Expectations are a hella of a drug. Like really trippy to the point that you can either get lost or blow up off of them. The issue is when you don’t mean expectations that the crash becomes far more lethal than the high you were suspecting to get. Obviously this relative to whatever you might have expectations for or about. In the case of Microsoft’s Inside Xbox episode dedicated to the Xbox Series X, well things don’t get trippy. They get a big fat let down, resulting in loss of trust.
This past week Microsoft held its Inside Xbox program which details games, services, and news on what is happening with Xbox video gaming. Usually, there is not much to expect from the program because there is very few blockbuster information that comes out. So expectations are usually held in check by what gamers will see. This became a moot point when Microsoft several weeks ago announced that on May 7th we would see gameplay from the Xbox Series X third party developers. The hashtag #gethyped was used in a way to dictate what we were about to see, and get gameplay on would be everything we hear the console can do in technical capability. We didn’t see that. We saw games, trailers, and cool ideas. Yet, nothing stood out. Under a microscope, the show was decent for an Inside Xbox Show. From an expectation standpoint. It was a horrible experience mired in confusion, wtf’s, and whys?
Why was it horrible? and Good at the same time? Well, the hype, of course, is the answer. The community consensus is that Microsoft pushed this month’s Inside Xbox too hard as an event meant to draw a strong conclusion of what Xbox Series X is as a hardware tech showpiece for consoles. Ultimately what was on the show really was a regular showcase of new games that have tons of potential, but nothing that blew you away in a way that screams next generation or buys now. The good thing is that expectations were toned down a day prior to the show, and Microsoft does have a first-party focused gaming show in July. This is where both Microsoft and the Xbox Series X will be most scrutinized under a Microscope in comparison to Playstation. Microsoft executives at Xbox did take all the feedback in stride, making sure that they heard the community and pledge to do better.
Inside Xbox should in the future get better along with the rest of what Microsoft does digitally in terms of events for the rest of the year. Which for them is what they need to be able to do by holding onto the mindshare they have been garnering since they started messaging the next generation of gaming on their end. In order to ensure that during an epidemic is to make sure they get done what they can in a way that showcases what gamers are looking for. All that the Xbox team can learn from this misstep is to execute what they want gamers to walk away with its incorrect messaging.
