Microsoft just like the message they were trying to send with the Xbox One. It's true that I rag on Microsoft and their next-gen console quite a bit, but not without merit or reason. The company has done a piss poor job of selling their vision of next-generation gaming and that's no one's fault but the people who were put in charge of selling consumers that “vision”.
Anyway, Microsoft's GamesCom conference was short and sweet and I think they really, really should have done more to make it obvious to the community at large that it was something they were behind 100%. Instead, we get cam footage of their exclusives, a lo-fi stage presentation and a small gathering of press... as if it were an investors meeting without all the talk about profit margins and quarterly revenue.
Of course, Sony ran circles around Microsoft's conference given that they had so much to share and so many games to showcase. They have a massive line-up of exclusives for the PlayStation 3, the PS Vita and the PlayStation 4 that will be released at the end of this year and throughout the entirety of 2014.
Microsoft, nevertheless, held their own in at least staying consistent with their launch strategy for exclusive content coming to the Xbox One. Whether or not it's enough to sway the masses is up for debate, but for gamers holding both companies under a microscope, it's obvious which one came out showcasing just how dedicated they are to gaming culture.
