Obama vs Xbox: Microsoft’s Response

I didn’t feel like writing any further posts about Obama but, seeing as Microsoft has responded to his recent comments, it seemed worth discussing. It was recently reported by GamePolitics that, in one of his usual speeches about parenting and the like, Obama briefly mentioned videogames yet again. Only this time he specifically targeted the Xbox rather than simply referring to them as videogames as he usually does. Here’s what he said:

For our kids to excel, we must accept our own responsibilities. That means putting away the Xbox and putting our kids to bed at a reasonable hour.

Naturally, Microsoft has chosen to respond to this. It’s worth noting that the only response last time was Peter Moore’s attempt to turn the issue into an advertisement for EA SPORTS Active, which wasn’t exactly constructive. Microsoft isn’t as shameless in their response but it isn’t much of an improvement.

Here’s their response, as reported by GameKicker:

We agree with President Obama that it’s a time for families to work together so that kids use media in ways that are safe, healthy and balanced. Xbox 360 is the only console gaming system that has a timer feature allowing parents to set time limits for their kids, as well as parent controls to enable parents to set limits on what their kids are playing and watching.

This response is at least a little more relevant, as it makes mention of the Xbox 360′s parental controls without sounding entirely like they’re trying to sell you something. It really is just a bit of self-promotion on Microsoft’s part though.

It’s curious that Obama, or whoever writes his speeches, decided to use “Xbox” instead of the more generalised “videogames” term this time. Does this mean that the Wii is fine with Obama then? Did he like EA SPORTS Active? Does he choose Killzone over Halo? Are these serious questions? Not really.

Personally, I agree with Obama’s message but I take issue with the way that he seems to constantly relate videogames to poor education, which can’t be doing the public perception of the medium any good. However, it appears that no one else is particularly bothered by this so I won’t waste time rambling on about it again.