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Xbox Breaks Xbox Black Friday Records; Windows 10 Gaming Continues To Rise

Kayant

Member
The MAU is strong with this one.

U.S. Xbox One console sales at retail were up 22 percent over the same period last year, making it the second biggest Black Friday week in 15 years of Xbox history in the U.S
This reads as XB1 Black Friday sales(not week) was 22% YOY on that day and that performance was a factor in helping to make it the second biggest Black Friday week in 15 years of Xbox history in the U.S.
 
That's exactly what I was getting at. Black Friday weekend last year was November 28, 29 and 30. Whilst this year it was November 27, 28 and 29.
So November 27, which would have been the biggest selling day this year(the actual Friday), wouldn't even factor into the results from last year. And November 30 last year(the Sunday) which would have probably been the lowest selling day, wouldn't even factor into this year as it's not part of BF weekend.

So interpreting it that way would be much more favourable for Microsoft.

But as I said before, maybe I'm just overthinking it. :)

I'm pretty critical of MS, but I don't think they'd manipulate the data that much. They'd have to choose a specific date range based on last years Black Friday, and compare them to the exact dates this year. That comparison would totally miss year's actual Friday after Thanksgiving. That'd be some next level evil.

However I'll admit that your interpretation of "same period" is consistent with their PR statement. They could do exactly what you said and not be lying.

But so are others.

That'd only be true if PR statements were not crafted intentionally to deceive. That's the whole point of PR. Have you seen the amount of tortured logic politicians use to make statements favorable to themselves? If you are not looking for double meanings and intentional ambiguities in PR statements then you are likely being dupped. Microsoft has a history of being misleading so it's not out of the normal to think they'd do so again. In fact you'd have to expect it.
 
I could see them having a higher Black Friday this year than last year, but still down overall on November. Uncle Phil's Discount Xbox's started at the beginning of the month and BF was only 30 bucks cheaper than that.
Kinda disingenuous though because Target also had a $60 giftcard with purchase
 

EGM1966

Member
Yeah, this line really bothers me. I know the whole thing is just PR painting the console in the best light possible, but this in particular is literally a lie. Let's take a look:

2015:
Halo 5 - Metacritic score of 85
Rise of the Tomb Raider - Metacritic score of 86
Forza Motorsport 6 - Metacritic score of 87
That's an average of 86/100 across three titles

2007:
Halo 3 - Metacritic score of 94
Project Gotham Racing 4 - Metacritic score of 85
Mass Effect - Metacritic score of 91
BioShock - Metacritic score of 96
That's an average of 91.5/100 across four titles
(Even if we add the more lukewarm Scene It! Lights, Camera, Action into the mix [73 Metascore] that only brings down the average to 87.8/100 across five titles)

I have checked Wikipedia and I don't think there are any I've missed. 2007 was an absolute beast of a year for the 360 and to try and claim that "holiday" 2015 has been a better year for software is a flat out lie.
PR and Marketing folks tend to have short memories. That said given they specifically note the part about critical aclaim someone should have checked the claim holds water.

Funny though, so objectively it wasn't the best lineup for Xbox exclusives ever? The list warz guys should down tools in shame at this point and beg forgiveness.
 

QaaQer

Member
Ms PR threads are mind bendingly hilarious. People praise that team, but when you have to parse info and there is always a residue of doubt as to the actual meaning, the company ends up looking slimey. And there is no need for it, they are a money making powerhouse. Contrast that to the way Apple or Sony communicate.

They need a new team that puts communication and plain language first, ahead of spin. There is a reason people hate politicians.
 
I think it's pretty easy to understand how this can be the biggest Black Friday week in Xbox history, even if BF itself wasn't their best yet: this year, more than any prior year, there were absolute tons of deals that lasted all week/weekend rather than just on Friday. People were able to buy cheap Xbox consoles for a minimum of 3 days, thus potentially reaching shoppers who normally stay in for BF because of the insane crowds.
 
Good for them. They have been doing really well this generation with bringing out games, and I applaud them for that. So well deserved
 

watdaeff4

Member
That'd only be true if PR statements were not crafted intentionally to deceive. That's the whole point of PR. Have you seen the amount of tortured logic politicians use to make statements favorable to themselves? If you are not looking for double meanings and intentional ambiguities in PR statements then you are likely being dupped. Microsoft has a history of being misleading so it's not out of the normal to think they'd do so again. In fact you'd have to expect it.

