Microsoft Senior Director of Product Management and Planning Albert Penello surfaced on NeoGAF today to explain his statement regarding the Playstation 4's power in comparison to the Xbox One. In the original interview in OXM, he explains how the tendency of fans to overanalyze the capabilities of the game consoles is made meaningless by the unique games and experiences you can get from each console.
On the same day the interview came out, he showed surprise in reading IGN's coverage and how he thought it skewed quotes drom his interview. He revealed details on the original interview as well on his Facebook page.
In the NeoGAF thread (quoting the OXM interview), Penello was criticized for what was perceived as cheap shots taken against Playstation, and disparaging comments were made on Xbox One messaging on the power of the cloud.
In his post on said thread, Penello explains the interview was made before E3 and just after the initial Xbox One reveal, and these quotes are often taken out of context so that his intended meaning was lost in the translation.
He further clarifies that he has no knowledge of what Sony's engineers have done developing the Playstation 4, but he does know of the Xbox One's development. He says nobody (outside of the hardware teams) actually know the details of either system's architecture, bottlenecks, or accelerators that could improve or take from their performance.
He emphasizes that he has confidence on the Xbox One based on the games he knows will be released on the console, and specifically calls out Respawn Entertainment (who is making Titanfall) and Ryse:Son of Rome for being great games and for truly looking 'next-gen.'
He lastly notes that they don't even get his correct photograph. To his benefit, we found his photo on LinkedIn and are sharing it with you here.
We covered his statement before and it's disappointing to see that he has to go to NeoGAF to clear the air. It can be hard to read into what a developer or company employee says for its true meaning without feeding it into existing popular narratives. All the game consoles should get a fair chance to prove their worth, and not be prejudged based on what we want to believe.
