Microsoft - I love you. But please do better.

So, I haven't had the Internet for a while, been very busy, and am currently ill. I am therefore a little behind on this piece of news and will be writing this as a blog post rather than making a video (I also look awful but cannot go for a shower - or film anything anyway - as there are 2 plumbers loudly installing a new hot water tank 2 days after they said they would - exciting!).

Anyway, here goes.

WHY, MICROSOFT?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?

I was scanning the web to catch up on some tech gossip & I stumbled across this little news story about the Xbox One.

This is supposed to be a funny, interactive and engaging piece of marketing to help potential buyers encourage their partners to "let" them buy the system together, but to me it comes across as a cringeworthy, dull and enraging piece of marketing. It's basically a letter pleading for men to plead with their girlfriends/wives to get the "amazing" new Xbox One. Here is the default letter, which allows you to change certain parts to make the letter applicable to you and your partner...:

The problem is, this "letter" comes across as a man calmly & pathetically pleading for permission to buy a new toy from his possibly-angry-and-game-hating girlfriend, rather than a funny tongue-in-cheek ad with reasonable arguments as to why a household should invest in an Xbox One. MS have since made changes to the text, which suggests that it wasn't as totally non-offensive as they had hoped it was. For example, you can now prefer to do taxes over gaming, instead of knitting. 

I do not enjoy doing taxes and I HAVE NO IDEA HOW TO KNIT. I can however do pretty damn well in Assassin's Creed Multiplayer. 

Also, another small thing: in your big Xbox One TV spots, I have only seen ONE woman using the system, and she was watching Netflix. Not gaming. 

There is a guy in an important office meeting who gets invited to ride in a giant robot, a guy in a football stadium is invited to take a free kick, a guy driving down a highway is invited to drive a fancy sports car, a guy studying in a library gets invited to go shoot some zombies, a guy in a suit relaxing outside a fancy cafe with some papers (can't tell if newspaper or letters) gets invited to be a roman soldier.

The woman? Stopped whilst standing around at a train station (not doing anything in particular, just standing there reading a book whilst waiting for a train) by the new pretty Spock, invited to watch him be a badass in space. He's so pretty she drops her book when she first sees him. No, it's not in shock at him suddenly appearing out of thin air, she has her back turned the whole time when that happens, she just turns round & sees him there with a phaser & pretty pointy ears, gesturing her to follow him - watch him, though, not join in on the action. Just watch.

OMG, it's SPOCK. *fangirls & drops book*

Basically, all the gamers are men, doing things, and there is ONE WOMAN in the whole advert who just stands about reading what looks like a novel then WATCHES A MOVIE WITH A PRETTY MAN IN IT BEING A HERO. Honestly, I wouldn't mind this depiction of a woman - it's really not the worst - but it's the ONLY ONE.

Wanna know something MS? I encouraged my boyfriend to get an Xbox 360 instead of a PS3 so we could play online together. I, a female, got a guy to buy one of your gaming systems. I actively created a sale for you. I also talk about games available on your consoles, including exclusive ones, on my channel - it's only small, but people have told me that they've made one or two purchases based on my recommendations. I have also played your system since 2009, and played games on MS PC systems since I was a small child. I LOVE your systems. Please let me know that the people creating those systems also love me and value me as a customer. Get some more girls and women gaming in your marketing, pretty please!

(Although, just gonna say, the Xbox one announcement got really uncomfortable when that guy from the Killer Instinct team said the words "Relax, just let it happen, it'll be over soon" and "wow, you like this" whilst virtually beating up a woman. No. Nooooo. Nonono. Plz no. Never do that again. Plz.)

It just gets very frustrating when you don't feel represented by a company you have supported for many years. I really hope this changes soon.

Regards,

A frustrated Xbox 360 owner xx