LOL. Ok, wow, never knew all these things until you pointed them out to me. Thanks so much for the life advice.

/s
 

Three

Member
Ms PR threads are mind bendingly hilarious. People praise that team, but when you have to parse info and there is always a residue of doubt as to the actual meaning, the company ends up looking slimey. And there is no need for it, they are a money making powerhouse. Contrast that to the way Apple or Sony communicate.

They need a new team that puts communication and plain language first, ahead of spin. There is a reason people hate politicians.

Mark Penn the guy who recently announced he plans to leave MS. The guy behind a lot of Microsofts past PR campaigns is in fact a former political strategist.
 
Mark Penn the guy who recently announced he plans to leave MS. The guy behind a lot of Microsofts past PR campaigns is in fact a former political strategist.

Mark Penn is just slimy, and in my opinion isn't even very good at his job. He just keeps failing upward, and is friends with the right people. Just BSing here but my guess is that a large part of his success is that people hire him to have an inside lane to the Clintons.
 

cgcg

Member
dem lots of Xbox words in that PR.

Should've just been

"Xbox!Xbox!Xbox!Xbox!Xbox!Xbox!Xbox!Xbox!Xbox!Xbox!Xbox!Xbox!Xbox!Xbox!Xbox!Xbox!Xbox!Xbox!Xbox!Xbox!Xbox!Xbox!Xbox!Xbox!Xbox!Xbox!Xbox!Xbox!Xbox!Xbox!Xbox!Xbox!Xbox!Xbox!Xbox!Xbox!Xbox!Xbox!Xbox!Xbox!Xbox!Xbox!Xbox!Xbox!Xbox!Xbox!Xbox!Xbox!Xbox!..

...So awesome"
 
The MAU is strong with this one.

This reads as XB1 Black Friday sales(not week) was 22% YOY on that day and that performance was a factor in helping to make it the second biggest Black Friday week in 15 years of Xbox history in the U.S.

Uhh, no it doesn't? It clearly says Xbox One sales over Black Friday week and even clearly states that it was a 22% increase over the same time period last year.
 
In November, hours spent gaming on Windows 10 exceeded Windows 8 for the first time ever.

Maybe because MS ramrodded Win10 down the throats of legacy users. Not sure why the PC numbers are all that relevant though. Pretty much anybody who games on PC does so in spite of MS, not because of them. Based Steam is doing what MS should have done 20 years ago in the PC gaming sphere and MS is starting to feel left out.

I fear that with the focus on Xbox Live numbers that somehow MS is going to try and milk me for some cash on the PC since console hardware sales is apparently a metric that doesn't ignite or excite.
 

QaaQer

Member
Maybe because MS ramrodded Win10 down the throats of legacy users. Not sure why the PC numbers are all that relevant though. Pretty much anybody who games on PC does so in spite of MS, not because of them. Based Steam is doing what MS should have done 20 years ago in the PC gaming sphere and MS is starting to feel left out.

I fear that with the focus on Xbox Live numbers that somehow MS is going to try and milk me for some cash on the PC since console hardware sales is apparently a metric that doesn't ignite or excite.

Get ready for it. MS loves huge margins (90%+) and if they are getting back into PC gaming space it will only be because they see huge potential profits, and those come from end users.
 

wtshaolin

Banned
To be honest if you are MS right now who really cares if they beat Sony or not. If they beat last years 1.2 million for November those are healthy as hell hardware sales.

Not to take anything from Sony, they are doing phenomenal but this is great news for the platform

Yes.
 

Coxy100

Banned
dem lots of Xbox words in that PR.

Should've just been

"Xbox!Xbox!Xbox!Xbox!Xbox!Xbox!Xbox!Xbox!Xbox!Xbox!Xbox!Xbox!Xbox!Xbox!Xbox!Xbox!Xbox!Xbox!Xbox!Xbox!Xbox!Xbox!Xbox!Xbox!Xbox!Xbox!Xbox!Xbox!Xbox!Xbox!Xbox!Xbox!Xbox!Xbox!Xbox!Xbox!Xbox!Xbox!Xbox!Xbox!Xbox!Xbox!Xbox!Xbox!Xbox!Xbox!Xbox!Xbox!Xbox!..

