Xbox Exec Apologizes for Misleading "Gameplay" Trailers

We saw a number of new things at the recent Inside Xbox video showcase. New games like The Medium were revealed and extra footage about upcoming titles like Assassin's Creed: Valhalla were shown off. But it wasn't quite clear what the videos were supposed to be. And now, Xbox executives are apologizing for the confusion.

To clarify: Many of the videos shown at the event boasted about showing off gameplay footage of upcoming games on the Xbox Series X game console. But fans soon realized that almost none of the footage shown was of actual gameplay. This sparked a wave of discontent with the online gaming community, who found the claims to be deceptive.

In response to this, Xbox games marketing general manager Aaron Greenberg explained the situation on Twitter. According to him, the event was always promoted to include trailers, sneak peeks, and gameplay. And that while many big-name titles didn't include gameplay, a number of games showcased at the event still did.

Even so, they offer an apology for the miscommunication and a promise to learn from the experience.

"Had we not said anything & just shown May Inside Xbox show like we did last month, I suspect reactions might have been different. Clearly we set some wrong expectations & thats on us. We appreciate all the feedback & can assure you we will take it all in & learn as a team."

Online news outlets, content creators, and the community in general have a history of fixating on a specific aspect of current events, missing the larger picture. To us, it sounds like this is what happened. People heard gameplay and were upset when it wasn't referring to the games they cared about. Part of that fixation is likely due to the arrival of a new game console generation. People are looking to the Xbox Series X to see what it's actually capable of. Pre-rendered cutscenes look good, but are never indicative of how the game looks while playing. People want to see gameplay so that they can know what to expect from the console when it releases this holiday season. We get it.

Either way, it was nice that someone at Xbox both acknowledged the miscommunication and took it with respect. We're sure that more will be revealed about the games (maybe even actual gameplay footage) in due time.