Microsoft Highlights Xbox Adaptive Controller Users in New Super Bowl Commercial

[RanceJustice]

I've been a vocal opponent of Microsoft's policies in the 90s up through today, but I can't fault them for this. This is a company that would basically pour money into the toilet simply to cripple competitors who couldn't keep up - I'd much rather them put their funds into something like this instead! Instead of being able to sacrifice profit in order to retain control of the market or keep potential competitors out, THIS is what they should be doing if they have so much money (yes, some of it ill gotten) that they can afford to put profit aside. This is a relatively inexpensive, standards compliant and open solution to make gaming more accessible; an underserved market that is not likely to offer the kind of profit compared to broader initiatives. From what I've seen, they've even gone about it more or less the right way by not just tossing together a PR package but instead going to existing disabled gamer organizations and asking for their serious input - again, kudos. Yes, they're "hamming it up" on the PR side too and some may seem a bit self-congratulatory and in the cynical mind a "look how awesome we are" move, but there are far worse things to buy Super Bowl ad space to promote.

This kind of thing (along with their peripherals in general which have always been at least good and sometimes great - going all the way back to Sidewinder feedback joysticks, IntelliMouse 3.0, and of course the Xbox 360 and Xbox One gamepads) proves that Microsoft can profit without being "evil"...but sadly, I'm pretty sure they (and most others) know that "evil" is nearly always the most profitable so I dont' expect them to make massive changes to the business plan to be ethical, but I would be remiss to not acknowledge on the occasions they make good decisions.