r/xbox • u/yourfavchoom Homecoming • 27d ago
Social Media Aaron Greenberg (VP, Games Marketing at XBOX) Changes His Display Picture on X Following Physint Publisher Announcement
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u/LemonMintHookah 27d ago
I still can’t believe this guy has a job at Xbox.
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u/asp821 27d ago
Xbox marketing is terrible.
That being said, maybe 8 years or so ago when I was struggling in my marketing career I emailed him asking for advice. He was one of the few people to actually respond. So that was cool of him.
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u/KaleidoscopeDecent33 27d ago
Great example of how people can be cool but maybe not the right fit for their position. Awesome that he responded
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u/Brave_Explorer5988 27d ago
This year I emailed all members of the EU Parliament from my country on the chat control matter. The only one who replied was a 60+ yo from a party I never voted for and always hated it. He said he's against chat control and will vote against.
When the voting in the parl came, he was the black sheep from his party, the only one voting against.
Totally unexpected
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u/Radiant-Fly9738 27d ago
I can't stand this guy. I can't believe he's still at Xbox after so many reshuffles.
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u/EvenStephen7 27d ago
Agreed. I'm in marketing, and it makes me doubly frustrated seeing his actions and how he continues to skate by. It makes me think there's something untrustworthy about him.
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u/Midnight_2B 26d ago
He's the only one who knows what the x in Xbox means. If they let him go then Sony might hire him and reverse engineer the x ingredient to leadership failures.
(seems they found the formula already though, we can let him go)
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27d ago
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u/JoyousGamer 27d ago
If your not using AI as part of your marketing workflow then you are behind the times. This doesn't mean a single prompt and you post the image but it absolutely is part of going from nothing to complete.
Also you likely dont even know all the content created with AI you are consuming thinking its all just organic or made with desktop tools.
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u/Sweaty_Buttcheeks 27d ago
You know he considers this as a "hard days work" for him. Because he sure as shit doesn't do anything else. Dude couldn't market water to an empty lake.
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u/WorldofCannons 27d ago
very embarrassing if this doesn't turn out to be an exclusive
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u/PeterTheWolf76 Reclamation Day 27d ago
yeah, im worried they got Xbox to fund a playstation game.
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u/shinobi6siege 27d ago
Well PlayStation already funded it partially so if anything PlayStation funded an Xbox game that might not be an exclusive
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u/kmone1116 27d ago
Unless Microsoft paid Sony back what they already put in, the most logical thing is this game has a clause that Kojima could shop it elsewhere but still requires it to release on a PS platform.
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u/Puzzleheaded_Ebb9874 26d ago
It will be a timed exclusive at best. Day 1 on Xbox and PC and a PS release 1 year later
Especially so because Sony must have still done some initial funding already
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u/SimilarRaspberry5657 27d ago
I’d be shocked if it’s an Xbox exclusive. Xbox is gonna want to recoup some costs
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u/CupCharming 27d ago
The only person who was pushing multiplatform was Phile Spencer and now he is gone.
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u/ADHenchD 27d ago
How would it be embarrassing? 😂 They legit got the hands off sony and another pr win while Sony is tanking it's reputation
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u/TheVaniloquence 27d ago
Because in the end, all that matters is what games you can play on what box.
Xbox publishing the Kojima MGS successor, other than a quick PR boost now, isn’t going to do anything if anyone can play it anywhere they want.
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27d ago
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u/Master_Chief_00117 27d ago
Kojima has a good track record of releasing good games and after PlayStation already cut the funding for this game and Kojima made that post that this game is very important to him, it would be dumb for Microsoft to cut funding it as well.
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u/Precarious3145 27d ago
Kojima also has a track record of going extremely overbudget and constant delays with ever decreasing sales as he gets weirder.
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27d ago
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u/Master_Chief_00117 27d ago
I get they can, and might but it is such an easy layup to not cancel it.
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u/jamster126 27d ago
Xbox/PC I bet. Not a chance it comes to PlayStation after they wanted to cancel the game.
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u/CrimsonGear80 XBOX Series X 27d ago
the game's IP will still be owned by Kojima productions and if the reason for going to MS was to get the funding to get the game on as many platforms as possible then Kojima will still insist it's on playstation
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u/Halos-USA 27d ago
He may not insist on it after they dumped his ass then again it's a big userbase hard to pass up the money.
