Un-Orth-o-box

Meet Microsoft Studios' creative director Adam Orth. Now prepare to seriously dislike his guts. A couple of days ago, Orth took to twitter to express his opinion concerning all the rumours flying around about the new X-box: the possibility of Blu-ray, alleged system specs and, the real fly in the ointment, the rumour of an always-on internet connection requirement. I'm not going to tell you what he said, because a picture is worth a thousand words, even if said picture is a compilation of words.

Fun fact: that's Bioware's gameplay designer Manveer Heir debating the issue with him.

So...where do I begin, huh? The backlash to such a snarky, arrogant and high horse attitude was so immediate and absolute that, later on, Orth issued a begrudged non-apology and made his twitter private, but not before cracking some more wise.

So, is this what we should expect from Microsoft and the new X-box? A "deal with it" approach to customers? 

Microsoft doesn't seem to think that's the case. In an "apology" (and yes, the quotation marks are intentional) released yesterday, they say otherwise.

"We apologize for the inappropriate comments made by an employee on Twitter yesterday. This person is not a spokesperson for Microsoft, and his personal views do not reflect the customer-centric approach we take to our products or how we would communicate directly with our loyal consumers.  We are very sorry if this offended anyone, however we have not made any announcements about our product roadmap, and have no further comment on this matter."

What I love most about this statement, is that it gives me an excuse to revive this blog's tagline: let's break it down.

PR Jargon to English Translator 2.0

• [We apologize for the inappropriate comments made by an employee on Twitter yesterday.]-----> We are sorry for what Orth, distanced as much as possible from Microsoft's image right now, said on twitter yesterday, seeing as it didn't go down well.
• [This person is not a spokesperson for Microsoft, and his personal views do not reflect the customer-centric approach we take to our products or how we would communicate directly with our loyal consumers.]-----> The guy just works for us, this was not a sample of Microsoft's idea of customer interaction. Even though, you know, we promoted all the way to creative director a guy who clearly doesn't care about customers or even less privileged customers all that much. This ain't us. We're not promoting this behaviour. Erm...Look behind you!
• [We are very sorry if this offended anyone,]-----> Sorry if this offended you, I guess.
• [however,]-----> BUT!
• [we have not made any announcements about our product roadmap, and have no further comment on this matter."]-----> We didn't say anything about what the hell we intend to do with our new console, and if always-on was indeed our plan, we might think twice now, while simultaneously saving face. Might.

Waiting for the official announcement is the only way to confirm any of the rumours flying around, but I can't shake the sneaky suspicion this was little more than an elaborate testing of the water. Orth, with Microsoft's blessing, gauging the general public's reaction to a potential always-online requirement. Granted, it's a rather paranoid suspicion, but that doesn't mean it's not possible.

Leaving this post with a little cautionary note: not a single thing has been confirmed about the new console yet. Do not take a single rumour as a solid fact before the official console announcement. Not even the scariest one of them all, the lack of backwards compatibility.