Winds of Change: Microsoft Charts a New Course
It turned out that an $8.50 bowl of Ramen could dish some significant information on a windy Sunday evening...
On the weekend before E3 2012, on the sidewalk in front of an old building located at 327 E 1st Street, in the Little Tokyo District of Los Angeles we had our encounter. Bear with us and we will explain...
The ground floor of this building is the home of one of the five locations for the restaurant Daikokuya, what is perhaps one of the best Ramen restaurants to be found outside of Japan. While Daikokuya has locations in Arcadia, Monterey Park, Cosa Mesa, and Hacienda Heights, the Little Tokyo restaurant is both the best known and the most impractical; you cannot make reservations, you cannot get take-away, you must dine-in, and to do that, you must queue up.
It is easy to spot, all that you need to do is look for the crowd waiting outside, and then duck in to put your name on the list before joining that crowd as you wait for your name to be called, which is technically where our story begins as we arrived and added our name to the list before joining the dozen-odd people outside cheerfully waiting their turn. After a half-hour there were considerably more people outside, and it seemed that new arrivals were happening disproportionately more frequently than diners inside were finishing their meals and leaving, so that the crowd continued to grow.
Most of the people waiting outside consisted of groups of four or more, while our group was only two -- your Gaming Update reporter and his intern -- which may be why the young couple who arrived on the sidewalk and who frowned at the large group of groups discretely approached us and inquired how many we were. When I answered "just the two of us" they asked if we might consider allowing them to join our party? They seemed like a nice couple so the answer was yes, and that was how we found ourselves at dinner just ten minutes later getting to know these strangers, who as it turned out were Microsoft Elves in town as part of the staff for E3.The new forerunner enemy was a surprise, as was the expanded weapons and combat system, and their take on the new entry in the series -- "It is a much longer, deeper, and more complex play experience but definitely worthy of the series" it was explained -- and the fact that many of the outstanding questions that have long-nagged, and in particular just exactly what did happen to the Master Chief after the odd and startling end in Halo 3 was finally a settled matter for us, and we had yet to see even a trailer for the game! Bless you Daikokuya Ramen!
Inside at the table following our drinks order, which followed our food order (Ramen all around my good man!) an odd comment was made that had nothing to do with what we had previously been discussing -- E3 2012 would be the only major PR surge for them in the coming gaming season, and they were happy about that as it would mean less travel and tension in their lives.
"Waaahhhrrr?" I might have asked.
"We're not going to be doing Gamescom or the Tokyo Game Show this year, instead the plan is to focus less on the industry and more on the gamers," they said. "Instead of spending the massive amount of time, money, and resources on the industry events, the thinking is that since this is going to be a year that is more about games than our hardware, it just makes more sense," they explained.
At the time we had no way to verify that what we were hearing was, in fact, policy set by Microsoft, but since then this new policy has been confirmed by Microsoft spokesman Larry Hryb -- who is of course Xbox LIVE's Major Nelson -- in an official posting to his blog so there you have it.
The Xbox 360 Kinect controller remains their focus, they explained, but they have pretty much said everything that needs to be said about that to the industry already -- and there will not be any solid information about the next-generation Xbox released until closer to the holidays at the earliest, or next Spring at the latest, they explained. In fact the official focus will be on games -- and apps -- but they did not mention SmartGlass I am sad to say, or we would have broken that immediately.
When I asked what that really meant I learned that it would be events like PAX Prime and PAX East that would get the lion's share of their attention and efforts because those are gamer and fan-bases that they believe much better deserve both their efforts and budgets. But it is more than that it seems, as in addition to reaching out to the fans, there are also plans in the works to return to a PR style that we have not seen in nearly a decade -- direct and private regional briefings for the press.
Considerable effort is planned to hold press briefings -- by invitation only of course -- at the various Microsoft campuses that are strategically located across the USA that serve the different districts. For example in the Northeast region there will be briefings at the company offices and campuses in Waltham (MA), Rochester (NY), and in New York City, and in the Midwest at Chicago (IL) and Louisville (KY). Locations in the south include Atlanta (GA), Memphis (TN), Tampa (FL), in Washington (DC), and in Texas at both Houston and Dallas.
Like its home campus in Redmond, Los Angeles will apparently have slightly more briefings than elsewhere, but it is clear from what was said that the briefings, which are to be strategically scheduled to fill in the gaps that might have been managed at industry events with a focus upon early and late Fall, will include something of a surge as the holiday season approaches. Good news for both games journos and gamers, since it means that the lack of presence at the industry events does not necessarily equate to a lack of information or hand's-on time with games.
Outside of North America the same basic approach will be utilized, with press briefings scheduled at both regional offices and locations of convenience -- which translates to rented meeting spaces -- both of which used to be common and, speaking from experience, will be a welcome returning focus for most games journos who remember them, because they were a much more effective and informative experience for us.
Members of the games press community that have been around for more than ten years will recall that meetings like these used to be a regular part of the beat, but became less frequent as the focus shifted to major industry event -- and while it is not likely that we will see a return to the junket system (almost every print and most digital outlets would likely frown on that anyway) -- a return to the more focused and practical briefing model will serve the industry well. Think of it like smaller class sizes in schools, with a better student-to-teacher ratio meaning that there will be more face-time, with a much more responsive Q&A process, and that translates into more -- and better -- information.
No comments yet. Tell us what you think to be the first.