I'm not sure if you are implying that I didn't read the story, because I definitely did (Nevermind, I see you were just relating the Gawker story). I totally agree with you however that the media is partially to blame for often jumping the gun on stories (CNN is notoriously bad with this, see the Affordable Healthcare Act Supreme Court case debacle), but at the same time, when a MICROSOFT employee says there aren't any plans to go forward with the dev kit feature, I'm not surprised some people just ran with it. They probably should have waited and confirmed it first, but I'm not surprised in the least that some outlets considered that a confirmation.

I'm sorry Patrick but I feel like taking an executives very clear and specific words as a news story is perfectly reasonable and you might be the one posting unsubstantiated info. The Microsoft rebuttal was extremely vague in its wording and dodged any direct mention of turning retail Xbox Ones into dev kits. Even Chris Charla's twitter response is carefully worded "we have said that..." doesn't confirm that it is still the case, only that it has been said in the past. It's a very skillful dodge, intended to leave the impression that something was said when it wasn't.

In an age where misinformed internet rage can spiral out of control , its irresponsible and just click bait to report what one person said and not get confirmation. Its TMZ level. Its why I avoid most video game sites, and stick with sites like GB which get their fucking facts straight! Good job GB!

I still don't understand how and why would they do that. The earlier Xbox360s had the exact same motherboard for both consumer and developper consoles, which allowed hackers to transform consumer consoles into dev kits, enabling the Xbox to run unsigned code which meant piracy. If they release a method to do the same with the XboxOne if won't be long until that console is open wide to hacking and piracy.

Um, I'm confused what the point of this article is.

@jayeh: You and me both. Seems like a tweet would have been more effective and felt far less "formal".

I am less and less interested in gaming journalism these days. It seems everyone's more interested in tearing everyone down around them instead of celebrating how wonderful video gaming can be. Overall I'd consider myself a Playstation fan, but I think Microsoft is doing a fine job and saying a lot of the right things. Geez, they scrapped almost all of their next generation plans for the approval of a pretty ungrateful audience; how about we give them a break?

I'm struggling to understand why microsoft has been so bad at messaging regarding the xbone. I have one, it's nice, I will own a ps4 when a game i care about is released exclusively on the system, and that system will also likely be fine. the actual hardware/firmware in both of these cases seems perfectly fine, but Microsoft continues to make these dumb marketing errors. You can argue that the existing enthusiast press website news cycle (likely the internet news cycle in general) is terrible, but it is what it is. It seems it would behoove MS to put all of the executives that it has speaking on behalf of its company in a room and tell them "if you dont know what you are talking about, shut your mouth".

With all due respect, I don't believe it's the community's responsibility to proof read all Patrick's articles. There are also plenty of free tools out there to help people with this stuff anyway. Is he just too proud/blind to use any of them? This part felt especially weird to me:

Still, a little caution--we had to wait less than two hours--would have save some headaches. Now, I'm faced with running stories like this, in which I have to consider publishing a news story to disprove a non-story?!

I believe that since Dan is the "Senior Editor", he's the one that should be proofreading all the articles, but Patrick is also considered the "Senior News Editor". So their positions may be equal. However, this also means that Patrick is actually the one that should be checking everyone else's news articles. A prospect that terrifies me.

If Giantbomb is the only place you go for news then I would be a bit concerned, especially if accuracy is important.

Edit: The whole article also seems like a critique on "gaming journalism news reporting", which makes it feel a bit vain and condescending.

This article feels really poorly timed to me. The point being made is one I can get behind, but I think there's better examples to be used for it.

You really need to relax....

Guys, just keep in mind that while we welcome criticism on stories like this, please keep it constructive, civil, and, preferably, actionable. And, for what it's worth:

It's perfectly reasonable to be critical over new ways of doing things, but if you can't be civil your comments will be deleted.

Always good to see that the news that shows up on Giant Bomb is as accurate as can be, thanks to @PatrickKlepek.

i really liked this whole editorial/informative thing about news media. good read! more please.

@patrickklepekAll of three platform holders have actually given out loaner kits. Not just MS and Sony.

