The latest episode of Inside Xbox made its debut this week with a new look at the Xbox Series X to deliver promises of trailers, reveals, and gameplay presentations. It made good on those promises, but the expectations for gameplay from those who’d been hyped up for the event weren’t met in many cases with people wishing that there would’ve been more actual player-controlled gameplay to witness. In a response to the feedback from fans following the event, Aaron Greenberg, the general manager of Xbox Games Marketing, said there were clearly some “wrong expectations” set for the event and that the Xbox team appreciated the feedback.
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Greenberg’s response to the fan feedback came after a Twitter user came to the defense of Xbox by highlighting parts of the company’s marketing from the buildup to the event. Posts from Microsoft about the event had noted that there would be “next-gen gameplay, trailers, and sneak peeks” at the Inside Xbox event, though as others pointed out, many of the tweets and reminders from Xbox emphasized the gameplay part of the presentation.
In response to the tweet, Greenberg said he suspected the reception would’ve been different had the Inside Xbox show been presented with less said about it beforehand. Regardless, he said the expectations were wrongly set leading up to the event and said the Xbox team would look to learn from the event.
Had we not said anything & just shown May Inside Xbox show like we did last month, I suspect reactions might have been different. Clearly we set some wrong expectations & that’s on us. We appreciate all the feedback & can assure you we will take it all in & learn as a team. 🙏🏻💚
— Aaron Greenberg 🙅🏼♂️❎ (@aarongreenberg) May 8, 2020
To be fair to Xbox, gameplay was shown during the event – it just wasn’t as much as people had hoped for. Assassin’s Creed Valhalla was a prime example of this since it was the only game people knew for a fact was therefore the only one people could confidently look forward to. Its time during the show came at the end of the event and wasn’t as long or as in-depth as people expected.
There were plenty of other games to appreciate from the event though, and Microsoft still has more to say about the future of Xbox during the rest of its Xbox 20/20 events. The next one takes place in June with July’s presentation focusing on first-party Xbox games instead.
