If You Don't Want Games, Microsoft, Then Say So

If Microsoft wants to concede the games market to Sony, to Steam, to Nintendo, and to the myriad small indie studios like Mojang and 2D Boy; if Microsoft wants to admit that all the work it has done with the XBox and the Halo series was in vain; if Microsoft wants to join EA, Ubisoft, Take-Two and Activision in marketing games to rich suburban boys with persistent (always on) Internet connections; then Microsoft is free to do so. Those are Microsoft's choices.

The least Microsoft could do for its reputation now is to put a muzzle on the big, fat, stupid and arrogant mouth of Orth, its creative director. (Ex-creative director now.) Quoth Orth: Sorry, I don't get the drama around having an always on console. Every device now is always on. That's the world we live in. #dealwithit It turns out Micrsoft dealt with him: Orth's Twitter account is locked down as of this date.

All this hurts the mind of the folks at Penny Arcade, as evidenced in this quote and a later strip:

What's being suggested/pilloried — a console which must constantly speak to the Internet or be rendered inert — could not possibly work as a global entertainment appliance. That's why I don't actually believe it's the case. But we saw this with the PS3, also: a glutted victor gesturing with a ham hock, making a host of slurred decrees. And that's where the worry begins to creep in at the edges.

Actually, I am more apt to believe Orth in his words implying that a console which must constantly speak to the Internet or be rendered inert is what the incoming XBox Live Arcade is all about. Microsoft is capable of amazing folly, which it is incapable of seeing beyond. Remember, this is the same company that put out Windows Vista, and which just put out Windows 8 — which not only fell flat on its face but has gutted PC sales to boot.

Techdirt provides incontrovertible proof that Orth is a total fool who deserves to have his social media (and his job) taken away from him … for good. The proof starts like this: Remember that whole SimCity thing, where the always online requirement of the game turned into launch failures, massive backlash, and caused EA/Maxis to lie like it was their job? Yeah, good times. It was almost as if the whole debacle was some kind of how-not-to-do-video-games piece of performance art. Well, the good news is that everyone in the video game industry has learned their lesson, realizing that they need to treat their customers with respect and understand that their demands fuel sales, which means not including requirements they don't want¡ Yup, they all get it now¡ We won¡ Color and snark-marks provided just in case you did not get the sarcasm.