Games Thirst – Amazing Life
Microsoft Xbox Director of Product Planning Albert Penello has been let loose by the company to preach the gospel of Xbox One awesomeness, and for a while there he was doing a really good job. In numerous interviews, he spoke about what the Xbox One offers, why they moved too fast with their all-digital plan, and how he was a bit surprised by the negative response the console received when it was announced.
That’s all fine and dandy, but Penello took a different route on popular gaming forum NeoGAF, by trying his best in numerous posts to downplay PS4′s raw advantage over Xbox One, taking shots at Sony for comments the firm made spanning way back to PS2 days, and claiming that there’s no way Microsoft would allow Sony and its PS4 to get away with a 30-40 percent power advantage over Xbox One.
He even seemed to insinuate that NeoGAF members were dumb, claiming that Microsoft has some of the best coders and engineers in the world, and bragging that Microsoft created DirectX, so obviously they know what they’re about.
The company was doing well in recent days – not weeks, days. But today, Penello went full-mental on us, and Xbox One isn’t even out of the woods yet – far from it, in fact.
Here’s Penello: “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 [hardware] 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.”
He raged on: “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…”
Penello went on to question Sony’s strategy — as if Mark Cerny hasn’t been forthright with PS4′s innards, and as if he, Penello, has been in a cave from February until now. Sony’s clearly been open about PS4, and have, in many settings, painstakingly described the console’s architecture — yet Penello ignores all this, ignores PS4′s raw power advantage, and states there won’t be much of a difference once the consoles and games for them are released.
But it’s total PR talk, and about questioning Sony’s PS4 strategy, he said: “I’m stating that not everyone knows all the facts. There are still a lot of important details about the platforms that are still unknown. I have many, many questions about what Sony is doing technically.”
Questions? About what, Penello?
“The question I posed earlier, and the statements I’m making now, will come out when we see the actual shipping boxes.
“The most obvious point is that anyone looking at games on both platforms do not see ANY difference, let alone this alleged 30% – 40%. Both systems are powerful. Both are capable of next-gen graphics. I’m merely saying the application of that performance will mean the actual difference will not be that great.”
I’m not sure why Penello had to go there, as I think they’ve been doing a decent job getting a positive Xbox One message across as stated earlier, but they’ve shown themselves, once again, to be arrogant — the very same attitude that almost cost the company Xbox One.
Hopefully they get back on message soon.
