It's another strike for Microsoft's PR team, or perhaps just the company's general communication skills overall.
After a recent video interview took place where Adam Pollington, Product Manager of Xbox Australia, said, "the DVR will automatically record any achievements that take place, so, whenever you unlock a gamer score, it'll automatically record how you did that so you can check it out later," another Microsoft executive has come forward to say that this is apparently not the case.
Albert Penello, Microsoft's Director of Planning and Development for the next-gen console, took to NeoGAF to formally explain the feature, or lack thereof, writing, "It won't be automatic for every Achievement. It's a feature that Developers can unlock for achievements, OR, for instance, have hidden in the game for doing something cool or discovering something hidden. Basically we allow developers access to GameDVR and they can put conditions on an automatic recording. But not every Achievement will automatically be recorded."
That's not a minor mis-communication, that's a giant flub. You have one exec saying the Xbox One "will automatically record any achievements," and another saying, "it won't be automatic for every achievement."
It could be forgiven if say there was some sort of language translation error, but with Microsoft being based in the United States, and Australia not known for speaking some far flung exotic language (some of their slang aside, as I still can't work "billabong" into most conversations, no matter how hard I try), I don't see how this error really came to pass.
This is unfortunately becoming something of a tradition for Microsoft, which faced a PR nightmare and quite the backlash over the company's constant online connection, used game policies, and omnipresent Kinect, all required components of the console when it was formally announced. Furhtermore, Microsoft has already found itself in a bit of hot water this week after a similar miscommunication seemed to suggest the company would collect data via Kinect, and sell it to third parties.
Get your act together already Microsoft.
With or without achievment recording capabilities, the Xbox One is scheduled to launch this November, and retail for $499.
