Giant Bomb Presents: A Conversation with Microsoft's Aaron Greenberg

Huzzah!

I really do have to say microsoft is killing it when it comes to first party games. I had never played halo on the 360, just halo ce and 2 on pc. So with the master chief collection, halo 5, forza horizon 2, and my rockband dlc I caved a couple of weeks ago and picked up a forza 6 xbox and I have been playing it non stop.

This has the potential to be a very interesting conversation, or just boring PR speech. Lets see which one it is!

Viva Pinata is one of the few reasons I would ever buy a xbone, but not at the current price point. Even at $200 I would not buy one. I don't have that kind of spare cash. Halo and Gears is nothing to me. Fable was a disappointment. The Metro style of interface sucks as it's not easy or fast to use and hinders power users. I can buy other stuff on PC.

Really digging the "a conversation with" format. Keep it up!

Edit:

Now that I have listened to the whole thing, I would have liked to hear some more about the PC space and Microsoft's/Xbox' future plans there.

These are really great.

There's some mild Halo 5 story spoilers from 05:50 to 08:30, if anyone wants to go into the game completely spoiler free.

gb interviewing people in the industry is always welcome

Great interview!

More of this stuff please!

Yeah, same here. I don't think that's really their current PR focus though, I expect them to probably get more concrete about that after the holidays. Still it would be nice if someone actually pushed them on that a bit.

Either that dude is totally sincere about Microsoft being absolutely committed to making their console worth supporting, or he's the best damn marketing guy who ever lived. I'm genuinely excited to see if MS continues to run with their hard focus on making great games.

It's odd just how much this generation of consoles has been a total flip in terms of the celebrated opener and the late bloomer. Last gen, everyone was cool on PS3, which didn't shine until the end of the generation, and the Xbox 360 was the one with the roaring start that settled into mediocrity by the end of it. Now it's precisely the opposite with the PS4 (or at least, the roaring start part. We'll see if they settle) and Xbox One.

NEW DKC OR GET THE FFFFFFF!

This was 100% PR fluff. I guess expecting more was too hopeful. Would of liked to hear about PC, VR and AR not just " hey we're still making games!".

Microsoft really seems clueless these days.

Yeah but thats what I expected.

This is what I was worried about. Thanks for saving me 45 mins.

personally i still look back at the announcement event for the XB1 and think yeah how did they not have a clue they were about to say the most collectively stupid bunch of words in a collective bunch of sentences ever,

Still even them being said i bought my xbox one and have been happy with it since day one, they really did just cock up the messaging which hurt them and i must admit if they had just not bothered som much with the snapping stuff and focused all that power on gaming they would probably be right on par with the ps4 but i do love being able to stream south park or game of thrones from my pc to my xbox whilst i shoot things in the head or collect things in Assassins creed,

it's hard i guess to please everyone, still the xbox is by far my favorit console even at the lower rez and what ever it just gets used way more than my ps4, big game on the ps4 games out i play it once im done it goes back into standby

meh consoles ey, who'd ave um

Loving this boom of audio content lately especially talking to members of "the business"

For people saying it was PR fluff, I dunno I thought he was fairly candid. At least much more so than you usually get from marketing people. There was definitely some opportunity to ask some other questions, though. I would like more of these, please.

Are they legally allowed to use the dump truck sound?

I don't know how "Yeah we were in a bad place and have been working hard to turn it around" is "Marketing Fluff". I guess some people think any kind of positive comments on the thing they're working on is "Marketing Fluff".

@wiqidbritt: most people will find any reason to snipe at a competitor if they feel that strongly about it,

i bet when it really boils down to it most people would have both consoles and be happy with them both theres just a lot of competativeness out there to stand by the choice they made in console im fortunate enough to have got both and i can say un biasly that didn't sound like it was fluff even if i do play on my xbox more, i still think the ps4 is awesome

Dont plan on buying a console so no real bias for me this felt like an honest conversation most of the time sure there was bias from his side of things but overall a interesting conversation that I enjoyed listening to keep these coming

had both previous gen consoles and both current gen consoles. purchased a ps4 first this gen but now finding myself playing xbox one for my console experience by a huge margin as ps4 collects dust. this industry could be written about as a drama with all the twists and turns lol.

Not gonna lie...the Tomb Raider exclusive has influenced my decision to pick up an Xbox One earlier than I expected. Depending on the quality of the game of course.

Really enjoyed this, thanks for putting it up.

Is the audio weird for anyone else? Maybe I'm having a stroke

@jbcrenshaw: seemed ok dude, best go see your doc

It was great to hear how much that guy was willing to laugh.

