Microsoft executives and game developers tell the story of how the original Xbox came into being and how the PS2 played a key role in its creation.
When the PlayStation 2 was announced in 1999, Sony said the console “would redefine the world of the computer”. That didn’t go well with Microsoft executives and the race to create a competitive console and win the war for living rooms around the world has begun. Microsoft was a specialist in software development and knew it could create a console with more power than the PS2, but when it came to hardware, the company had to start from scratch by taking apart a PS2.
The original Xbox celebrates its 20th anniversary in 2021, and the story of how it came about is fraught with both failure and success. From the beginning of the console onwards, Microsoft bosses like Bill Gates, Robbie Bach and Steve Ballmer knew they needed to make a machine that not only ran games well, but was also viable and attractive in a home environment. But hardware was never Microsoft’s specialty. Today’s fast-selling Xbox Series X caveman ancestor was actually a huge silver X that never saw its first test run. Hardware bosses Robbie Bach and Todd Holmdahl would have to redesign the concept to make something more aesthetically pleasing, and they started by taking an in-depth look inside a PS2.
Bach and Holmdahl discussed their plans with the head of business planning at the time, Aaron Greenberg, and the decision was made to take down a PS2 themselves. As Greenberg says, “actually, we had to get a PS2, we took it apart, put it on a giant wooden board … [we] analyzed each component, each part, priced and tried to find out how many screws and how much it cost. “The first attempt resulted in an Xbox that crashed once in four times that it booted and scratched discs consistently. But just as Microsoft and Sony use each other to innovate now, Microsoft knew it could dominate the hardware with the guidance of PS2 and even create some new features.
One of these new features was a built-in high-speed Internet connection, the first of its kind on consoles, which would eventually become one of Microsoft’s most successful ventures, Xbox Live. Although Xbox Live was not available until a year after the Xbox launch, the service has become immensely popular and has evolved into today’s Xbox Game Pass, which offers more free games than ever before.
The days of the original Xbox are far behind the gaming industry, but there are still some things that haven’t changed. The 9th generation of consoles has produced incredible technology, and Microsoft and Sony are still fighting for dominance to have a console in players’ living rooms everywhere. The new consoles were so influential that furniture store giants like IKEA placed cardboard replicas of the Xbox Series X and PS5 in their stores for size comparison. Console players should always be enthusiastic about the company’s competition, as competition generates innovation and makes the consoles of the future much better.
Source: Bloomberg.com
