Amidst all the ongoing celebrations for the Xbox 360 turning two decades old later this week, Eurogamer has been speaking to former Xbox boss Peter Moore about his history at Microsoft and his experiences with the Xbox 360.
Perhaps the most interesting bit in "Part 1" of the interview revolves around how Microsoft was concerned about Sony potentially dominating the living room back in the early 2000s, which very much influenced the Xbox 360's development.
Moore explained during the interview that after speaking to Microsoft's Steve Ballmer in January 2003 about joining the company, it was made clear that Sony's dominance with the likes of TVs, blu-ray players, music players and other entertainment devices was something to try and address with the Xbox 360.
"The original Xbox was still being sold. It was a kind of 'shot across the bow' type console - not a fully fledged 'let's get in, let's get after it' [machine], because it wasn't suited to where the future was going. But again, long story short, Microsoft needed to get into the living room.
Microsoft, and in particular Bill [Gates], who I had the privilege of spending quality time with, was afraid that Sony was going to own the living room. It seems a little daft now but in those days televisions, Blu-ray players coming down the pike, music players... Sony was firmly entrenched as an entertainment company and entertainment hub in the living room. And what Bill and the Microsoft core executive team were afraid of was that Microsoft would simply be relegated to the desktop and to the office and be seen as a productivity company."
He went on to discuss how the Xbox 360 needed to be a "complete platform" that could act as an "entertainment hub" as well as a gaming console, and another important element was that it couldn't look out of place in the living room.
"One of the things that was key is that we needed to build something that was more than just a piece of hardware you popped a disc in and played games on. Gamers would be critical at the time, and maybe still, but we were building an entertainment hub. There are no two ways about it. So the industrial design needed to shriek of sleek and it needed to be in the living room. A sleek entertainment device rather than hardcore gaming console."
"It needed to be sleek. It needed to be vertical and horizontal, interestingly, and it also needed to be not out of place next to any other consumer electronics device in the living room, next to the television."
Of course, it all worked out great for Microsoft and Peter Moore with the Xbox 360 going on to become a huge success, and he highlighted how launching well before the PS3 was also a massive part of that.
Going back to those "living room" comments though, it's interesting how Microsoft seemed so focused on building an entertainment hub with the Xbox 360 that was generally received well enough at the time, whereas the Xbox One tried the same thing and was too in-your-face in terms of its entertainment-focused reveal.
Interesting stuff! We'll have more Xbox 360 content here at Pure Xbox throughout the week, and don't forget to check out some of our new features - such as a look back at PGR3, as well as things we miss about the Xbox 360 in 2025.