back to article 'You're BEAUTIFUL when you're angry' 'You SEXIST PIG!' Xbox One's fresh brouhaha

Microsoft has rewritten an Xbox One web promotion that backfired when it was branded sexist by upset gamers. The tech giant has apologized. Online outcry was sparked by an Xbox.com web page that generated for owners of the new console an email to convince their non-gaming loved ones to pick up a controller and start playing. …

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  1. poopypants

    So big.

    So clumsy.

    1. TheOtherHobbes

      Re: So big.

      MS != ms.

    2. MarshallM

      Re: So big.

      Ah yes - the army of political correctness marches on. The phrase made no mention of gender but apparently the PC stereotype police succumbed to the stereotypes themselves by assuming it was a female utterer. But i realize they're just doing their job of preventing the hordes of young impressionable girls from running off to knitting school simply because they think they have to. Of course the subtext is that knitting is somehow below gaming on the totem pole of importance so shouldn't knitters be upset at the PC police for devaluing knitting? Damn - yes! I'm upset!

    3. h3

      Re: So big.

      Funny thing most of the time at least with people I know it is not something that happens. Many men seem to be forced to watch absolute garbage on TV.

      (Men who are forced to sit and watch stuff they don't want to should get a Wii U).

  2. Old Handle

    Sounds like it could have been hilarious if they'd just set it to fill in random options be default.

  3. This post has been deleted by its author

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Girls around here would rather not be on XB

      "from what I hear my female students talking about, the reason girls are not playing X-box is they would rather be playing PlayStation."

      They are right - PSN is like the "women's football" of online gaming and is far better suited to you lasses than XBL....

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: PSN is like the "women's football" of online gaming

        Women's football has better specs than the men's game?!

        1. Anonymous Coward
          Anonymous Coward

          Re: PSN is like the "women's football" of online gaming

          "Women's football has better specs than the men's game?!"

          Sure - specs like 36-24-30. However much like PSN, the end product is vastly inferior...

          1. Anonymous Coward
            Anonymous Coward

            Re: PSN is like the "women's football" of online gaming

            I think specs like "1080p native" and GDDR5 are a little more relevant.....

            1. Anonymous Coward
              Anonymous Coward

              <<I think specs like "1080p native" and GDDR5 are a little more relevant>>

              And that, your honour, is why my client is single

          2. MJI Silver badge

            Re: PSN is like the "women's football" of online gaming

            Have you tried PSN or are you just jealous of all the games.

        2. Anonymous Coward
          Anonymous Coward

          Re: PSN is like the "women's football" of online gaming

          "Women's football has better specs than the men's game?!"

          No. Women's footie has _women_, and I, for one much prefer watching women's behinds than men's.

          AC 'cause SWMBO reads El Reg, too.

      2. MJI Silver badge

        Re: Girls around here would rather not be on XB

        PSN womans football

        So you must love womans football then

  4. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Marketing genius or not?

    Whatever ms are doing they do seem to be monopolising the gen4 column inches on the reg at the moment,

  5. Philip Skinner
    Thumb Up

    My girlfriend...

    ...knits alot.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: My girlfriend...

      I like to knit, and my girlfriend likes to kill zombies..go figure.

  6. Belardi

    Smells more like desperation from microsoft.

    1. Chika

      Not sure if you could call it desperation or incompetance. Either way, they prove yet again that they have a real problem listening until their intended public bites them in the situpon. Not really the best way to do business, really.

      Merkan corporates seem to be making a habit of this lately... <cough>google+</cough>

      1. Pookietoo
        Headmaster

        I wouldn't call it incompetance, I might call it incompetence.

      2. MarshallM

        More accurately it proves that no matter what you say and how true it might be, there is a group that will object to it.

  7. Admiral Grace Hopper

    Back when I first learned to programme

    The lecturer asked us if we'd ever done any knitting, as those used to reading knitting patterns would already be used to reading written programmes and would have a head start. Sadly, I don't think this is where MicroSoft are coming from.

  8. Stretch
    Joke

    total sense of humour failure on a epic scale there

    1. Marvin the Martian

      It's like their "scroogled" campaign. They make these actually funny mugs with "keep calm while we steal your data" and a Chrome logo, then ruin their own joke by cluttering the reverse side with their campaign logo and slogan. I'd have [tried to have --- sold out!] bought one otherwise, even with the delicious pot/kettle irony.

      Humor is not their thing.

    2. MarshallM

      Yup - on the part of the complainers. It's a perfectly benign line but the armchair activists have their panties in a twist nonetheless.

  9. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Imisaninja could knit for me any day she likes!

    Or game. Frankly I'm not fussed.

    1. Brewster's Angle Grinder Silver badge

      Re: Imisaninja could knit for me any day she likes!

      Before she does either, she needs to learn the difference between "inferring" and "implying".

    2. imisaninja

      Re: Imisaninja could knit for me any day she likes!

      Imisaninja here... Well this was certainly out of the blue. Thanks for the lolz. Just wonder if two tweets is equivalent to a 'brouhaha' these days. Slow news day I guess.

  10. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    It seems to me that the twits are making the sexist remarks by implying that guys can't knit and must be the games player. They're the ones who have decided it must be a girl that is knitting in Microsoft's statement.

    1. codejunky Silver badge

      Lol

      It is funny when sexism comes from those opposing sexism. I was beginning to wonder if I was the only one who spotted that. While they are fighting for equality they may need to fix the inequality in their own mind.

      1. Ragarath

        Re: Lol

        Came on to say the same thing, I can knit, my Grat Gran taught me how when I was very young. No where on that letter do I see implication that it is a female doing the knitting.

