Xbox News 2016: Co-Creator Ed Fries Reveals Bill Gates' Initial Reaction To The Xbox [VIDEO]
Microsoft has been one of the giants in console gaming for more than a decade, with the company's Xbox consoles taking the market by storm. Today, the tech giant stands toe-to-toe with the biggest players in the industry, with Microsoft's upcoming console, the Xbox Scorpio, speculated to be the most powerful dedicated gaming machine to ever be released.
During the initial days of the Xbox project, however, things were a lot different. In a recent interview, Xbox co-creator Ed Fries shared a very notable anecdote about the birth of Microsoft's gaming console. As it turns, the father of Microsoft, Bill Gates, once referred to the console as an "insult" to all that he has done for the company.
"So we go into the meeting and four o'clock Valentine's Day. Bill walks in he's holding a Powerpoint deck and yells, 'This is a blanking insult to everything I've done at this company,'" Fries said.
When the Xbox project was first explored by the tech giant, two teams were tasked to make proposals for the project. One team wanted to make a dedicated console similar to the Sega Dreamcast, while another team wanted to make a gaming machine that would be a "PC in disguise," running Windows. Gates ultimately approved the latter.
However, as the designers and developers worked on the concept, the Windows aspect of the console was eventually dropped fully. The abandonment of Windows for the machine was the tipping point for Gates, who was none too pleased that the company's flagship operating system would not even be featured in the gaming machine.
Thankfully, one of the senior executives present at the meeting brought up a point that immediately convinced the Microsoft founder to entertain the idea of an Xbox without Windows.
"So we spent years working on this and looking at each other and convincing them this is the best plan, so finally one of the observers at the meeting just raises his hand and says, 'What about Sony?' and he says, 'Sony is slowly invading the living room with a processor here software there, they could be a threat to Microsoft.' So Bill and Steve stop and look at each other and go, 'Yeah...what about Sony?' And so Bill turns and says, 'I'm going to give you guys everything you want,'" Fries said.
Thus, in a lot of ways, Sony has to thank itself for creating its biggest rival to date. If it wasn't for the success of Sony during the time, Microsoft would probably have dropped the Xbox project.
With the Xbox Scorpio emerging as the biggest threat to the upcoming reign of the PlayStation 4 Neo, it seems like history is about to repeat itself.
