During the height of theXboxbrand, Peter Moore was arguably the face of the company.
From his iconic Halo 2 tattoo to his infamous quote telling people to buy anXbox 360and aNintendo Wiiinstead of aPS3, Moore is a legend when it comes to the Xbox brand.
He moved on from the company in 2007 to head EA’s sports division and was replaced by Dom Mattrick, who had an infamous quote of his own, telling people to buy an Xbox 360 instead of anXbox One.
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Anyway, I digress; Peter Moore joinedDannyPena’spodcast recently to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the Xbox 360. During their discussion, the topic of Microsoft’s modern-day strategy came up. Moore argues that they wouldn’t be in the hardware business if Microsoft had the choice.
You know, the classic Netflix model, you just select – ‘Who’s playing this? 5000 people playing this? I’m going to jump in right now’, no latency, no lag, you’re in, and there doesn’t need to be a box between you and your controller and the TV set. But still, you know, consoles are – as we’ve seen particularly with Nintendo now – people love their hardware.
Microsoft Has Long Wanted to Establish the Xbox Brand Beyond Selling Consoles
Peter Moore left Microsoft during the height of the Xbox 360’s popularity. It was the destination for the industry’s best games: Call of Duty, BioShock, Halo, etc. It was played on Xbox 360.
Today, the industry’s best games are arguably found elsewhere, whether on Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 5, or PC. Even first-party Xbox games are available on other platforms, meaning that if you want to play the best Xbox games, you may play them elsewhere.
Just look at Microsoft’s “This is an Xbox” or “Play anywhere” strategy. Phil Spencer has long wanted to let Xbox gamers play games wherever they want. Moore admits that the console wars are over, saying it’s “bigger than that in an economic sense.”
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Microsoft’s plan to sell the Xbox as an ecosystem rather than a console goes back to the Xbox One, when you could see their longterm desire to establish themselves as a software service. Obviously, that failed in spectacular fashion, but they’re working on delivering that today with services like Xbox Game Pass and releasing games likeForza Horizon 5 on PlaySation 5.
