Microsoft and the 360 embarrassment

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Apparently, they don't have as much confidence in their new machine as they
like to let on. They used an old GW trick to stack the audience at E3

http://www.satori.org/blog/archives/000270.html


May 17, 2005
E3 2005: Most embarrassing thing ever
So far E3 has been good; a fair number of meetings, the press conferences,
etc.

But here's the worst thing ever. The Xbox360 press conference was kind of
done "in the round", that is, the presenter stood on a circular platform
with the audience all around. The audience behind the presenters was on the
stage, and at first they looked normal. But the press conference started
about 40 minutes late, so we on the main floor had a lot of time to look at
these people. They seemed like they could be developers or bloggers or
something... they were all 20'ish, in jeans and T-shirts and whatnot. But,
they were all fairly attractive - or at least the women were - as was
noticed by the people behind me.

The next thing we noticed was that none of them wore the little circular
pins we all had been given when we came in. Hmmm. Weird.

But the last hint came when a shapely woman came forward with the Xbox360 in
a pack and put it on the stage. Suddenly this audience erupted into
applause. They were hired guns! At every cue they went crazy, clapping and
cheering and pumping their arms, nodding their heads, etc. Microsoft had
brought its own supporters along with them, just in case they got a chilly
reception at the press conference!

That's just horrible. I felt sorry for them - what did they think they were
doing? I could only think that perhaps they brought these people along to
provide a pretty backdrop for the camera shots. Ooo, look at all the pretty,
hip people! They all want Xbox360! Look how excited they are! It was like an
infomercial.

It was completely embarrassing, and the real audience caught on quickly. I
think MS would have gotten a much better reception had they not tried to
stack the deck at their conference. As one friend said, "It's like a Bush
press conference!"

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turk wrote:

> Apparently, they don't have as much confidence in their new machine
> as they like to let on. They used an old GW trick to stack the
> audience at E3
> http://www.satori.org/blog/archives/000270.html


It's on a blog so it must be true!

Archived from groups: comp.sys.ibm.pc.games.action (More info?)

"Knight37" <knight37m@email.com> wrote in message
news:Xns965AF0254F2DCknight37m@130.133.1.4...
> "Hank the Rapper" <xflopgoon@REMOVEyahoo.com> once tried to test me with:
>
>> turk wrote:
>>
>>> Apparently, they don't have as much confidence in their new machine
>>> as they like to let on. They used an old GW trick to stack the
>>> audience at E3
>>> http://www.satori.org/blog/archives/000270.html
>>
>>
>> It's on a blog so it must be true!
>
> Dumb ass. It's not true because it's on a blog.
>
> It's true because it's on the internets.

It was also shown on television...so between the three of them...

turk
--
"As democracy is perfected, the office represents, more and more closely,
the inner soul of the people. We move toward a lofty ideal. On some great
and glorious day the plain folks of the land will reach their heart's desire
at last, and the White House will be adorned by a downright moron." - H. L.
Mencken, in the Baltimore Sun, July 26, 1920.

Archived from groups: comp.sys.ibm.pc.games.action (More info?)

Quoth The Raven "turk"<turk96@comcast.net> in
jZWdnb-oGp6aExbfRVn-iQ@comcast.com
> Apparently, they don't have as much confidence in their new machine
> as they like to let on. They used an old GW trick to stack the
> audience at E3
> http://www.satori.org/blog/archives/000270.html
>
>
> May 17, 2005
> E3 2005: Most embarrassing thing ever
> So far E3 has been good; a fair number of meetings, the press
> conferences, etc.
>
> But here's the worst thing ever. The Xbox360 press conference was
> kind of done "in the round", that is, the presenter stood on a
> circular platform with the audience all around. The audience behind
> the presenters was on the stage, and at first they looked normal. But
> the press conference started about 40 minutes late, so we on the main
> floor had a lot of time to look at these people. They seemed like
> they could be developers or bloggers or something... they were all
> 20'ish, in jeans and T-shirts and whatnot. But, they were all fairly
> attractive - or at least the women were - as was noticed by the
> people behind me.
> The next thing we noticed was that none of them wore the little
> circular pins we all had been given when we came in. Hmmm. Weird.
>
> But the last hint came when a shapely woman came forward with the
> Xbox360 in a pack and put it on the stage. Suddenly this audience
> erupted into applause. They were hired guns! At every cue they went
> crazy, clapping and cheering and pumping their arms, nodding their
> heads, etc. Microsoft had brought its own supporters along with them,
> just in case they got a chilly reception at the press conference!
>
> That's just horrible. I felt sorry for them - what did they think
> they were doing? I could only think that perhaps they brought these
> people along to provide a pretty backdrop for the camera shots. Ooo,
> look at all the pretty, hip people! They all want Xbox360! Look how
> excited they are! It was like an infomercial.
>
> It was completely embarrassing, and the real audience caught on
> quickly. I think MS would have gotten a much better reception had
> they not tried to stack the deck at their conference. As one friend
> said, "It's like a Bush press conference!"

how about after that? how did the presentation go?

--
I keep bumping into that silly quotation attributed to me that says
640K of memory is enough. There's never a citation; the quotation just
floats like a rumour, repeated again and again. - Bill Gates

Take out the _CURSEING to reply to me

Archived from groups: comp.sys.ibm.pc.games.action (More info?)

"turk" <turk96@comcast.net> wrote in message
news_edndzyrtfOhBHfRVn-pg@comcast.com...
> "Knight37" <knight37m@email.com> wrote in message
> news:Xns965AF0254F2DCknight37m@130.133.1.4...
> > "Hank the Rapper" <xflopgoon@REMOVEyahoo.com> once tried to test me
with:
> >>
> >> It's on a blog so it must be true!
> >
> > Dumb ass. It's not true because it's on a blog.
> >
> > It's true because it's on the internets.
>
> It was also shown on television...so between the three of them...
>
> turk
> --

I just read about it in Newsweek. ;-)