So basically, nothing is wrong and they're still planning on doing it? A statement from Xbox saying that it's completely inaccurate and they're still planning this is pretty damning to those saying it's not happening. I think what Chris Charla said was more like: we aren't far enough along with the process to say anything yet, so as of right now we have to send custom dev kits out.

I don't know anything about this process, but it must be pretty difficult. MS basically has to find some way to open the box up to EVERYBODY without making it vulnerable as fuck.

Allrigt, I guess we have a different definition of civil. Good to know.

Yeah, I really shouldn't care about these things. It's just a dumb video game website, right? I guess I just can't help caring about the quality of the content. I used to be able to just sit back and laugh at this kind of stuff. I'm sorry Giantbomb. You didn't change, I did. What have I become!?

I completely agree with everything here, but what exactly do you mean by "actionable"?

@icyeyes: Since this has come up in a couple of other threads today - actionable in this sense means constructive criticism that someone can actually do something about. It's the difference between "Man, this restaurant's pies suck" and "I think this restaurant should put more filling in it's pies, they would be much better that way."

@skullpanda1: there's only hooligans and pirates, all the way down. :(

@ripelivejam: Pirates of Silicon Valley?

@mb: Thanks for the explanation, but doesn't that mean that saying criticism should be both "constructive" and "actionable" completely redundant? Constructive criticism is "actionable", right?

@icyeyes: Eh, I don't know...not really interested in the semantics of it, it's the intent behind it that matters. I'm sure Rorie would be happy to discuss it with you if you PM'd him, though.

This is a little self-congratulatory. That said, totally glad that Patrick is the sort to wait before pulling the trigger on breaking stories until he's sure it's worth posting about, dude certainly has a good sense of judgement of these things.

"Hobbyists"

@crimsonjesus: A direct quote from an executive of the company in question is hardly rumor. I don't doubt he said something wrong, executives from the xbox division do that a lot, and the original article could've waited for clarification, but rumor it's not.

If the guy can't be trusted to give the right answers to direct answers at an event like that, maybe he should not be put in that kind of situation, but that's a HR question for MS, it's got nothing to do with journalistic integrity or anything close to that.

This is a topic that resonates with me a great deal, due to having worked in media in the past. I was never the type to report whatever I heard until it was confirmed as fact. Integrity matters, to me at least. However, it's the sensationalist shit that gets hits, so a bunch of assclowns would rather be "first!" than be accurate, and that's a damn shame. I remember having to "defend" not posting shit competitors would, even though I was well-aware of the same thing they were running with. Sometimes the shit they threw against the wall stuck. Many other times it didn't. I felt it a disservice to float crap to my viewership. For Patrick "Scoops" Klepek, there's certainly pressure out there to "break" a story, but I absolutely appreciate the reticence to run with something that's relatively unconfirmed. Some of you may see it as smarmy, unbecoming, or whatever to criticize other outlets for getting it WRONG, but if you've been there and had to repeatedly address NOT posting what you know was shit because members of YOUR supposed base read some other jackwagon's b.s. and challenged you for not reporting it first, yeah, you'll completely understand calling other media out when their "news" ultimately turns out to be wholly inaccurate. That's not to say Microsoft PR has been well-crafted or resolute with the X1, but that's not a license to jump on the "fuck Microsoft and +1 anything that makes them sound bad" bandwagon, either. I, for one, am glad to see GB not participate in the same crap others are willing to. Good on ya, Scoops. Keep doing what you do.

Maybe you or the man himself, Patrick Klepek, could layout what this new direction entails and how it differs from the old direction?

I don't see the this story (or non-story as some complain) as much of "is this or that true" but that again Microsoft doesn't seem to understand that their representatives should deliver a consistent message especially on future features. A sales guy I know who does network hardware sales has advice on this guys at Samsung and Google also live by: As bad as it is you have to announce that they have to cancel a feature in a product that exists today, it is actually worse to announce you are canceling a feature that never existed. Another who has recently retired gives corollary advice: Whatever it is, never appear in public like you don't know. Ending up in a situation where people are giving differing or contrary statements indicates someone does not really know what is going on. If you know it is being canceled or don't know then they should simply say "We are looking into it and will announce our plans for it in the future".

