xbox is using paid reviews to boost starfield meta
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It's a really fucking bad look in fairness, but absolutely unsurprising.
Thyve done it many times in the past. Thyve also bought negative reviews for competitors. Their nasty tactics really came to light during the CMA case
I was listening to an interview with Colin Moriarty where the host openly said that MS was looping him in on promotional opportunities when he only had ~200 followers on social media. Apparently this is a very normal thing with MS/Xbox.
Yes and it's been known for years not just through the CMA court proceedings. They buy influencers, give gifts, they promote, they astroturf, they do many things to try to get the upper hand. People that act oblivious to this only do so for their own agenda.
"Even when I had only 200 followers on twitter, Microsoft was kind of there. Saying like 'come to gamescom... we can get you backstage...you can jump the queues to play the games and talk to the devs...' I don't know if Sony does the same thing, but Microsoft really tries to nurture the grassroots..."
@4m30s
He's literally describing astroturfing.
Imagine hyping an 87 as game of the generation
Jesus Christ, that's amazing
imagine the balls you have to have to talk about this publicly.
I, for one, am ASTOUNDED that a company with the STERLING reputation that Microsoft has would EVER stoop to such behaviour!
He's in forum jail lmao
he also said something like "maybe MS needs to do that" (if I remember correctly)
And that is the point. Xbox is so fucked up as a brand that they indeed need to do that. You can be morally offended. -cool. Just keep in mind that we are talking about PR/Marketing:
These fucking companies are just trying to sell you shit.
and clearly ain't working for them
NOW. i will invite you to listen some of the Xbox Two podcast. especially around the Starfield release...
....that shit is not astroturfing at all.
No, xbox does not need to do that. That's essentially bribing small dudes to gaslight you into thinking xbox is good.
What xbox needs to do is to make great games, a lot of them, at a steady pace. And by great games I mean games with lots of popular appeal, not niche shit like "as dusk falls". And they needed to start doing it 5 years ago.
The problem right now is their management is utter shit so they don't have any handle on their product pipeline. If they could build it, the customers would come. But Microsoft doesn't care about putting out a quality gaming product. They care about trying to manipulate the market through underhanded shit and tricking people into buying into a dead end ecosystem.
Yeah it's strange that the Xbox approach appears to be "nickle and dime the customers" when it comes to games. Overpromise, underdeliver, don't put the effort in to making a good game, instead use marketing and fans for good PR. How much would it have cost for a FNV remaster, only on Xbox, after acquiring BGS? Oblivion? These alone would have performed well and been great for the company, but somehow it's impossible. Insomniac can pump out good quality game after game for Sony, but NOBODY in Xbox can handle making a remaster? Maybe they should have cracked down on 343 and had Halo be a good game. Maybe they shouldn't have released Redfall (then again, Redfall was only made so BGS would get bought by MS, so they're responsible for it existing in the first place). Where is the Xbox equivalent of Astro's Playroom? Microsoft is not in a weak position because for a decade they have been churning out failure after failure and yet the narrative becomes "Sony is bad for gaming because games are exclusive." It seems Xbox is incredibly well supported, except when it comes to people buying their consoles. The "woe is me I need good PR to be able to compete" is just another aspect of "we are only a small trillion dollar company everything is so hard for us."