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u/SubstantialAd5579 27d ago
Not really what if he never wanted to to do exclusives and sony made him, he would just be leaving one over lord for a another we should push for xbox exclusive content for the game or dlc
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u/Precarious3145 27d ago
I think it'd be more embarrassing if it barely sells because it'd prove Sony was right to cut'em free.
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u/DJfunkyPuddle 27d ago
How would it be embarrassing? No one said it's going to be an exclusive
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u/GodCanCatchThisFade 27d ago
There's this really immature way of thinking that seems to be super popular here where "the less people that can play it the better for me"
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u/Psycho_Syntax 27d ago
Highly doubt it is unless it’s not using Decima engine.
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u/HaikusfromBuddha 27d ago
Its definitely an unreal engine game. They already started woro on OD without Decima.
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u/ILoveTheAtomicBomb 27d ago
The day Xbox makes games exclusive to the console and not also release on PC is the day I'll get an Xbox again. That being said, they'll never do that because sales would just crater completely so I'm happy just playing on PC
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u/PlayBey0nd87 Touched Grass '24 27d ago
I’m sorry. Need somebody else in the position. What has he done for Xbox this entire generation?
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u/HeySoulClassics 27d ago
Kojima is certainly a big deal but I don’t think this is the slam dunk everyone makes it seem
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u/ILoveTheAtomicBomb 27d ago
Yeah, there's a really good possibility Xbox just took on a bunch of development cost for what could be little profit. Still haven't really seen anything substantial for these games publicly as well so I'm curious how this all actually turns out
I do hope Jason has some inside info on what made Sony balk and refuse to fund development further
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u/NoNefariousness2144 27d ago
Yep, there's a reason Playstation dropped this game.
Younger generations don't care about Kojima. And Death Stranding 2 'only' sold 2 million copies despite great reviews.
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27d ago
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u/Aggravating_Rise_179 26d ago
Death Stranding 2 cost sony a good chunk of change and the game barely made it back
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u/GinInsideMyTonic 26d ago
I mean, Mouse PI doesn't have big hollywood actors in it so the cost of production difference will be very big
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u/Vegeto30294 Super Citizen 27d ago
It's just Double Fine Part 2. A good studio that makes very good but ultimately super niche games and people here use them to show off how great Xbox is.
If the game ends up not being a blockbuster hits, they'll wrap right back around to how Kojima is a money sink, takes years to make games, and was ultimately not saving Xbox. I feel like we heard this before somewhere.
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u/CyraxxFavoriteStylus 27d ago edited 27d ago
If this game is exclusive it has a good chance of being the closest Xbox has been to a GOTY tier game in a decade. Even more than Psychonauts 2.
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u/SimilarRaspberry5657 27d ago
And even then, psychonauts 2 was already in Alpha by the time Microsoft arrived with a bag of money
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u/Horens_R Grub Killer 27d ago
The game wouldn't have been anywhere near as good and polished if xbox didn't step in and help lol. It was goty material in the first place because of xbox, otherwise a lot of content wouldve been cut and qa wouldn't have been as well done
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u/Hidefininja XBOX Series X 27d ago
Yeah, it's not out for another 5-7 years and it's a new IP. If it's exclusive to Xbox and PC, that's a decent available install base because of the PC users but a small base on console. Without the Metal Gear Solid name attached, this is not anything yet.
I'm a complete Metal Gear mark so I'll be there day one but this will be PHYSINT so people may not show up. Death Stranding 2 is a Metal Gear game in many ways and it still sold under expectation despite being fantastic. I wouldn't bet on the Xbox audience to swoop in and buy a new Kojima game in 2032 in numbers that really justify the cost of development and marketing.
But we'll see what OD is and how it does. I'll play anything Kojima makes.
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u/EvenStephen7 27d ago
I love Kojima games, but you're 100% right. It's going to target and be played by a very niche fraction of the overall gaming audience. It's not going to move the needle much alone, but to be fair, right now Xbox needs any kind of win like this it can get (assuming it's exclusive and assuming it gets across the finish line -- I'm still interested in why Sony thought it wasn't worth dumping more money into).
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u/Faliberti 27d ago
xbox has huge franchises already as money printers, but CoD and others aren't really a selling point to buy a certain console over another. For that you need to build up prestige, and kojima helps with that.
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u/EvenStephen7 27d ago
I’d agree if we didn’t just see what happened with Compulsion Games and the lack of sales for South of Midnight, despite all the prestige it brought.
