Summary
The great Console Wars of the early 2000s was, what some believe, the peak of gaming culture.The big three were going at itin a triple-threat match featuring thePlayStation 2,Xbox 360, and theGameCube. Fans were picking sides over which of the three had better games and offerings, and trash-talking the other two.
These days, everyone’s a bit embarrassed about how they behaved at the time. While there are still some console warmongerers around, things are relatively calm. Nintendo is doing its own thing, PlayStation is still focussed on prestige titles, andXbox is on the way to doing away with exclusivity entirely. The war may have ended, but former Xbox exec, Peter Moore believed that it was “healthy for the industry” and even encouraged it.
War, What Is It Good For?
As spotted byVGC, in an interview on Danny Peña’s YouTube channel for the Xbox 360’s 20th anniversary, Moore admitted that he encouraged the console war whenever he could, and believed that it actually got the best out of the big three – Sony, Microsoft, and Nintendo.
He explained that “the early 2000s was a phenomenal platform for us to get off the back pages and to get on the front pages, and to be taken seriously as an entertainment medium”. This was after video games were in the spotlight for encouraging violence, distracting kids, and all the other things that they were accused of.
“I think the console wars that you’re kind of alluding to were healthy for the industry," said Moore. “Look, I’ve said it before – certainly, I did encourage the battle, because I think gamers loved to see Xbox versus PlayStation, maybe Nintendo as well, and that I think was a rising tide that lifted all ships.”
However, he admits that the industry is no longer the same. Speaking aboutMicrosoft’s new stance on exclusivity, he said, “If [Microsoft] had the choice, would they make hardware? No. Would they be delighted if they could be a multi-hundred billion dollar entity delivering content directly to your television, to whatever monitor you choose to play on? You bet.”
Business aside, it seems everyone is getting along now, but Moore feels that aggressive competition is required. “Has it lost a little bit of the feistiness that the industry I think fed upon and grew upon? I think so, yeah.”