As for GB and Patrick, I do not come to Giantbomb.com for news. Hell I don't go any of the normal sites for news where instead I rely on aggregation and message boards. In fact I would rather see Patrick make an article on how messed this situation is instead of whether or not Microsoft did or did not cancel a promised feature that may or may not exist.

@rorie: I'm not sure if you are collecting feedback from PMs or tweets, but I would like to let you know that as fans of the site, my sister and I are displeased with the quality of news related stories over the past few months. A number of Patrick's articles are difficult for us to digest due to typos and oddly worded sentences. When you guys try out these new ideas, can you peer review them before publication? Thank you for reading this.

Boy, the combination of a Patrick Klepek article and the comments section sure do have an ability to make a mountain out of a more hill. The weird thing here is, I think all points are valid from all sides.

People should take more time to fact check news stories - true

Patrick should take more time to grammar check his articles - true

Microsoft spokespeople should be more aware of their policies - true

Taking a Microsoft spokesperson's word as truth is not unreasonable, and that makes this example not ideal for the point Patrick is trying to make - true

Game journalists on the whole should avoid navel gazing about their profession - VERY true, since the amount of game journalists is very small, the reader base interested in video games is much larger, and they do not relate to (or likely care) about the state of/ethics of game journalism.*

*Not saying the state of game journalism isn't important, just saying most readers aren't interested, since they themselves are not game journalists.

@icyeyes: Meh, Patrick's articles usually contain typos, I've gotten over it by now. I thought instead of posting a comment on the front page I'd PM him so it still gets changed and my comment doesn't just become irrelevant.

Did tell him to change that 'show' to 'showed' though, I guess he missed it.

Ironically, if Patrick had never reported this non-news story, I would have never known about the non-news story.

@patrickklepek: I'm not sure equating "speak honestly" with lying (seemingly not maliciously but by being uninformed about a core, publicly stated dev goal of the xbox team) about the current status of major development platforms at a developer conference with press in attendance is really a fair comparison.

It would be like saying CGI bullshots (from a 3rd party CGI studio) that claim to be "real time footage from actual gameplay", when called out, creates a silencing effect for sharing early work from games in development. The exec lied to devs, that got picked up, and later the truth was disseminated as a retraction. It could easily have happened the other way round (exec says programme is coming son, retraction is the programme was cancelled but they didn't know) with the same effect.

Maybe it's just because it's the morning and I didn't get enough sleep, but I had no idea what I was just reading here the first time I went through. Went back, makes sense now; great article Patrick.

Patrick, as you are only too aware: it's only a scoop if you "break" a press release... Please, pontificate.

I only caught this story this morning on twitter while out walking the dog. All I had for context was this:

It's all really ambiguous, so I appreciate the clarity @patrickklepek.

"would have save some headaches"

P.S. Good points Patrick.

Xbox One makes Xbox One games. Yep.

Is it just me or is is SUPER CREEPY when editors/writers/pundits of magazines become community managers or staff at console companies? I certainly find it creep when they do it in one step. It feels better if a writer or editors goes to a developer, spends a few years less in the limelight that sort of softens the blow of then becoming a community manager, mouth piece down the road. But, when someone goes from game editor/writer/pundit to console 'mouth piece' or 'console booster club' so instantly it just feels slimy.

I can't stop it. I can't forbid it, and wouldn't. But, sorry, I am not comfortable at all with it at all. I certainly don't want being a game (editor/writer/pundit) to be a dead-end job, but I think going to the public face side of a console maker is a creepy move.

Patrick comes in with 20-20 hindsight about what should raise warning bells.

Perhaps we're at the point where nothing a Microsoft employee says in an official capacity should be believed?

Well, whatever the case, now they have painted themselves into a corner.

I gotta admit I'm confused at the continual typos and grammatical errors in Patrick's news articles. I'm not exactly Hemingway so I don't mean to throw stones, but surely Microsoft Word or a quick review would easily pick up these errors...

@jelyk: I'd be more than happy to suggest a few tools to help Patrick, but I seem to recall him sarcastically saying in the E3 live stream "that's what the community is for". Which seems to suggest he doesn't care. *sigh*

that's what happens when bloggers believe that they are journalists

When did Patrick say this?

great news for Xbox One gamers.