More controversies from the Xbox One front, and this time it has everything to do with the One’s technical details, as to how much power it possesses. Basically, Microsoft’s hard time with Xbox One PR continues to move along without any real signs of stopping.
The problem started after Microsoft Games Studio head Phil Spencer stated that the Xbox One was three times more powerful the Xbox 360 during a recent Jimmy Fallon show. Needless to say, it created quite a stir as Microsoft earlier boasted that one Xbox One was equal to the power of 10 Xbox 360 consoles.
Following the declaration on Jimmy Fallon, fans took to Twitter to get their facts right. One such fan was spot on with his question to Spencer and wrote: “So back in May, Microsoft stated that the Xbox One was 8x more powerful than the 360. Last night on Fallon, only 3x more powerful?”
Spencer, however, was quick to react to that by replying that “It was a mistake, 8x is the right number. I just messed up the line.” Really? How do you mess up on a famed product of your company that’s scheduled for a fall release?
Moreover, if the Xbox One is actually eight times more powerful than the Xbox 360, what did Spencer mean when he clarified (again) that the new console is actually 10 times more powerful and “for purely local compute functions closer to 10x + Cloud?”
When another fan took to Twitter and asked Spencer “Why did you say only 3 times the power of the 360 for Xbox One when it has been said to be 6, 8, even 40 times more powerful,” Spencer just flatly replied that “I made a mistake.”
On asked if he actually has any idea about the Xbox One’s actual number, Spencer wrote: “Depends on exactly what you are doing with the system. For purely local compute functions closer to 10x + Cloud.”
Pushing the conversation further and asked if the number is “10+times the power over 360 if you count the cloud too,” Spencer concluded: “Cloud gives more, cloud really depends on game. Dedicated servers, async compute etc. gives devs more options. 10x is local.”
Now, we are not drawing a picture here about Microsoft’s involvement with its own PR regarding the new Xbox, but it’s definitely certain that neither the PR nor Microsoft has any idea as to what each other is doing. And knowing about the basic technical details of a product is just a preliminary thing here.
In this case, even the Head of Microsoft Games Studio is in the dark as to what equals what, and it now seems like hard days are ahead for the company and its highly criticized console.