Anticipation and expectation were high going into today's Inside Xbox conference, where it had been announced that gameplay on the next-gen Xbox Series X would be displayed. It began when Ubisoft stated Assassin's Creed Valhalla would be there with the world's first look at gameplay, with both Microsoft and Ubisoft failing to mention this would be a tease, not direct gameplay. Indeed, many are currently upset by how 'gameplay' was shown.
#XboxSeriesX, #Xbox2020, and #gameplay are all trending on Twitter due to the overwhelming backlash to what's been shown so far. Many stated that this should have been called new game reveals or made teases more clear or not doubled-down on the marketing that this was Xbox Series X gameplay, when it was not what many expected whatsoever.
Perhaps ground zero of this backlash is the Xbox Series X livestream itself. Reports indicate that with the chat open, the livestream saw a massive push in spams of "dislikes," negative comments, and more, forcing Xbox to shut the livestream down. Before this happened, the wave of dislikes pushed the like:dislike ration to 35k:33k, within just a few minutes of the dislikes overtaking the likes. It's clear that this is not how the companies involved saw this going, and that's the thing: many are excited about a number of the games shown like Scorn, but are upset by the misleading 'gameplay' promise.
Even now, the upload of the YouTube video is taken over with dislikes. There are currently more dislikes on the upload than there are likes, and it's uncertain how Xbox is responding or will respond to this reveal. It was stated that this was to be third-party with more First-party games coming later, so many knew not to expect the likes of Halo Infinite or the other projects in works, but it's clear that this is a letdown by its massive response.
There's still plenty of time for Microsoft to correct the course when it comes to next-gen, as many have appreciated the forthcoming information thus far, and hopefully this serves as a lesson for upcoming Xbox events. After all, as is the way of the internet, this "gameplay" debacle isn't going to be forgotten soon, as it clearly hasn't forgotten the Xbox Series X-fridge comparison.
The Xbox Series X release holiday 2020.
Source: YouTube