Fake News has Become the Main Weapon of the Console Wars

Did you hear? Microsoft don’t see Sony as a competitor anymore. They don’t believe in generations. Hell, they don’t even care how many Series X consoles they sell. None of that is true, by the way, but don’t let that get in the way of a good dig at Xbox.

It’s easier to pretend your most hated piece of plastic is a mess when you choose to follow carefully selected pieces of propaganda instead of, I don’t know, reading the article.

Fake News and the Fanboy

“Fake News” has quickly become the mating cry of the red-faced middle-aged around the world. It’s shorthand for “I disapprove of what you say but unfortunately am utterly powerless to stop you from saying it.” It’s the political equivalent of a toddler threatening to hold their breath until they get their way.

The ease with which this phrase now rolls off the tongue means we have a global population not only willing to question accepted facts, but that want to believe complete fiction. Go take a look at any conspiracy group on Facebook. The very nature of not believing the official story has become the basis of a cult-like religion. So long as it’s not what they tell you, then it’s fair game to be believed. Social media means no matter your political leaning, you can find people who believe in exactly what you believe, and who are willing to lie and cheat to reinforce their own delusions.

This will have a terrifying effect on almost every facet of our life over the next decade or so, culminating in misery and poverty for millions. That’s not important – video games are important, and luckily our community is full-in on the fake news thing.

It’s nothing new. People believe what they want to believe. How many of us wanted to save our (second) favourite heroine in Final Fantasy VII? How many of us believed the rumours there was a way to bring it back?

How many of us spent days trying to find Big Foot in San Andreas because we weren’t quite ready to let go of a game we truly loved.

How many of us only read headlines, and then get mad based on that?

Turns out, too many of us do exactly that. But only when it confirms our bias.

Reading the article – too much to ask?

If you’ve made it this far, you’re in the minority. My rantings – coming close to 1,000 words, you’ll be terrified to learn – will be mostly ignored by the majority of readers who click this page.

I don’t take it personally, because it’s not. An average click for more or less anything garners little more than a brief perusal of the headline and maybe a skim of the first couple of lines. Researchers have found sixty per cent of people will read a one hundred word article. Don’t worry though, they’re not nerds: they’ll skim it, missing important points.

Enter Phil Spencer.

He said: “If this is not the year when a family wants to make a decision to buy a new Xbox, that’s OK. Our strategy does not revolve around how many Xboxes I sell this year.”

Social misinformation and the cloud

Naturally he’s not talking about the hard economic circumstances and his disinterest in the hard sell to families who can’t afford it, he’s obviously saying he would literally be happy with one console sold.

At least, that’s what you’d think if you only looked at Reddit and Neogaf. He was torn apart for what is a relatively benign thought from an executive at one of the biggest companies in the world.

But what about his comments about Sony and Nintendo not being Xbox’s main competitors?!

In a comment specifically about cloud gaming, he said: “When you talk about Nintendo and Sony, we have a ton of respect for them, but we see Amazon and Google as the main competitors going forward.

“The traditional gaming companies are somewhat out of position. I guess they could try to re-create Azure, but we’ve invested tens of billions of dollars in cloud over the years.”

Guess which part of that comment is quoted the most. Go on, guess.

Marketing in the modern age

A good marketing department should have ways of dealing with this sort of thing, but it’s still a very modern problem.

A lie can go around the world while the truth is getting its boots on. Abraham Lincoln said that. See how easy it is to just make things up on the internet?

But when the lie isn’t a lie, when it’s a bastardization of the truth, it becomes harder to control. You could spend all day correcting idiots on the internet, or you could ignore them and hope the lie doesn’t take off.

Xbox wants to appear open and approachable, and fanboys hate that. They like cold, distant and Japanese, which sounds like a Pornhub category.

How can you be approachable and not want to correct every fanboy who puts words in your mouth? It would take a greater man than me, and a smarter mind to solve the problem.

Fake News and the Console Wars

I’ve picked Phil Spencer because he’s currently the main target of this nonsense. I could have picked any company, any spokesman, any talking head.

When he talks, people half listen. They hear what they want to hear. Anything for a bit of ammo in a fight that barely even matters.

And I bring this up, not because I feel sorry for him, or for Microsoft – they’re way too well off for that. But as a society, we should be better. We’re not though, we’re on a race to the bottom.

People are all too willing to make a ‘gotcha’ moment out of something perfectly reasonable. Microsoft’s marketing strategy is accused of being messy, despite the message being loud and clear.

It is easier to become outraged when you can selectively choose which parts of the conversation anger you the most.

The console wars are pathetic. Buy both consoles. If you care enough about games to post on a message board, you should care enough to make that happen.

But if you must pick a side, do it honestly. Do your research. Read articles before you comment on them. Try to understand something, especially if it’s something you can’t get your head around.

When the whole world has gone to hell in the handbasket, when fake news is the only news that matters, surely we in the gaming community can do better?