Microsoft Considered Making Original Xbox Free - Report

In a fascinating new interview with GamesIndustry International, Oddworld creator and industry veteran Lorne Lanning reveals that Microsoft considered offering the original Xbox for free back in 2001.

This move, Lanning said, was an attempt to reach "casual" gamers, which he claimed Microsoft saw--at least during one stage of development--as they key demographic for the console.

"At the time, Xbox thought that the core market was going to be casual," Lanning said. They were going to be the casual gamers' machine. Now, that's why they approached us because they said 'we think you've got something that competes in that Mario space and we think Mario's the thing to kill ... We see that space. We want that audience. We love Oddworld so why don't you get on this bandwagon? And we might give the box away,'" Lanning explained.

"So now you're like, 'Look, if you're going to give the box away, you're going to win. If you're going to win, we want to be on board.'"

Xbox co-creator Seamus Blackley is also featured in the report. He said conversations about the direction the original Xbox should go were shooting in all directions, including offering it for free. Of course, Microsoft did not end up going down this path, launching the console as a paid device in November 2001.

"In the early days of Xbox, especially before we had figured out how to get greenlit for the project as a pure game console, everybody and their brother who saw the new project starting tried to come in and say it should be free, say it should be forced to run Windows after some period of time," Blackley said.

Other ideas floated inside of Microsoft were wild to think about now. According to the report, some said the Xbox should be a console focused on playing movies or that all games would need to be developed by Microsoft. Others even suggested that Microsoft should make a dramatic move and buy Nintendo.

"Just name it, name a bad idea and it was something we had to deal with," Blackley said.

Of course, the Xbox has gone on to become a juggernaut brand in gaming. The original Xbox helped popularize the console FPS with Halo and its online infrastructure, Xbox Live, was revolutionary.

Anda sedang membaca artikel tentang

Microsoft Considered Making Original Xbox Free - Report

Dengan url

http://sehatbergayaraya.blogspot.com/2015/04/microsoft-considered-making-original.html

Sehat Bergaya