Rape is not a joke

Summary: Microsoft's attempts at being "cool" are not working out and the Vista series is falling to obscurity levels

Earlier this week, PRISM partner Microsoft introduced (more details about PRISM in [1, 2, 3, 4]) its DRM-laden spying box, the Xbox One, as an Internet hotspot of sorts. Accompanying the introduction, the obligatory sexism reared its ugly head again [1, 2, 3] and there was a joke about rape:

Perhaps more than any segment of the technology industry, gamer culture has had its fair share of sexism problems, so it's not that surprising that a Microsoft presenter slipped an apparent rape reference into a Monday presentation at Electronic Entertainment Expo, or E3, the biggest video-game conference of the year. During a demo of Killer Instinct to drum up excitement for its new Xbox One, Microsoft brought out a man and a woman to battle it out on the big screen onstage in Los Angeles. In this scripted event the man, of course, kicks the woman's ass at the fighting game. "I can't even block correctly and you're too fast," she says, playing a video game like a girl. But even more problematic than those stereotypical gender roles was the part when her adversary said this: "Just let it happen. It will be over soon." You know, like a rape...

XBox had some less tactful advertising, as we covered before (violence and sex are a recurring theme).

“...Microsoft has been caught with their pants down and maybe the entire concept of a video game console as whole.”
      --ZiomatrixThere are other issues though. "Let them eat last gen," wrote Ziomatrix regarding "Microsoft's response to questions concerning its always checking online DRM.

"Even if Sony's revelation is now proven to be a Pyrrhic victory since each publisher can set their own standards of DRM for the PS4 and Sony's record of doing an about face when it suites them still shows that Microsoft has been caught with their pants down and maybe the entire concept of a video game console as whole."

Microsoft is really desperate to become a hardware company because the Windows monopoly is dying.

CNET says that Vista 8 is recognised as a failure by more and more analysts:

The era of growth in the traditional PC market may be coming to an end. Things are looking worse this year than previously forecast, according to Citi.

Vista 8 is a dead end, which is why many Microsoft chiefs are quitting the company (recently the CIO). A lot of Microsoft's business heavily depends on the common carrier, Windows. Xbox never caught on as a common carrier and neither did Windows Mobile/Windows Phone. ⬆