        Sexism = bad

        People inferring sexism where there is none = worse

        1. MJI Silver badge

          Re: Only nets

          I was shown how to knit a (fishing) net, quite fiddly and I lost the tool, but I can still remember 35 or so years later.

          The grandfather who taught me used to work on trawlers out of Brixham before the war.

  11. elmo
    Coat

    Why

    Are they out of the kitchen anyway?

  12. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Xbox owners with girlfriends?

    Yeh right. Only the inflatable or by the hour varieties.

  13. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    My wife knits so fast, I'm glad she's not a gamer. Old fast fingers would kick my ass. :-)

  14. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    What, no crochet?

    If they had an option for knitting but didn't mention crochet then they can expect a massive flame attack from enraged crochet aficionados all over the world... unless, like the one I know, she's sitting in bed, crocheting, watching "Homes under the hammer", and probably doesn't know what an "Xbox" is.

  15. Greg D
    WTF?

    what the fuck

    is wrong with knitting?

    tossers of today's generation. Cry outrage at the silliest thing.

    1. sabroni Silver badge

      Re: what the fuck

      How dare you call today's generation tossers! I'm incensed and will be writing to my mp forthwith!!

      1. Greg D

        Re: what the fuck

        Get back to your knitting you tosser :P

  16. Ben Rosenthal

    My wife would be happy to knit while watching me slay zombies, she's not always in the mood for zombie slaying herself.

    And of course both are important skills, we'll still want to wear jumpers when the zompocalypse FINALLY arrives.

  17. BigAndos

    I do wonder what the hell marketing people are on some times. Surely even a basic level of self awareness and thinking about what you are doing would stop hopeless campaigns like this getting off the ground?

  18. Bladeforce

    Wow, Microsoft just cant get

    any good attention the last few years. How bad can i get for yesteryears monopoly

    1. Marvin the Martian

      Re: Wow, Microsoft just cant get

      Monopoly is the right word --- yesterday's dominant but infuriatingly badly designed board game.

  19. DJ Smiley

    So how many of those games allow split screen?

    Oh. :(

  20. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Sadly..

    Sadly for those who follow Redmond's star and claim the message isn't biased at all, It reads "Hey honey [...] how beautiful you are?" Some women might call lovers beautiful, but male gamers? Pull the other one. The case is really not too close to call.

  21. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    So the Zombies got the brains, then.

    I knitt. I learned when I broke my arm: It was good theropy for recovering from the muscular atrophy that occured while my arm was in plaster. I still knitt. I find it helps with some lingering issues from that incident. I'm not particularly good at knitting as all I do it for is the theropy, but I have managed to produce several 'Dr Who' scarves over the years.

    So I take great exception at the sexist assumptions being made by those complaining.

  22. FunkyEric

    Well my woman can knit and plays computer games, although she doesn't like the FPS type as they make her feel sick :-0 There's nothing quite like a session of shouting at each other for doing stupid things and dying to make for as happy homelife. :-)

  23. Pahhh
    Mushroom

    I think its hilarious

    As Stretch said, complete sense of humour failure. I dont care for the Xbone or Microsoft but see the campaign for what it is, a bit of cheeky banter. The fact it drew on knitting is just extreme nonsense. Remember it equally stereotypes men/boys with "best multiplayer service that filters out jerks" .

    I'm sure this will get many feminist back up, but frankly I'm f*****g fed up sexism and equality issues being raised when they arent any.

    Equally fed up with the emasculated men who try to fight for women's rights. I will let my wife loose on you, she will kick your sorry ass.

  24. xyz Silver badge

    And just after the IE jail bait heroine too...

    ...is there some mustachioed 1970s perv running in MS's marketing dept? Milky, milky laydees...BBrrr.

  25. RyokuMas
    FAIL

    Meh, more zombies...

    Until we start seeing more originality and fewer mindless sequels/zombie games on the mainstream consoles, I'd rather knit...

  26. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    What a bunch of knit-wits.

  27. DHart

    Knitting and Defaults

    Knitting and crocheting are just advanced forms of knot tying. I tried knitting once when I was into knots but it didn't last long as there were much more interesting things to do like playing FPS video games or helping my Dad fix the car. But it did make me understand why they invented knitting and textile machines.

    Microsoft's mistake wasn't that they included the phrases. Their mistake was that they set defaults. You never set defaults for a letter as someone could accidentally hit send without realizing it....

    1. magrathea

      Re: Knitting and Defaults

      The mistake is a campaign to appeal more to minority customer demographic at the expense of your majority customer base - ie refering to them as 'jerks' to appeal to the former. Microsoft is now trapped in a feminist victim matrix, they will probably never escape

  28. godclam

    I love how everyone is getting up in arms because they said women knit.

    I know a lot of gamer girls who knit. I know a lot of people in general who knit. Who could honestly get offended by such a harmless joke of a comment? Like wtf, world?

  29. Zot

    This is like the previous gaff about taking the day off work with a sick note.

    It's totally numb-nuts, doesn't anybody look at these things and think about it, even for a second?

    Is it just one guy that writes this stuff - sitting behind an old wooden desk with spider's web going from the nice green table lamp to the end of his wrinkly old nose, and when he sneezes dust flies everywhere.

    It's more tired and lame than anything else, way to go Microsoft-in-the-head. soz.

  30. Knives&Faux

    Feminists running out of things to complain about and a couple of bell-ends on Twitter think white-knighting will get them laid. God forbid certain activities are associated with a gender.

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