Marc Whitten
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Xbox One chief product officer admits big mistakes in messaging

  • Posted byby Dean Takahashi
  • Updated
  • 2 min

Xbox One chief product officer Marc Whitten admitted that Microsoft made mistakes in communicating its policies on digital rights to its consumers, according an IGN interview.

The mistakes started on May 21, when the company announced its next-generation console, and then those missteps multiplied as Microsoft executives gave different answers to the same questions on used game sales, once-a-day connection requirements, and privacy issues. The Xbox maker issued a clarification on some of those policies just before the Electronic Entertainment Expo trade show in June and backtracked following a player revolt after the event. Then, games chief Don Mattrick left the company, and Microsoft installed Windows head Julie Larson-Green as the new Xbox hardware boss.

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Written by

Dean Takahashi

Dean Takahashi is editorial director for GamesBeat. He has been a tech journalist since 1988, and he has covered games as a beat since 1996. He was lead writer for GamesBeat at VentureBeat from 2008 to April 2025. Prior to that, he wrote for the San Jose Mercury News, the Red Herring, the Wall Street Journal, the Los Angeles Times, and the Dallas Times-Herald. He is the author of two books, "Opening the Xbox" and "The Xbox 360 Uncloaked." He organizes the annual GamesBeat Next, GamesBeat Summit and GamesBeat Insider Series: Hollywood and Games conferences and is a frequent speaker at gaming and tech events. He lives in the San Francisco Bay Area.