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An Original Xbox Designer Talks 360

Peter Moore talks to the folks over at Spong.com about what it was like to make the original Xbox, and how those lessons now translate into work on the 360. From the article: "We've built from scratch a brand, I think we've built credibility in the marketplace and I think we've built our ecosystem, be it our relationship with publishers, with retail. We have a hugely positive relationship with developers, something we are extremely proud of here. The DNA of Microsoft is building platforms. Creating something and then inviting everyone to come and play with it and come and make money on this stuff we have. Xbox is no different. You hear us talk a lot about it as a platform and it's this combo of hardware, software and services that all come together to create this platform."

3 of 71 comments (clear)

  1. well this is new by FidelCatsro · · Score: 4, Insightful
    A person speaking on behalf of Microsoft talking in circles ,Now there is something unusual *cough*

    Anyway..

                      Reading through the interview , He does take great pains to rubbish Sony .
    "We've been making games for two decades as a company and that's something people often forget. We're far more experienced at making games than Sony ever was"
    Sony also did have a good amount of experience acquired from their partnership with Nintendo
    (The SNES's dropped CD add on) Which allowed Sony to pick up quite a bit of knowledge and eventually resulted in the Playstation .They also acquired a lot of very talented people for the development of their consoles .Exactly what MS did when they started to muscle into the console market

    That aside , the Dreamcast was a great console(though it did have a few problems ) . It was reasonably compact , quite quiet and well designed. The man worked on it .. so my main question would be , What exactly happened with the design of the original Xbox. The Xbox is large , noisy , heavy and (this is just my opinion) not terribly attractive from a design stand point .It was one of the largest consoles to date.
    I see they are taking pains (at least at face value , I have no idea how noisy the box will be) to correct the issues of the origional design

    --
    The only things certain in war are Propaganda and Death. You can never be sure which is which though
    1. Re:well this is new by defkkon · · Score: 2, Insightful
      A person speaking on behalf of Microsoft talking in circles ,Now there is something unusual *cough*

      I know that the usual thing to do on /. is to immediately start trashing Microsoft. But, c'mon. The guy is trying to drum up good PR for the Xbox and Xbox 360. I read the entire article, and he's not talking in circles - he's giving a nice spin on the entire Xbox experience. I actually found the interview interesting. He gave some solid answers and opinions. Even though he doesn't give any dates or numbers (we all know damned well that none of the companies would do that this early) but he doesn't ignore the questions either.

      Besides, as if Ken Kutaragi is the most believable, reliable, reality-based person on the planet. He is one of the most aggressive hype-mongers I've witnessed. I think he's great for Sony, but don't start trashing Peter Moore just because he's from Microsoft.

  2. from scratch? by justforaday · · Score: 5, Insightful

    We've built from scratch a brand...

    Yes, it's amazing how you can build a brand from scratch when all you have to work with is an essentially unlimited marketing budget...

    --
    I'll turn into a supernova and burn up everything. Well I'll turn into a black little hole and you'll turn into string.