How The Xbox One's Troubled Launch Helped Create A "Fan-Centric" Culture At Microsoft

It's no secret that the Xbox One had a problematic launch. The tough time wasn't all bad news for Microsoft, however, it seems. Microsoft corporate vice president Yusuf Mehdi wrote a new piece on LinkedIn in which he talks about "How Xbox fans inspired a fan-centric culture at Microsoft."

"It was really the Xbox One launch that reinforced for me the power of fans," Mehdi said (via NeoGAF).

He added that, after attending the Xbox One launch event in New York in 2013, he was personally inspired by the fans' passion and commitment to the Xbox brand.

It wasn't an easy road to launch, however. As you may remember, Microsoft had a number of messaging issues and plans for a 24-hour check-in--not everyone was thrilled. Microsoft later rolled back some of these policies.

"Balancing your business objectives with the needs of your customers is one of the biggest challenges you'll face, but if you really focus on doing the right thing for your customers, you're on the path," he said. "Doing the right thing is not always the easiest thing and that will be the truest test of your values as a company and your commitment to real customer-centricity.

"We've experienced these challenges ourselves with Xbox. With our initial announcement of Xbox One and our desire to deliver breakthroughs in gaming and entertainment, the team made a few key decisions regarding connectivity requirements and how games would be purchased that didn't land well with fans."

Mehdi added: "This experience was such a powerful reminder that we must always do the right thing for our customers, and since we've made that commitment to our Xbox fans, we've never looked back."

You can read Mehdi's full blog post here.

Microsoft's next major console release is coming up soon. Project Scorpio, or whatever Microsoft decides to call the system, is slated to arrive this holiday. Microsoft recently teased that it may hold a pre-E3 event for Scorpio, presumably in part to give games more room to breathe at E3 itself.