[Update: Microsoft confirmed that all DRM restrictions have been removed from the Xbox One]
The microphone-snatching, red-faced answering, fanboy arm flailing and spittle exchange pretty much sums up what the Angry Joe interview with Microsoft's Larry “Major Nelson” Hryb was all about. It's just over 10 minutes of awkward, hostile, uncomfortable question asking and question answering. Also, I'm not kidding about Angry Joe having the microphone snatched out of his hands. I'm not even kidding.
So, many of you might be familiar with the rants of Angry Joe that helped set the internet on fire after the Xbox One was revealed with some startling policies. Remember that? Now imagine this same Joe getting an opportunity to fire off some tough-as-nails questions at someone at Microsoft...someone like, say, ”Major Nelson”.
The whole interview starts off pretty jovial, much like Hryb's interview with the Reddit game reporter. However, it becomes obvious that Hryb isn't as impressed with Angry Joe's physical properties and the questions are far less PR friendly than Reddit's corporately safe questions and the subsequent descriptive-deficient answers that Larry lobs back at the community.
The interview with Joe shifts from cordial to defensive and from defensive to offensive. Soon, Hryb finds himself cornered by the hard place of corporate policies, while the slow moving wall of pro-consumerism closes in on him. In a quick attempt to deflect the heat, Larry uses an over-hand tuck maneuver, and follows it up with a pinky-free PR clinch to relieve Joe of the mic. Watch this play-by-play all-star move in slow-motion...
Uh oh, it looks like Joe's in trouble as the tuck is getting in there and Larry establishes the cinch with those hand gymnastics...
The clinch is now being applied with that patented pinky-free move that Larry mastered during his post-grad years, look at him go...look at him go....and....bam!
Reputation Management: 1
Angry Joe: 0
Dang Joe, you got owned.
We were all rooting for Joe but the PR that be had him by the journalistic-integrity-balls. There was nothing Joe could do but let Larry run the court, verbally dribble the topic between his legs and dunk that topic like he was Lebron blocking and owning Tiago during the NBA finals.
I was hoping Joe could get a few things cleared up regarding Xbox Live account bans on the Xbox One that extends beyond a two word, information-free rebuttal that consisted of “Absolutely not!”
Nevertheless, at the end of the video Joe says all was well in the world and Larry “Major Nelson” Hryb recovered some face by apologizing about the antagonistic nature of the interview and posted a community-appreciated comment on Reddit that you can view here.
All was seemingly right in the messy and worthless wasteland known as video game journalism, save for the fact that we still don't have a clear and thorough explanation of Xbox Live account bans and how it affects the licenses of the games you own both physically and digitally. Maybe in the next interview? Until then, Joe...hang on to that mic tighter next time.