...So awesome"

Are you a teenager?
 

Kayant

Member
Uhh, no it doesn't? It clearly says Xbox One sales over Black Friday week and even clearly states that it was a 22% increase over the same time period last year.

Am saying this because the only context for "over the same period is from the beginning of the sentence where they talked about "Black Friday" sales specifically
Worldwide Xbox Black Friday sales in the Xbox Store broke records with an increase of 57 percent across Xbox One and Xbox 360, global Xbox Live Gold subscriptions were up over 40 percent, U.S. Xbox One console sales at retail were up 22 percent over the same period last year,
To me they are making a distinction here between "Black Friday" and "Black Friday week" as they are used differently in that sentence.
 
It is quiet funny to see how microsoft is never allowed to talk in any way about their company. Everything is offensive and broken down to the exact commer. It is entertaining tho
 

CoG

Member
It is quiet funny to see how microsoft is never allowed to talk in any way about their company. Everything is offensive and broken down to the exact commer. It is entertaining tho

Maybe if they decide to release straight-forward data at some point, people would not feel compelled to pick it apart.
 
Uhh, no it doesn't? It clearly says Xbox One sales over Black Friday week and even clearly states that it was a 22% increase over the same time period last year.

No, it doesn't. There is nothing "clearly stated" at all. What it clearly says is:

There was
...record engagement from Xbox fans around the world over Black Friday week.

And
Worldwide Xbox Black Friday sales in the Xbox Store broke records

In addition, while it does say that this was
second biggest Black Friday week in 15 years of Xbox history in the U.S.
, the preceding sentence says
Xbox One console sales at retail were up 22 percent over the same period last year,

What is the "period" MS is referring to? Well, that would be the
Worldwide Xbox Black Friday sales in the Xbox Store
, as stated at the beginning of that sentence.

What is great about MS is that when it issues a press release about sales, whether it is one sentence or a paragraph, it always leads to huge discussion threads in an attempt to decipher the PR-speak!

Based upon this statement though, it seems pretty clear to me that PS4 won November's NPD.
 
Last gen lasting so long was probably really good for both Microsoft and Sony. Not so much for Nintendo, but that goes without saying.

Both of the big boys are killing it right now. Good to see.
 
It's because Sony got shit on last gen. People are still really sore over that.

There's also that whole thing with Microsoft wanting to fuck us all over at the start of his generation, and doing so with a hilariously inferior system to the PS4, while only giving a shit about the US, then even while back-pedalling like crazy ever since, still taking the time to be utter wankers with stuff like the Indie parity clause, and bought Tomb Raider exclusivity, all while spewing double speak bollocks in every PR statement.

But no, you're right, it's all just petty console warriors and butt hurt Sony fanboys, nothing at all to do with enjoying watching them suffer the consequences of their own stupidity coming back to bite them in the arse.
 

cakely

Member
This just reinforces how much I dislike Microsoft PR.

Here we are an entire thread that mostly consists of "find the comma" parsing of another gibberish release, and we still have no idea what's actually being said.

Microsoft could really benefit from a clearly worded, unambiguous release every now and then.
 

vin-buc

Member
I don't necessarily think this means they lost the month as I think MS followed a similar pattern for October with Halo. They had PR about the Halo launch (including hardware and software). A few days later NPD came out and they won the month. It's basically a "double-up" on positive news.

I'm not saying they won or didn't.
 

EthanC

Banned
There's also that whole thing with Microsoft wanting to fuck us all over at the start of his generation, and doing so with a hilariously inferior system to the PS4, while only giving a shit about the US, then even while back-pedalling like crazy ever since, still taking the time to be utter wankers with stuff like the Indie parity clause, and bought Tomb Raider exclusivity, all while spewing double speak bollocks in every PR statement.

But no, you're right, it's all just petty console warriors and butt hurt Sony fanboys, nothing at all to do with enjoying watching them suffer the consequences of their own stupidity coming back to bite them in the arse.

