Sony makes a disabled fans day... Microsoft does... something else

[Jin.]

"Sorry, it's upstairs, you can't try it"

 

[Nepenthe]

Even if every kiosk was the same, I'm not sure asking "Gee, why couldn't they just be satisfied to stay downstairs?" is a kosher response either.

[Badnik Mechanic]

...Is it bad that I now want to make a 'have you seen Titanfall' joke?

 

 

 

Ok well... now that the guy has cleared that point up, this isn't anywhere near as bad... but still, the fact they didn't do anything to try and help out disabled gamers is still pretty bad.

 

Mind you, it's not like stuff like this isn't uncommon, I was at Gamefest a few years ago, 3 hour long line for Modern Warfare 3... the group gets in... plays for 2 min... the system crashes. 7 min later it's restored. 6 min later they're told to get out, their 15 min slot is over.

[goku262002]

 

Even if every kiosk was the same, I'm not sure asking "Gee, why couldn't they just be satisfied to stay downstairs?" is a kosher response either.

 

Then again, if every game was downstairs like it should have been it wouldn't be a real issue to begin with. why MS did a half/half thing nobody knows but it seemed to have made a near-nonexistent issue arise and have their competition do a "good graces" PR move to make them look bad.

The PR people in question should be retrained in sensitivity training to handle such issues better, if they so happen to arise again. and hopefully this will teach MS to be more equal with how games should be handled in different sections of a game conference.

Edited October 7, 2013 by goku262002

[Nepenthe]

Having a multilevel conference is fine if accommodations are remembered to be made for people who can't walk. But that's kind of besides the point I was making. Asking what was wrong with the consoles on the first floor had the implication that the person in the wheelchair should've been perfectly happy without access upstairs. Even if all the consoles were working fine, the fact that there are multiple stories to begin with was going to inherently entice people to want to move between floors and see the whole show. Asking what was wrong with the consoles, and in effect implying that the guy who got the PS4 shouldn't have even considered wanting to go upstairs, is again not the most kosher question to ask.

[Solkia]

Microsoft has been terrible at PR this year, more @ 10:00.

 

I find it odd that neither company took disabled people into consideration in the first place.

[Nepenthe]

I find it odd that neither company took disabled people into consideration in the first place.

 

You know what the amusingly ironic thing is? Going by the man's actual account, Microsoft actually had kiosks on the bottom floor and Sony did not, and yet Sony still came out of this looking good anyway.

[Solkia]

No, I get that, what I'm saying is they (whoever "they" are) held this at a place with no elevators? Why?

[Silencer226]

I don't see why because Sony gave away free ps4's, MS would have to follow suit. There should have been access available for handicapped people to begin with.

[Nepenthe]

They wouldn't have had to give out free Xbox Ones. That lack of responsibility, however, doesn't further substantiate the tiny apology they gave anyway, which is the main issue here. Again, if you take Sony out of the picture, Microsoft still come out of this looking badly because they had absolutely no agency to compensate the men with any gesture at all besides "Sorry you're disabled."

 

Also, what should and should not have happened during construction of the displays doesn't affect the response each company gave in the aftermath, because the fact remains that Microsoft actually had kiosks on both floors while Sony only had them on the top.

[Tornado]

Of course Microsoft can't bother to compensate for them, they're only interested in customers who can play with Kinect.

(I'm sorry)

 

“Some of the advantages that you get, of having, a box that is designed to use in a physical state, so, that, uh, to me is the future-proof choice; and I think people, could have arguably gone the other way if we didn’t do it and fortunately we have a product for people who aren’t able to get some form of connectivity with their legs, it’s called Xbox 360.” - Don Mattrick after the event.

 

(Not at all sorry)

[Badnik Mechanic]

I don't see why because Sony gave away free ps4's, MS would have to follow suit. There should have been access available for handicapped people to begin with.

 

Now that the full story is know and that there were Xbox One's in an area that they could access... it does change things a little...

 

However... it does not change the fact that they gave the impression that it was the fault of the visitors that they couldn't see the game that they want due to their medical state.

 

There are a million things they could have done to have helped with this situation, and they picked one of the worst.

[Jet Prower]

This really is such a bad thing to hear with your company representatives. I'm sure Microsoft is likely not too happy with them after this has gotten out. Sony definitely when above and beyond what they had to do to resolve the situation, but it still shows that they are willing to do so, that they care. They didn't have to give away the free consoles to these people, but the fact they did shows how much Sony is trying to put out some good PR for themselves this year. So far, it has been working wonderfully as well from the way the preorder numbers and such sound.

 

The way the Microsoft representatives made themselves out to be, they acted as if they didn't care and just said be happy with what you got or go away. That just sends out the message of we don't care at all. Hopefully Microsoft will do something to these representatives that did this, either retrain them, punish them, or fire them for it. More negative publicity is not something they need right now.

[goku262002]

 

They wouldn't have had to give out free Xbox Ones. That lack of responsibility, however, doesn't further substantiate the tiny apology they gave anyway, which is the main issue here. Again, if you take Sony out of the picture, Microsoft still come out of this looking badly because they had absolutely no agency to compensate the men with any gesture at all besides "Sorry you're disabled."

 

Also, what should and should not have happened during construction of the displays doesn't affect the response each company gave in the aftermath, because the fact remains that Microsoft actually had kiosks on both floors while Sony only had them on the top.

Which is why the PR people need to go through sensitivity training again, appearently they only half assed the course :|.

[The Kid]

But do we really know that they picked the worst? All evidence of Microsoft blowing the guy off came from a facebook post. He could have been exaggerating because of a free PS4, the rep might have been at a loss for what to say and couldn't come up with alternatives, etc. This whole "PR Blunder" is subjective because we really don't know what happened past that one interpretation.