Microsoft Still Taking Shots at Sony but Spencer Denies War

[SWORDF1SH]

It's starting to appear like Microsoft is confident with taking shots at Sony.  In a recent interview with Albert Penello, head of product and planning  for Xbox, he has made it very clear that they are focused on what developers want with 4K but the competition is not.

"I think there are a lot of caveats they're giving customers right now around 4K. They're talking about checkerboard rendering and up-scaling and things like that. There are just a lot of asterisks in their marketing around 4K, which is interesting because when we thought about what spec we wanted for Scorpio, we were very clear we wanted developers to take their Xbox One engines and render them in native, true 4K.  That was why we picked the number, that's why we have the memory bandwidth we have, that's why we have the teraflops we have, because it's what we heard from game developers was required to achieve native 4K."
It would appear that these comments are directed directly at Sony and the PS4 Pro and possibly Sony having misleading marketing.

"I would actually say that if you go look at their marketing and look at what Mark Cerny (Sony developer and partner) said, they talk about checkerboard rendering. They've been very open about it. I'm not accusing them of anything. They've been very open about the compromises around 4K."
It really looks like Microsoft is starting to being a full console war.  Fans of consoles have been well familiarized with console wars.  It's not normal however for these companies to call each other out.  Microsoft head Phil Spencer though has never been a fan of the never ending console war debate.  With the ads and interviews he has come out to say he doesn't feel like they are taking a shot at Sony or their marketing.

"I think us stating a feature that we have in our box that we think is an important selling feature of our box is completely within fair game.  It is a feature of our box and for somebody to look and say that talking about the features that you decide... I mean, we made a bet on a 4K Blu-ray disc, and they didn't. And I'm not saying they made the wrong decision and we made the right decision, but if somebody wants a 4K UHD Blu-ray drive we have a console that has one, then we're going to make sure that people know that. And if people say that that's console wars, I think they're wrong."
Another key topic for Spencer is what he had to say about biased game reviews.  He has stated that site's will score games lower to "increase site traffic."  He used ReCore as an example.  The game it self got some harsh reviews but still is selling well.  Even with lower scores, ReCore is being well received by gamers.  But at the same time, he said the review scores are not necessarily a reflection of the game's importance to Microsoft.

Call it what you will, but it's really exciting as a fan of the Xbox One to know that your company is so confident in their upcoming hardware.  What do you think of this situation?  Let us know in the comment section below!

Microsoft Still Taking Shots at Sony but Spencer Denies War | Xbox One UK

[Lordfancypants]

I like them fighting more than kissing and hugging.  
It's already working wonders on Internet forums with people talking up the powah of a nonexistent box and detailing what it will do.  It's fun to read.
It'll be fun when the NX is finally announced with/without 4KUHD player.  I've placed my bet on which way that goes already!

[DerNebel]

MS just needs to stop talking about the Scorpio already. Stop flaunting a, incomplete no less, spec spreadsheet that most importantly doesn't have a fudgy price attached. Right now nobody should give a shame about their lipservice, talk about it once you have all the pieces in place and are ready to talk about all the relevant information and stop jerking yourself off with all this trashtalk.

[Max King of the Wild]

Lol penello

If you guys don't remember, he was the one that yelled Bulls hit on neogaf about the ps4/xbo power difference... To which Mr. Mediax used his comments for proof that xbo had secret sauce.

Viewing Single Post - NeoGAF

I still I believe that we get little credit for the fact that, as a SW company, the people designing our system are some of the smartest graphics engineers around – they understand how to architect and balance a system for graphics performance. Each company has their strengths, and I feel that our strength is overlooked when evaluating both boxes.

OMG SECRET SAUCE!

Performance: I'm not dismissing raw performance. I'm stating – as I have stated from the beginning – that the performance delta between the two platforms is not as great as the raw numbers lead the average consumer to believe. There are things about our system architecture not fully understood, and there are things about theirs as well, that bring the two systems into balance.


People DO understand that Microsoft has some of the smartest graphics programmers IN THE WORLD. We CREATED DirectX, the standard API's that everyone programs against. So while people laude Sony for their HW skills, do you really think we don't know how to build a system optimized for maximizing graphics for programmers? Seriously? There is no way we're giving up a 30%+ advantage to Sony. And ANYONE who has seen both systems running could say there are great looking games on both systems. If there was really huge performance difference – it would be obvious.

I get a ton of hate for saying this – but it's been the same EVERY generation. Sony claims more power, they did it with Cell, they did it with Emotion Engine, and they are doing it again. And, in the end, games on our system looked the same or better.

I'm not saying they haven't built a good system – I'm merely saying that anyone who wants to die on their sword over this 30%+ power advantage are going to be fighting an uphill battle over the next 10 years...



Well, we all know how that turned out. Don't we, Penello?

Viewing Single Post - NeoGAF

[SWORDF1SH]

^^^ Holy shame, and i thought greenberg was bad.

[Max King of the Wild]

^^^ Holy shame, and i thought greenberg was bad.

I know, right? I still think Greenberg is worse because Penello quietly acknowledged he should apologize for his comments (don't think he ever did though).

But seriously, the thing that got me was when he said they have some of the smartest engineers in the world working on it... Like Sony some how didn't have some working on theirs.

Also when he said xbox 360 games were just as good or better as ps3 games. Which, for multiplat is true but when you look at exclusives the ps3 outshines it. People were amazed that TLoU could be done last gen hardware.

But the fact the majority of secret sauce discussion stemmed from him... Ulgh

[kitler53]

"I think us stating a feature that we have in our box that we think is an important selling feature of our box is completely within fair game.  It is a feature of our box and for somebody to look and say that talking about the features that you decide... I mean, we made a bet on a 4K Blu-ray disc, and they didn't. And I'm not saying they made the wrong decision and we made the right decision, but if somebody wants a 4K UHD Blu-ray drive we have a console that has one, then we're going to make sure that people know that. And if people say that that's console wars, I think they're wrong."

i think spencer is right here.  MSony should have every right to promote the things their box can do.  unless i missed something ms's tweet about having UHD player in the xbox slim wasn't particularly offensive either,.. the "offense" was all in the timing.  meh.

the console wars shame was things like the "destiny fragrance" or sony game sharing youtube video.  i haven't seen much of that lately from either side.  just healthy competition.

[GribbleGrunger]

MS 'honestly' believes it was only power that gave the PS4 the lead. They're in for a shock.

[Max King of the Wild]

MS 'honestly' believes it was only power that gave the PS4 the lead. They're in for a shock.

What power? According to them there isn't a difference.

[GribbleGrunger]

What power? According to them there isn't a difference.

Goalposts move often with MS. If people think these execs are saying things like this without Spencer's go ahead then they're naive. Spencer is just trying to have is cake and eat it.

[the-pi-guy]

People DO understand that Microsoft has some of the smartest graphics programmers IN THE WORLD. We CREATED DirectX, the standard API's that everyone programs against. So while people laude Sony for their HW skills, do you really think we don't know how to build a system optimized for maximizing graphics for programmers? Seriously? There is no way we're giving up a 30%+ advantage to Sony. And ANYONE who has seen both systems running could say there are great looking games on both systems. If there was really huge performance difference – it would be obvious.

Yeah, this seriously is ridiculous.  "Yes, Microsoft totally managed to get their hands one every single one of the best programmers in the whole wide world, and Sony has none.  Plus they are so much better than everyone else."
Completely legitimate.  

[Ludicrous Speed]

Uh, where are the shots? Got excited for literally nothing.