440°

Correction: Undercounted usage data in our Xbox Unleashed analysis

Kyle Orland

"After some oblique references via tweet, Microsoft has directly responded to our request for comment on our recent Xbox data analysis project. That response has led us to issue the following corrections and clarifications to our piece.."

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arstechnica.com
Gazondaily3175d ago (Edited 3175d ago )

LOL!!!

Oh my days....I don't even ....

The ball has been smashed out of the. court now. Oh guys...

christocolus3175d ago (Edited 3175d ago )

Lol. Arstechnica should have known better.

TheCommentator3175d ago

Ars Technica can suck it! That BS, "Our horribly flawed data is better than no data so we'll stick with horrible data we know is wrong." rebuttal to MS was just ridiculous.

gangsta_red3175d ago (Edited 3175d ago )

"We've tried to be as upfront as possible about our data collection and interpretation methods, and we regret any misperceptions that were spread from errors in our underlying data or our analysis."

After all that...after...all...that!!

Septic..
http://n4g.com/news/2066878...

The comments...(insert mass lol emojis here)
...it's Phantom Dust 480p all over again.

Seriously...smdh.

Gazondaily3175d ago

Lol my days the comments....🙈

Christopher3175d ago

I'm going to disagree on the concept that statistics don't use all data. I'm perfectly fine with Microsoft saying it's not indicative of actual usage, but as a company themselves who use smaller gathered data elements to speak on larger sets, they essentially said here that doing this is not accurate. Which is it, do you use them or are they all inaccurate? Because this ruins a lot of their advertising numbers for various products if true.

Otherwise, I still stand by my initial comments that even if it's a small percentage it's still relevant and value added as not even most games will apply to more than a small percentage of their market.

gangsta_red3175d ago (Edited 3175d ago )

Understandable, but even in their last article Ars admitted that their data could actually be wrong or not reflect actual numbers.

So my thing is, why print it? And why a day (??) after a Jim Ryan comment?

It was all suspicious and conveniently timed. And i am the first to call out conspiracy bs when it comes to video games but this....it just seemed too on the point for hits. *clickbait!!!*

All in all, bc is a great feature wether it's used by 5 or 5 million for 5 minutes or 5 hours.

It's there and ill say it again, if it wasnt for bc i would have never gotten into Xcom 2 which was one of the best games i played so far this gen.

Ashlen3175d ago (Edited 3175d ago )

@gangsta_red

Maybe the truth is it wasn't click bait and it was in fact accurate and Microsoft has been desperately trying to validate themselves first with numbers (508 million) that proved exactly what Ars said was in fact correct. Then when people did the math they came out again to provide some unbelievable numbers that conveniently just happened to be unverifiable.

p.s. Xcom 2 is on next gen consoles natively

Christopher3175d ago

***p.s. Xcom 2 is on next gen consoles natively***

I think he might have played the first game on BC and got into the 2nd on XBO due to that. The availability of older games on current hardware is one thing I say leads to generating new fans of IPs. I also think it helps to inform gamers better on what is good and what isn't as not everything 'new' is really that much better. SWBF1 kind of proves how much can be stripped away and then added back in with SWBF2.

Ashlen3175d ago (Edited 3175d ago )

Do you really expect me to believe that Microsoft's own system provides numbers that are 11 times less than reality? seriously.... I mean 2 or 3 times would be pretty unbelievable but 11 times... yeah right. Why would you even offer numbers to prove how high your usage is but allow a system that so drastically undervalues the exact data you are trying to provide?

First the 1.5% was revealed, then they gave numbers and those numbers clearly unintentionally validated the 1.5% now they come out with some unverifiable numbers and basically claim unrealistic numbers that can't be proven otherwise.

gangsta_red3175d ago

It's all so confusing right!?

It's as if we shouldn't even care about these numbers and actually just enjoy a feature that is offered for the Xbox console.

But maybe someone, someday, a great sage or prophet, will finally be able to put these troubles to rest and actually give us some real numbers so we can justify BC's existence.

Ashlen3175d ago (Edited 3175d ago )

"It's as if we shouldn't even care about these numbers and actually just enjoy a feature that is offered for the Xbox console.

But maybe someone, someday, a great sage or prophet, will finally be able to put these troubles to rest and actually give us some real numbers so we can justify BC's existence."

If your saying that to me then you must be outraged that Microsoft didn't just let it go and had to reply to Jim Ryan's original statement then after Ars did there own research they replied not once but twice to provide numbers... man after all the attention Microsoft has given to this you must be so pissed off at them.

Kribwalker3175d ago

Buddy, ars was wrong, MS said they were wrong. Ars said prove it. MS proves it. Ars writes an apology article stating they were wrong. Ashlen comes in telling us Ars was right. Hmmmmmmm. So who is right? Ars who have admitted they were wrong, MS who proved ars wrong, or ashlen who believes ars was right

rainslacker3174d ago

In lieu of any future released numbers I'm giving up on expecting to hear any real number from all this to form any future arguments off of about the amount of time people play BC...thus hoping to ascertain it's relevance to the overall market. These numbers may or may not be useful or accurate, but any discussion about it in the future will just cite this article as reason why it's not, so whatever.

MS offers it. Some people like using it. I'm cool with that.

If Sony comes along and offers it, I'm cool with that. I may even use it, and will probably use it one day on my X1.

Life goes on. E3 is here, more important things to be excited about and discuss IMO.

+ Show (1) more replyLast reply 3174d ago
SpaceRanger3175d ago

Good on them for being up front about the stats they did and what needs to be clarified/corrected.

However, MS put themselves in their own hole by disclosing the number of hours that BC has been used since launch. They've truly shown that it's not that heavily used as a feature with only 508 million hours since launch to now.

gangsta_red3175d ago

Tell us...what is the correct number of hours needed to play 360 games on Xbox One to justify having BC?

SpaceRanger3175d ago

Who said it was about justification? It's an excellent feature all consoles should have.

However, touting it as a feature that puts it above the competition should be reevaluated...especially considering when their own fanbase hardly uses it.

MS' own data:
Multiply this monthly average by the number of months since BC was launched.
https://www.google.com/amp/...

BC number by MS:
https://mobile.twitter.com/...

Correct me if my math is wrong.

TheCommentator3175d ago

@ Gangsta

It's equal to the number of licks it takes to get to the center of a Tootsie Roll Tootsie Pop, multiplied by the number of Sony Execs that say BC isn't worth it.

+ Show (2) more repliesLast reply 3175d ago
+ Show (2) more repliesLast reply 3174d ago
christocolus3175d ago (Edited 3175d ago )

And there it is, I expected better from Kyle Orland and Ars Technica.

"That fault in the underlying data has led us to vastly underestimate total usage times for the apps and games in our usage sample. Graphs and charts that refer to average minutes played or percentage of users who played a game during that 4.5 month period seem to be an order of magnitude lower than the actual per-app usage rates and times.
[For example] The "My Games and Apps" section of the Xbox One was used by 71 percent of Xbox One players during our sample, according to Microsoft, not the approximately 6.3 percent shown by our data."

DragonbornZ3175d ago

Wow they were incredibly off. Why did Ars even post that article lol.

KingKionic 3175d ago

Stevey Wonder driving in a Ford GT at 200 MPH backwards down a highway could of seen these dudes were selling false narratives.

Forget these scrubs bring on Xbox E3.

gamer78043175d ago Show
vega2753175d ago (Edited 3175d ago )

Like i said in the last article.

Ars trying to save face now because they didn't expect MS to come back so soon with actual numbers.
Don't apologize now that you submitted a clickbait article and got called out on it.

Hope that check was worth their credibility.

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