This was a candid conversation. The confirmation bias is strong in this comment section. A lot of interesting discussion on leadership roles and how they directly influenced the decisions being made. Looks like internally the shift in management made a change for the better when Phil Spencer came on board and the rest of the old management team was ousted. I would definitely love to hear more about their PC plans but I can wait for when there ready. Right now they are looking to sell consoles. Also, the VR stuff has no appeal to me since I have a really good PC rig which is where that stuff is gonna shine as well as mobile VR (which I currently use Google Cardboard for). I also agree with their games line up being the best (First party speaking). Jeff kinda confirmed that when comparing to what the PS4 had to offer currently. Basically, my decision boiled down to which exclusives am I more interested in between PS4/Xbox one. I chose Xbox one as my first console specifically due to that. I'll pick up a PS4 when a Ratchet and Clank game comes out if ever which is the only exclusive I'm interested in on that side of the fence.

I think they are being candid because they know they NEED to get into places like Giant Bomb. GB as a site isn't very bullish about XB One, except about a few of the core games like Halo, Forza, etc. MS has to be soft-sell and candid because Jeff and Brad will call them on bullshit marketing talk.

I can't tell you how much I enjoy this type of content.

Candid discussion with industry vets that are polite and willing to chat.

Aaron Greenberg thinking the xbone has the best games. I had a great laugh at that.

@jpope: on the consoles they do you could say Wii U but the lack of 3rd party kills that argument for me

There was a bit of PR stuff but it felt like a pretty honest conversation. Thanks for doing this guys!

This is marketing at its finest. Marketing disguised as a behind the scenes glimpse into the games industry, from an industry insider. Welcome to the new age of media duders. An age where "shop talk" and "how did you go about achieving things?" is more important than the "thing" and whether that "thing" is still worthy of the consumer's hard earned dollar.

This all boils down to:

"Let's get together and candidly talk about the biz and show you just how much we at MS have changed the way we do things.... FOR THE LOVE OF GOD GIVE US ANOTHER CHANCE!!!!!"

It's interesting how Aaron also had a candid chat with the guys over at Kinda Funny games. I like his strategy, let's hope for MS's sake he can pull it off before Christmas shopping season starts.

There's absolutely nothing new about people doing interviews for PR.

Really enjoyed this interview. I hadn't heard from Aaron Greenberg in awhile and it's nice to have a marketing guy try and be candid about the product he represents.

Appreciate you guys trying to chat with this guy, but he has almost nothing interesting to say. Gave up listening after 20 mins. He seems to stick to the record, and doesn't let his guard down. Not your fault, just maybe a bad choice of guest, who knows?

Sorry, I love my xbox, but Aaron Greenberg has said so many outlandish and ridiculous things on Neogaf and twitter, as well as personally fueling the most rabid xbox fanboys on twitter, that I have a serious dislike of him and he almost single-handedly turned me off getting an Xbox One. Phil Spencer is a better man for interviews, though I also feel like he says a lot of what people want to hear instead of acting on it. But at least he comes across genuine and interested in making Xbox better for everyone. unlike this guy.

If you want an idea of how this guy really acts, look for his interactions with PNF4LYFE on twitter.

@teaoverlord: your right, there is nothing new about doing an interview for PR. That wasn't my assertion. My assertion was that the PR was being achieved by an interview with an "insider" who has knowledge of the inner workings of one of the biggest companies in the world today. Aaron is smart. This type of promotion is new for Microsoft. Sadly, it took them losing to Sony last season for them to realize the error in their original PR. Now they are trying a new tactic and it's one that I could see many companies in the future utilize. This new strategy of describing the inner workings of a company to sell a product rather than putting focus on the actual product. Well, it seems new to me anyways.

This maybe a open and honest interview, and having a large corporation like Microsoft be candid about miss steps and future plans is fine. But using GB and its staff as PR platform or any other site is sad to me, i would have hope Jeff and Brad more convictions towards this kind of thing. Since i have heard them bash PR firms for trying to get the games media to do their work for them in the past.

"We are getting to be known as the console that has the best games."

"We have the best first party support"

Yo dawg, the Wii U exists still and that thing is First Party: The console.

"We're really focusing on games."

Lots of PR eye rolling when listening to this. It's a little disappointing to listen to especially after the solid performance Johnny V gave.

Good interview. Thanks for continuing to put this type of content out.

This was more legit interview than shameless PR shill, but readers beware. There is quite a bit of PR shilling in here from Aaron. Regardless, it is a good listen. Microsoft has been humbled, and their willingness to discuss their errors and how they have a new focus was refreshing to hear. Considering their actions with the console this year, I can't help but agree with them.

head of marketing occasionally uses marketing speech, internet goes crazy