As if Microsoft didn’t have enough trouble dealing with misinformation and false claims regarding the Xbox One (misinformation being spread by they themselves, mind you,) we can now add just a bit more fuel to the towering inferno of online malcontent. Jonathan Blow, the man behind the popular indie title Braid and next year’s The Witness, has taken to Twitter; claiming that not only is Microsoft exaggerating about the power of their dedicated Xbox One cloud-based processing, but actually flat out lying to consumers.
He began by citing an article recently published by Joystiq about how the integration of Windows Azure will give the Xbox One a welcomed boost to processing power, an idea that Blow describes simply as, “More cloud-processing BS.”
He then went on to focus more directly on Microsoft’s claim of 300,000 dedicated Xbox Live servers, which would assumedly dramatically improve the online experience. Blow wonders if these “fabled 300,000 servers” are genuine hardware-based servers, or digital servers that make up the entirety of Windows Azure; meaning that out of the total number of servers, only a portion of them would be specifically tied to Xbox live. If Microsoft is indeed telling the truth about this massive cloud-processing undertaking, Blow asks that a journalist put together the installation and yearly maintenance cost of such an impressive endeavor and ask Microsoft where all of that money is coming from.
Blow claims that his remarks are not out of contempt for Microsoft. In his own words, he stated that, “I am not worked up, I just don’t like it when companies lie so contemptuously.” In truth, his remarks are not intended to spark any sort of controversy; he is simply attempting to inform the general public about a grandiose claim he believes Microsoft needs to back with raw data before throwing out into the wild, where the general public will eat it up without honestly understanding what they’re being told.
At the end of the day, we unfortunately won’t have any definitive answers until Microsoft attempts to clarify things, presumably at E3. Hopefully, that’s when we’ll finally hear the absolute truth about used games, DRM, and the true power developers will have to work with on the Xbox One.
How do you folks feel about Blow’s comments? Does his information strike you as genuine, or does he come across as someone simply ranting about a potential non-issue without adequate information to make a legitimate argument? Share your thoughts in the comments below, and don’t forget to like IGXPro on Facebook, follow us on Twitter, or give us the ‘ol +1 on Google+.
