Has it been discussed somewhere why random YouTubers I've never heard of were getting Xbox Series Xes early and Giant Bomb has not?

I think they did get one - have they said they didn’t?

It may be in the office.

I wonder about this too and similar times it seems GB is left out lately on stuff like this. Sometimes, it is travel, and I get that and GB has been open recently about mostly not doing that anymore.

I think its because they aren't as big as an IGN or Gamespot and then they aren't going to be as rah rah and basically doing promotion for you as most youtubers will, especially if you send them something for free. Behind the scenes at a lot of publishers I bet they just have GB under the Gamespot label or something.

Bakalar was the only one who talked about it first hand.

Could be Jeff didn't like the terms, could be MS thought giving one to Gamespot was enough.

Those early Xboxs (Xboxes?) were for hardware previews. They weren't finished product, most of those who did get one have to send them back, and that's not the usual kind of coverage GB does.

So why agree to get a preview of a console you can only play Xbox One and 360 games on? Might as well wait for the whole shindig before diving in deep.

It's a prototype non-final piece of hardware, so I'm sure they didn't send out all that many. GB also isn't really the type of site to do the sort of in depth technical/hardware analysis that it seems like MS was probably wanting to see.

If you were Microsoft would you want to mail a box that big to a residential address with "giant bomb" written on the label?

Thread over. You win.

Red Venture are wondering why they got a free Xbox.

Very few traditional outlets actually got one. Mostly the bigger sites. CBS got two already with Cnet and Gamspot.

Phil Spencer secretly hates Giant Bomb. Remember that one year where the video from his interview was cut short on the E3 night show? It wasn't an equipment failure. He actually punched Jeff in the face.

If they did, it's not theirs. It belongs to the company (whoever that is now).

Although after reading responses it actually makes sense. Since Giant Bomb doesn't do technical coverage they don't need the ones that have been sent out. They need an actual retail box. If Microsoft isn't sending those out (and let's face it, they may not anymore) then it makes sense Giant Bomb didn't get one. They need actual systems that they can use regularly.

As I think about this more: Giant Bomb has always bought their own consoles. At least as far back as I remember. But on the companies dime. Look back to when they moved to CBSi. I remember them talking about it then. Or when Vinny set up the New York office. It's not unusual for them to not get one from the game company. I even remember Vinny talking about getting consoles for the office from Bestbuy at some point.

I don't recall if this has been said specifically, but I do know Jeff thinks about credibility a lot and he may have decided a long time ago they would just get their own stuff on the companies dime so there is no sense of an ethical violation. But I don't remember if he fully took that stand or if it was just easier. I only remember him talking about thinking about that kind of stuff all the time.

Nice.

I'm sure they will get an early version of the release version when they allow looks at the actual next gen games.