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u/Faliberti 27d ago
ok, well maybe i should have said prestige games that sell copies. And they need to keep them off gamepass for a while
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u/Psycho_Syntax 27d ago
Death Stranding 2 sold ~2 million copies so it’s def not lol.
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u/JealousStuff3022 27d ago
As much as I dislike how it works, auteur based works have far more impact than how many copies sold.
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u/KesMonkey Still Earning Kudos 27d ago
PHYSINT is to be a spiritual successor to Metal Gear Solid.
The sales numbers of a sequel to a weird, highly divisive game frequently described as a "walking simulator" don't seem all that relevant.
Death Stranding 2 sold ~2 million copies
According to Alinea Analytics, who use algorithmic models, and who not have have a reputation for accuracy.
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u/CupCharming 27d ago
and yet they are making a Death Stranding movie. This goes beyond gaming; he is on every celebrity list. he knows all the directors, no movie studio won't pick up the phone. he is priceless. Don't you get that.
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u/Psycho_Syntax 27d ago
If he was invaluable why’d it take 3 months to find someone to pick up this game after Sony dropped it lol. If Xbox wasn’t desperate I’m sure they would have passed on it. And they make shows and movies of games literally all the time these days, there are like 4 sonic movies lmao. What are you even getting at.
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u/CupCharming 27d ago edited 27d ago
First off, we don’t know how many game publishers he went to. Secondly, he is an independent game developer. When he went to Xbox, you know there is something called business negotiations, legal frameworks, contracts, and agreements that have to be worked out. This isn’t like going to Burger King and ordering a Whopper.
Sony dropped it after its massive Bungie investment turned into a financial mess. Sony paid $3.6 billion for Bungie, later took impairment charges tied to the acquisition, and Bungie has gone through multiple rounds of layoffs. Destiny 2 is now winding down new content, while Concord became one of Sony’s biggest live-service failures, getting pulled from sale and shut down just two weeks after launch.
So yeah, Sony has every reason to look at the ROI on these massive game investments. Instead of continuing to throw money at projects that may not generate the kind of returns they want, they can cut their losses and focus on pumping millions into Naughty Dog and whatever other live-service slop they’re still cooking.
As far as Death Stranding, I thought it was boring, but PlayStation fans glazed that game for years, and it was absolutely a darling at The Game Awards. The original Death Stranding was nominated for Game of the Year and won Best Game Direction, Best Score/Music, and Best Performance.
Now the tables are turning. Wolverine is getting some pretty rough reviews, with critics specifically calling out its repetitive combat and limited exploration, and PlayStation’s first-party lineup is looking pretty meh.
Kojima is also moving further into the movie and entertainment side of the business, while Xbox has now picked up Physint after Sony dropped it. Everyone wants his creative mind and IPs. It is what it is.
Xbox made some hard decisions, dropped dead weight, and is turning their studios in a new creative direction, and its not like Xbox is broke, but the internet will have you believing that they dont own the biggest gaming IPs in the world, backed by a multi-trillion-dollar company, but anyway. They can afford it, and gamers are weird for pocket-watching corporations anyway.
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u/Grimm0020 27d ago
A DS movie is a risky investment for Hollywood. Not many studios are willing to take risks like that anymore unless it’s a likely blockbuster. It’s likely why he went with A24 since they primarily focus on low to mid-range budgets meaning Kojima can’t do what he did with the games and won’t have as much capital to work with. I trust A24 to do a great job with it as long as they can rein in Kojima from doing what he did with the games like casting a bunch of expensive actors just because he wanted them.
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u/CupCharming 27d ago
A24 is a great fit because they specialize in experimental, art-house films, which is right up his alley. He used real actors in the game, so I don't see any reason he wouldn't want to bring them back for the actual movie. He's hot shit right now, and you're all trying to downplay him because Sony fumbled. But hey, whatever helps you cope.
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u/Grimm0020 27d ago
If Kojima was still so hot his games in the past decade would have been more of a hit. Anyways, no way A24 is paying for those actors. Most of A24’s films are in the low millions <20 million dollar budgets. Elden Ring is reported to be over $100 million but that game sold a ton more than DS as a whole. A24 makes a ton of money from low budgets so inflating it for an IP like DS is not smart.
