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Microsoft Thought of Giving Away the Original Xbox for Free - News

by William D'Angelo , posted on 01 April 2015 / 6,167 Views

Microsoft had thoguht about giving away the original Xbox for free, according to Oddworld Inhabitants' Lorne Lanning who spoke with GamesIndustry. Microsoft also originally thought the core market was going to be casual and they wanted to compete with Mario.

"At the time, Xbox thought that the core market was going to be casual. They were going to be the casual gamers' machine," said Lanning. "Now, that's why they approached us because they said 'we think you've got something that competes in that Mario space and we think Mario's the thing to kill ... We see that space. We want that audience. We love Oddworld so why don't you get on this bandwagon? And we might give the box away.'"

"So now you're like, 'look, if you're going to give the box away, you're going to win. If you're going to win, we want to be on board.'"

"In the early days of Xbox, especially before we had figured out how to get greenlit for the project as a pure game console, everybody and their brother who saw the new project starting tried to come in and say it should be free, say it should be forced to run Windows after some period of time," said Xbox co-creator Seamus Blackley.

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A life-long and avid gamer, William D'Angelo was first introduced to VGChartz in 2007. After years of supporting the site, he was brought on in 2010 as a junior analyst, working his way up to lead analyst in 2012. He has expanded his involvement in the gaming community by producing content on his own YouTube channel and Twitch channel dedicated to gaming Let's Plays and tutorials. Outside, in the real world, he has a passion for the outdoors which includes everything from hiking to having received his B.A. in Environmental Studies. You can contact the author at wdangelo@vgchartz.com or on Twitter @TrunksWD.


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7 Comments
Mr.Playstation (on 01 April 2015)

50/50 chance of this being an April fools joke.

  • +7
LemonSlice Mr.Playstation (on 01 April 2015)

Don't be naive, not everything posted today is an April Fools joke.
Abe the Mario killer makes perfect sense.

  • -3
MoonKnight Mr.Playstation (on 01 April 2015)

If so, it's a bad one.

  • +1
Jon-Erich Mr.Playstation (on 02 April 2015)

It wasn't. This was posted on Gamesindustry.biz on March 31.

  • 0
Comment was deleted...
Airaku (on 02 April 2015)

Wow this is probably one of the best April fools joke. It is so cruel and nasty, yet something stupid that Microsoft would have perhaps one time actually considered. Then they realised they wanted to make money and not bleed money. The original Xbox actually bled money and did not make much profits. Actually it made like none as it all went back to staying afloat through marketing and R&D. Microsoft had to dig into their big money pile stash to keep the ball rolling to get where they are now. I am so glad we got the 360 because that console was phenomenal! Actually the Xbox One is their most profitable console and they are already profiting more on this system than their previous consoles. So people who considered the Xbox One an abomination of a failure. Remember in Microsoft's eyes it is profiting more and therefore a winner. It's not about winning the completion for market share anymore. That went out the door when Phil Spence walked in the door in the big seat. He wants a quality that gamers expect and take risks to cater towards what gamers want. He turned the Xbox One around in less than a year and that man deserves more than a cookie. Hate the Xbox One or love it, he deserves real respect!

  • +1
globalisateur (on 01 April 2015)

More like 99.99% chance

  • 0