http://www.gamestop.com/gs/weeklyad/current/

I just have to imagine this is blowing the minds of people who never heard Microsoft's original statements concerning Kinect, when they said it could not be turned off, it could only be "paused."

I'm sure many people will see this and say "You can turn it on or off? That's a feature, now? Why would they advertise a power switch?"

For anyone who doesn't follow gaming news, this just looks really stupid.

It looks bad for Microsoft, but I have a lot of friends who actively play games who I had to inform about Microsoft basically rescinding all of the policies they announced at E3. It seems word of all of Microsoft's backtracking has barely made it outside the gaming blog circuit still.

Man that is a pretty sad way to advertise the thing. "Hey guys you know this thing that makes our console cost $100 more than our competitor? You can totally not use it if you want!"

For some reason, the slogan "Get the facts" sounds too aggressive to me. Like you can kind of feel M$'s frustration behind it... but maybe that's just me. Either way, the fact that advertising the power switch is even necessary seems a bit sad to me.

MS is so fucked at launch . Seems like their only hope is a major misstep by Sony.

Get the facts you morons.

Well, better safe than sorry. Seems like a smart thing to note about the Xbox One, because I still hear people express concerns about this.

@captain_felafel said:

All of this.

I think you are exaggerating a bit. To be clear here I am not a fanboy either way and I wont be buying either at launch or in the near future but c'mon most people that are going to buy a next gen console don't care about the backtracking or half of the policies that Microsoft have in place. Parents buy what their kids want and most kids are gonna want a new xbox to play call of duty with their friends. Will they lose some sales because of all of this? Sure, but they are far from fucked imo.

Seems alright. People have probably sold a ton of faucets and light bulbs using that same slogan, why not a console?

2013: New amazing tech in console gaming, you can turn the console off!

It's sad that this is an important aspect that needs to be advertised.

God, the more I look at it, the worse it gets! It's like a prescription medicine ad, where the announcements have been like "here's what this system can do for you!" and things like this are like that guy talking really quickly about all the potential side-effects of the drug.

M$: "Enjoy our new entertainment system that never has to be switched off! Made even better with Kinect 2.0, which you should always have plugged in!"
Read in a deep voice really quickly: "Xbox One no longer requires a Kinect to be plugged in to turn on. Both the Kinect and main console can be switched off at any time. Contact your doctor if you experience an erection lasting more than 4 hours."

@laserbolts: We'll see, I guess.

The advert seems badly worded, a lot of people not following closely may just think that they're advertising a power button.

As someone that follows gaming news that looks stupid

Hahaha, this is incredible! Just keep it coming MS, keep it coming...

To me it shows how unimpressive the pre orders must be. This is the device Microsoft wanted to built since they went into this business. The Xbox One was their goal all along the reason they lost so much money on it so far over all these years since the original Xbox. and now it all seems to crumble under their own hands. This whole journey so far is a real disaster PR wise.

I think the Xbox will sell way more than all of their missteps merit, it'll probably outsell the PS4.

I believe it's called the Playstation Network.
; )

Not true at all. The only people who have anything bad to say at all about the Xbox are the 'hardcore' gamer nerds. The average, COD / Halo / Madden gamer is incredibly hyped for the Xbox One.

@jdh5153: These ads and the stories I hear are contradictory to these sorts of statements. It is true that these people have been traditionally associated with Xbox's success, but I hear lots of stories about non-hardcore being confused by Mic, not to mention the issue of its.price. Also, preorder numbers favor the Playstation by a great deal.

I have a feeling they will be fine in the US. In other regions they will probably be screwed since Microsoft has burned so much good will appearing like they don't care about gamers let alone their region showing off big "US Only" features. It is going to be much harder to win all of them back.

I don't think so. Especially not in Europe from what I can tell. This whole mess was not only on gaming sites it made news all over the world in various big non gaming sites as well.

