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.."

[Gazondaily]

LOL!!!

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

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

[christocolus]

Lol. Arstechnica should have known better.

[TheCommentator]

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_red]

"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.

[Gazondaily]

Lol my days the comments....🙈

[Christopher]

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_red]

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.

[Ashlen]

@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

[Christopher]

***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.

[Ashlen]

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_red]

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.

[Ashlen]

"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.

[Kribwalker]

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

[rainslacker]

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.

[SpaceRanger]

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_red]

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

[christocolus]

Lol

[Gazondaily]

Lmao!

[SpaceRanger]

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.

[TheCommentator]

@ 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.

[christocolus]

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."

[DragonbornZ]

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

[christocolus]

They were.

BC redeemed.

[KingKionic]

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.

[vega275]

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.

[FallenAngel1984]

This saga is never going to end

[Cy]

Lol, more fake news. At this point, there's no reason to believe a single story that's posted anywhere until it can last a week without needing to post a correction.

[leoms]

Hmm. Going by the comment section, I would believe that not all read the article.

[Razzer]

Exactly. But this is a dead horse anyway. E3 is here, thank God.

[leoms]

True.

[opinionated]

Seems pretty standard for the media honestly. Some left wing hack puts out a fake news piece and enters a correction a week or two later after the damage has already been done. That's why you should just ignore these morons. Nothing good comes from them.

[jznrpg]

Could be left wing right wing or moderate. A hack is a hack

[opinionated]

Not in the news media, gaming or otherwise lol. Not any I have seen. Could you name a right wing game journalist besides Colin from ign that doesn't even do games anymore? Or even a moderate left game journalist? You could name them on one hand. The vast majority of them are hard left wing hacks or just copy and paste sites that are after clicks. That goes for sports media now too like espn and obviously politics (D.C. and Hollywood). The media sucks in general. Just show the damn games.

[franwex]

Wait...whaaa?
How did we get into politics?

[opinionated]

We didn't. I used the term "left wing hack" to describe most journalists mindset. Fabricated bull most of the time, and it leans hard left. It's a fact and I made a comparison to other industries.

[JasonKCK]

Where are all those fuzzy math geniuses at? The saddest thing is there are still people believing it even now.

[corroios]

The reality is that bc isnt selling point. No matter how many news are made. Is just a feature, like youtube. Microsoft hyped something that is nice is free but in the end got zero impact in sales. Much less 3 or 4 year in the next gen after the 360 lived for 10 years, the longest gen.

Because if it did microft would be in better position from thr 85 millions 360 owners they are at 25 or 27 millions. The rival doesnt have and it got 60 million from the more then 85 million ps3 owners

[XStation4pio_Pro]

Haters gonna hate. Even without facts.

[Father Murder X]

Yet I read at least 100 anti-Microsoft and Sony fanboy articles and comments with flawed data. The hate for the Xbox and Microsoft is horrible.

[KillBill]

This site should be banned from M4G just like that one guy so long ago that has never been seen again since being banned. I can't even remember his name now... ha