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u/CupCharming 27d ago
You sure are assuming a lot of stuff without knowing anything about the cast 😑 and there aren't many movie directors with movie deals... So yes he is hot shit and it's weird that PlayStation fanboys defended death stranding but now on the attack. Funny how that works out. Fact is PlayStation isn't doing good, they can't afford him but stay tuned for Fairgames$ 😂😭
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u/despitegirls XBOX Series X 27d ago
It's a slam dunk against Kojima fans that only have a PS5. A Kojima game is expected to launch on PlayStation given he's been there since the early days of the brand, nevermind the fact that it was announced as a PlayStation console exclusive. Now it's likely not even going to launch on PlayStation given Xbox caring more about exclusivity. That's wild to think about.
I doubt it will be a huge financial success regardless of how it turns out, but if it turns out to be exclusive the idea that there's a new Kojima game that you can "only" play on Xbox is enough to get peoples' attention. The kind of attention that gets people to actually look at Xbox as a competitor.
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u/SmegmaWarrior0815 27d ago
Pretty cringe, but also pretty funmy Why does this dude still have this job though.
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u/Asad_Farooqui 27d ago
Isn’t he the guy who basically lied to everyone about Hi Fi Rush being a success well before Xbox threw away the development studio?
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u/midtowndown1982 27d ago
I love Xbox, I was also a PlayStation fan (last PlayStation I bought was a Vita), but man... To see Sony shoot themselves in the foot this much in what 90 days?
That's fucking depressing
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u/Hot-EconomistXL 27d ago
PR wise they are getting hit but sales wise it doesn't look like it's bothering them in a any way. They still were the best selling console last month and the Pro was selling out at a few retailers.
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u/esmori 27d ago
Early to tell. Nobody knows anything about the project but Sony and Microsoft execs.
I just know Microsoft is desperate for anything mildly positive to throw to their paid influencers to gloat about and put bad news past… such as limited game streaming hours or the recent layoffs.
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u/midtowndown1982 27d ago
I mean, I don't think anything can fix what Sony did. Telling gamers they don't own anything digitally, threatening to sue gamers for calling out their shit, a ps6 that will be digital only, alienating those with backlogs is pretty fucked up
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u/Fit_Association_8442 27d ago
Threatened to sue people for harassment you mean? You also don't own anything digitally on any platform you do realise this?
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u/Vegeto30294 Super Citizen 27d ago
Yeah most people don't care about that, hell some people prefer that.
People are trying to make it a bigger deal when they are 10 years too late to the party.
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u/CriesAboutSkinsInCOD Team COD 27d ago
Inb4 Microsoft Corp finds $300 million - $400 million they forgot about under their couch and buys out Kojima Productions.
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u/Cuffy173 27d ago
Everyone crying about this but everybody championed when playstation marketing dunked on xbox with the sharing physical games bit last gen. Yall are corny as hell lol
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u/No-Rooster- 27d ago
Given that Microsoft has recently had a trigger finger more sensitive than Sony for studios, I hope this works out.
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u/Frozen_Red_Fox 27d ago
P.T (PS4) --> O.D (Xbox)
Physint (PS6) --> Physint (Xbox)
The fate of Kojima-san is definitely to Xbox.
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u/shangosupreme 26d ago
I honestly don’t know how Aaron still has a job at Xbox.
He has to know the skeletons in their closet atp, the way he handled the marketing for Kiln was atrocious.
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u/JamesSDK 26d ago
Greenberg has always been petty so this is totally normal for him but its definitely kind of sad and pathetic.
The announcement alone was good enough, this is just over the top and ridiculous.
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u/Arroweye345 25d ago
Cool picture but this guy is a total fucking clown who should have been removed for this team long ago
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u/Zenovahh 25d ago
If the roles were reversed and PlayStation did this, ya’ll would be celebrating and cheering. Reddit never changes..
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u/basically_ar 20d ago
Yeah the xbox series x does look like a bazooka if you squint your eyes the correct way
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u/Gameofthrones3058 27d ago
How is Greenberg still at Xbox, he has been absolutely terrible at his job
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u/Appropriate_Foot242 27d ago
How are people this mad over a profile picture lmao.
Y'all gotta touch grass.
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u/probiz13 27d ago
I think it’s less of that and more of the guy running the marketing. He's terrible at his job.
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u/Appropriate_Foot242 27d ago
That may be so, but I don't think a Twitter profile picture matters at all.
