Xbox creator: "This narrative around being more powerful is not helpful today"

Although long gone from Microsoft, Seamus Blackley is widely regarded as the creator of the original Xbox, and he remains passionate about his creation. In interviews and on social media, he often shares his thoughts on the subject.

Few have missed the disruptive change in strategy Microsoft has been pursuing lately, releasing its games on all formats. However, they will still launch a new Xbox console in the future (and a portable one at that), which, according to Xbox boss Sarah Bond, is said to offer "the largest technical leap you've ever seen in a hardware generation".

But Blackley is not impressed by this at all, saying that performance no longer attracts gamers. Speaking to VideoGamer, he explains his position, saying that performance was more important back in the day when it was actually still pretty primitive technology:

"It was just that was a story that really worked and that was relevant then because we were still sort of the nascent stages of graphics. Taking that hit in the cost of goods of the cogs was critical, both from the standpoint of story and positioning of us versus the other consoles that came from, you know, what was perceived as these giant Japanese hardware companies that were obviously producing these things for no costs and making all this profit off of them... we were a Western company and we were saying 'okay, we're going to lose money on these to make them super powerful' and take a bet on the games being awesome."

Having the most powerful hardware at the time meant huge differences between the formats, with Halo: Combat Evolved not being able to run on a Dreamcast or PlayStation 2. Today, the Xbox Series S and PlayStation 5 Pro run the same games, and the differences are mostly about frame rate and resolution. This doesn't make anyone choose a particular console, says Blackley, who adds that he would have wanted to do things differently with the Xbox - although he admits that this doesn't guarantee it would have been better:

"[Being the most powerful] was also important to get the guys going into the future. And then, you know, how they managed that brand and the story going forward is not my fucking fault, and it's not, you know, I would not have done things the same way I don't know if it would have been more or less successful but I certainly think that this narrative around being more powerful is not helpful today."

Blackley also sees the Switch as proof that he's right, that performance doesn't sell hardware, while exclusive games do. What do you think, will a hyper-powerful Xbox be enough to attract buyers, or does that aspect no longer matter?