Relax, they're video games. Holy shit.
 

Kayant

Member
No, it doesn't. There is nothing "clearly stated" at all. What it clearly says is:

There was

And

In addition, while it does say that this was , the preceding sentence says

What is the "period" MS is referring to? Well, that would be the , as stated at the beginning of that sentence.

What is great about MS is that when it issues a press release about sales, whether it is one sentence or a paragraph, it always leads to huge discussion threads in an attempt to decipher the PR-speak!

Based upon this statement though, it seems pretty clear to me that PS4 won November's NPD.

#Maybe am not crazy :p
 
There's also that whole thing with Microsoft wanting to fuck us all over at the start of his generation, and doing so with a hilariously inferior system to the PS4, while only giving a shit about the US, then even while back-pedalling like crazy ever since, still taking the time to be utter wankers with stuff like the Indie parity clause, and bought Tomb Raider exclusivity, all while spewing double speak bollocks in every PR statement.

But no, you're right, it's all just petty console warriors and butt hurt Sony fanboys, nothing at all to do with enjoying watching them suffer the consequences of their own stupidity coming back to bite them in the arse.

I am right. Look at all the hyperbole in what you just wrote. You are exactly the kind of guy I'm talking about.

"Bought Tom Raider exclusivity"! THE HORROR!

Relax, they're video games. Holy shit.

Exactly.
 
Relax, they're video games. Holy shit.

Sorry, imagine that delivered with the tone of jaded, mocking sarcasm, rather than any vehement passion or enthusiasm.

I just don't like the implication that MS is getting unfairly picked on. They did this to themselves, let's not forget that, and laughing at stupidity with bad intentions getting it's comeuppance is a perfectly valid and fun pass time.

I am right. Look at all the hyperbole in what you just wrote. You are exactly the kind of guy I'm talking about.

"Bought Tom Raider exclusivity"! THE HORROR!

It's not hyperbole when they actually did do want to fuck us over. They've improved massively since, but not out of any innate goodness, simply because carrying on as they intended would have lost them even more marketshare and money.

And yes, the TR exclussivity is indefensible bollocks that benefited no one, screwed over most if the series fanbase, myself included, and has buggered the games sales and potentially done permenant damage to the franchise.

If you're seriously dismissing any criticism of MS's behavior this gen and getting personally offended by people expressing valid critiscm, then frankly you're just deluding yourself.
 

vin-buc

Member
Relax, they're video games. Holy shit.

This is real life son. /s

It is funny to watch them squirm though. It's the "we're too big to fail" complex and the difficulty for them to swallow being in second place that makes all this entertaining.

The other fact is that until now everyone was under the assumption that MS "owns the holidays as Sony wins the other 9 months of the year". That isn't looking true anymore even with "Xbox's greatest lineup in Xbox's history". I mean even with Halo 5 they were only able to sell 25k more consoles than PS4.

This drives the feeding frenzy.
 
Ms PR threads are mind bendingly hilarious. People praise that team, but when you have to parse info and there is always a residue of doubt as to the actual meaning, the company ends up looking slimey. And there is no need for it, they are a money making powerhouse. Contrast that to the way Apple or Sony communicate.

They need a new team that puts communication and plain language first, ahead of spin. There is a reason people hate politicians.

I don't think MS is worried about looking a little slimey. Their PR statements are effective, I mean look at those knee jerk "omg halo 5 shattered records 400 million revenue is INSANE WOW MS" reactions and I'm sure for MS, those reactions heavily outweigh the few of us going "hold on a sec"
 

Bioshocker

Member
Good to hear. Xbox One deserves some love now. I am enjoying the hell out of Rise of the Tomb Raider at the moment, and I hope it'll end up having decent sales.

Xbox One was 1,2 million November 2014. They don't say they're up 22% in November as a whole, but if they're up on Black Friday they likely got a decent increase on the whole month as well.

Of course, PS4 could have done even better.
 

shandy706

Member
And yes, the TR exclussivity is indefensible bollocks that benefited no one, screwed over most if the series fanbase, myself included, and has buggered the games sales and potentially done permenant damage to the franchise.

Not much longer and we'll be able to play it on PC.
 
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