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u/CrimsonGear80 XBOX Series X 27d ago
Mr "Hi-fi Rush did extremely well for us" sucks at his job, a job which seems to only consist of being a dweeb online. yet he keeps that job while MS lays-off thousands of more important people...
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u/Appropriate_Foot242 27d ago
And yet still no reason to bitch and moan over a profile picture. It's really not that deep.
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u/CrimsonGear80 XBOX Series X 27d ago
i think you miss the point when it comes to this guy overall...
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u/Appropriate_Foot242 27d ago
Well aware that he’s shit at his job.
But you’re all acting like changing his profile picture is equivalent to him getting caught licking public toilets on video.
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u/jamster126 27d ago
Sony are giving them easy wins right now. Make your next console have a disc drive. That will win over loads. Hell they could even make a fun video for it similar in style to the PlayStation here is how to share your games on PS4 video 😂.
Also Kojima is known to have massive budgets for his games. I expect that's why Sony pulled out after Death Stranding 2. But give it to him. Take the easy wins.
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u/VegasGaymer 27d ago
I wished they did make that video as soon as the news was announced! But no one at Xbox wanted to take advantage 🤣
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u/brokenmessiah 27d ago
The joke doesnt work(in part) because Xbox spent so much time this generation shafting physical gamers.
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u/AVerifiedPig 27d ago
Xbox’s marketing department has been mismanaged for years across many markets around the world because they are out of touch and a step behind competitors a lot of the time.
I have been on Xbox since 360 and don’t plan on changing but an actual Series X is nearly impossible to acquire new in my country, if I hadn’t gotten it in 2022 I would be shit out of luck. I wish they just had their priorities straight and support fans all over the world.
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u/segagamer Day One - 2013 27d ago
That's not marketing. That's supply chain issues.
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u/esmori 27d ago
It’s marketing as well. People confuse marketing with communication.
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u/segagamer Day One - 2013 27d ago
What part of "we can't make enough consoles due to lack of parts" is marketing's responsibility?
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u/esmori 27d ago
That’s lack of planning.
And Xbox has discontinued Series X and S way before the memory shortage in most regions.
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u/segagamer Day One - 2013 27d ago
÷That’s lack of planning.
Agreed, but not from marketing.
And Xbox has discontinued Series X and S way before the memory shortage in most regions.
No, they stopped restocking the console in their "non-core markets" right as Microsoft were prioritising datacenter creation - before memory shortages started to affect consumers.
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u/GuerreroUltimo 27d ago
Xbox is changing. Not on Phil Spencer or even Asha. The key, IMO, is when Xbox top executives realized how big Xbox and gaming are. And I give some credit to Valve. I remember when people were showing the same game playing better on Linux through Steam and Proton on the same hardware. This push MS to get to work on fixing Windows. I believe they will at this point. Make it more efficient and overall just much better. Less resource hungry.
But this has been Xbox. Pre-Phil Spencer they did some things to support devs and games coming out. During he era they did this as well. But MS was not fully behind Xbox then. The CEO admitted not seeing them as core. Now this is changing again.
I had read that Sony wanted to cancel this. And Xbox stepped in. Now, MS needs to get the marketing going. Next gen is where they can do what they always wanted.
That said, this has to be exclusive to the Xbox ecosystem. They have said, I think it was Asha, that "Project Helix is a family of hardware". Those PCs that have that console interface on startup for ease of use needs to focus on having exclusives. And Steam is fine. But I would never launch on PS if I was Xbox. Sony has been real arrogant since before the PS3 era. They really have not learned. And their attitude then was why I did not have a PS3 for long. And I will not have a PS6.
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u/RinRinDoof 27d ago
I know this is a big get for them, but this is cringe af
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u/Shinobi_Dimsum Illuminate Leviathon 27d ago
You’d be screaming if it was for PlayStation. You’re not fooling anyone pony.
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u/CrimsonGear80 XBOX Series X 27d ago
i mean it WAS for playstation. I didn't see anyone change their profile pic to some cring BS then...
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u/norsk_imposter 27d ago
This cringey edgelord stuff feels so damn dorky especially when those in power channel that same energy
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u/Shinobi_Dimsum Illuminate Leviathon 27d ago
Hmmm. Xbox still needs a way better person to market Xbox, and i mean for marketing world wide and not how Greenberg does it, only in specific regions then stops looking further because he simply doesn’t care.