Good to see the MSFS team feeling so positive. Clearly the message is partly marketing fluff, but to me this says they are far from done.
I understand there are bugs (there are certainly a few odd things on Xbox) so Iâd like to see MS/A push forward and I guess the next piece of that will be the Update in a few days.
"Weâre overjoyed with the critical acclaim MSFS is receiving. The positive reaction from media and creators around the world is incredible. Critics and players alike have expressed joy as theyâve flown over their homes, visited the towns they grew up in, and explored areas of our planet theyâve not yet had the chance to visit."
Jorg Neumann, Head of Microsoft Flight Simulator ⢠Aug 12, 2021 @ 6:00am
So, at MicroSobo central SU5 & the Xbox roll out is regarded as an outstanding successâŚbecause that statement seems to be straight from the Todd Howard playbook.
Iâll not be holdingy breath that the next update actually addresses any of the many issues thenâŚ
I have to admit my expectations are rather low as well. In past dev Q&A sessions, participants seemed more or less ignorant on what is discussed in the flight sim community. I think Asobo is first and foremost a game development studio. They did a great job with Plague Tale and they did a great job with Flight Simulator as well. But I sincerely do not believe the claims that they are in for the long game here.
Why bad marketing? The feedback to recent updates is certainly mixed if you read these forums (which only a tiny fraction of people would). But the reviewersâ feedback at Xbox launch was (and is) stellar. I can understand why Xbox marketing would want to say so. So why is that âbad marketingâ?
Itâs just marketing. And it has been proven to work.
Donât expect honest âwe messed up and are working hard to recoverâ press releases, thatâs not how it works.
The idea of âpaid reviewsâ is of course a nonsense.
Whilst an argument can be made for reviewers being âinfluencedâ by various means, the âpaid reviewsâ notion very much belongs on the âtin foil hatâ category.
Having enjoyed MSFS on Xbox these last 2 weeks I can very much understand why Xbox reviewers (people who primarily review games) would rate it highly. No conspiracies required.
More restraint often yields better results if it is framed in a certain way. Gentle persuasion done in a friendly manner can be very successful. Basic psychology really and highlighted in some marketing research papers. If marketing isnât your thing try googling psychology for marketeers or maybe have a look at a couple of research papers which looked into it. Itâs a tremendously interesting field and one which combines psychology with business and its customers. Supermarkets, for example, is just one market sector which has reaped good results in this area just by applying basic pyschology
The thing is that ASOBO have in fact done a pretty good job even though there are still a lot of bugs in FS2020. But really I donât think that the approach the marketing team adopted here was a great idea.
Flying over your house with live weather on a sunny July day when the outside temperature is 20°C and the ground is covered in snow gets a bit anoying after the first few times. Most likely not happened to many of the reviewers.
Thing is, the more people that buy MSFS the larger the customer base, the better the addons, the bigger the Development team ect⌠and its an incredible product even if not perfect.
100% agree, their marketing is not very professional from a market professional point of view. Mostly creating hype, creating huge expectations and often underdelivering, leading to disappointment and frustration. This is not good marketing in a professional sense. Why not take the opposite approach - tone down the cheering a bit and positively surprise customers with things they did not expect (good things of course not bugs).
From a pure business sense one could regard their marketing successful because once you buy the product and they got your money and there is no returning it - so marketing mission accomplished. But I would not call this professional as it misses a lot of opportunities to built a sustainable loyal and throughout even happier customer base. (Yes there will always be complaints, but much less so, as the expectations are better managed).
Maybe a simulation event can be arranged ? @JoylessTunic738 will land @EggMan283494 's Iron Man character on the roof in Bordeaux⌠open the front door of Asobo⌠let the Neoâs taxi into the building ?