I'm sure they did enough market research to discover that this type of information push was needed. They wouldn't just print up these things if they didn't know that it served a specific purpose

Or that Gamestop recognize they desperately need an "information push" but had such little information "to push". When they get into that state, suddenly features like "it is made of black plastic and metal" and "you can turn it off" works as well as anything.

It sounds like you're talking out of your ass, but as I said earlier, we don't need to wait long to see how things shake out.

It doesn't matter now. PS3 was fucked in the beginning way worse than the XBO is now. Here we are 8 years later and the sales of both consoles are pretty much identical. Maybe it will hurt them out of the gate but in the long run it's not going to matter.

Same. I'm not even getting the thing yet I've had to correct a lot of people on Microsoft's policy reversals. I'd rather they make a decision on facts rather than things that are no longer true.

I feel that this launch won't be earth shattering, but then again, look at the PS3 launch. Way too early to call it in for MS.

Just like all their market researched showed that always being online was a good idea?

PS4 is currently sitting at twice the preorders of the Xbox One.

Most non or casual gamers I've spoken to still think the Xbox One is always online.

All this backpedaling is the most bizarre thing I've seen in gaming.

@veektarius: Remember, all of us have a very, VERY skewed view about what the "average" gamer knows and cares about. I've heard people who think that the companies that make the consoles also make all of the games, so you have to get an XBox if you want CoD.

On topic... that ad is pathetic. I can only hope and assume that MS fired all of their ad/PR people post E3, but with all of their hundreds of millions of dollars, we get an off button?

The actual machine will probably be pretty cool and people will eventually forget that every thing they've done promoting this thing has been the wrong move. They just need to shut up. It's free.

Hey at least they are getting the right message out for their product (no matter how fucked up their pr campaign has been or how bad this looks for them)

Nintendo should have used a similar thing for the Wii U and 2ds (bestbuy/futureshop had 2ds under the ds section instead of 3ds). Better to swallow your pride than have people think your product is inferior or flawed.

Equally funny to me: A $3 coupon and an exclusive remix of "Applause" with Just Dance 2014. Way to really knock those bonuses out of the park there, Ubi.

Also equally funny to me: Just Dance 2014. They're doing the year title thing now, eh?

Groundbreaking.

Now the general sentiment can shift from why is MS requiring people to have this camera plugged in to why MS is forcing people to pay for this accessory they don't have to use.

Ingenious.

It's amazing how their unintended messaging is loud and clear while the information they want you to know about is unclear or confusing.

When the PS3 was fucked there was no twitter, Facebook, and internet like this in general. You can now ruin a persons life with a single tweet. It has far more consequences than it had back than. Also the whole NSA scandal does not help either. This is far more fucked up than it was with the Ps3.

Look at the Wii U. It is already dead and mostly because of the bad press it had before and since launch and there is no way Nintendo can revive the Wii U.

I like how they've been using the shit they already tried to force to players as X1's selling points.

"You can now trade in games and borrow them to your friends"

"No more mandatory Kinect"

"We no longer try to screw you over!"

Its the gamers who still cry, I don't want the kinect to watch me, oh its collecting data, wah wah. They are like the Fox News of gaming.

Yeah, Vinny pretty much said it during the podcast as well about people he knows in his family not knowing that MS backtracked on their initial policies.

P.S. Fuck hirt :P (no context)

Get The facts;

Xbox One is not full of naked mole rats
Xbox One cannot be made non-poisonous
Xbox One should not be used while sleeping or unconscious
Xbox One is very unlikely to smoke, but if it does seek shelter & cover head
Xbox One is not intended for drying pets or as a scarecrow on a farm
Xbox One users in Africa & Indonesia are reminded that Xbox One is not a witch and conforms to all local laws against witchcraft.

Offer only valid between October 9th - 15th. After that the power switch disappears. True story.

HELL YEAH!

Xbox Won!

@darji: I can confirm that all those things you mentioned did exist in 2011