Peter Moore is known for wearing many hats around the games (and sports) industry. One stop in his career was at Microsoft where he helped oversee Xbox during the 360-era. In a new interview, Moore spoke about his time at Xbox and how they encouraged the console wars, but not for reasons you’d expect.
Moore recently made an appearance on one of Front Office Sports’ podcast to discuss his time as Liverpool FC CEO, in the process touching on his time at Xbox. While the games industry has shifted towards a more unified tone, during Moore’s tenure the console wars were arguably an even bigger part of the games industry — something Moore says was encouraged at Xbox.
“We encouraged the console wars, not to create division, but to challenge each other,” Moore says. “And when I say each other I mean Microsoft and Sony. If Microsoft hadn’t of stuck the course after the Xbox, after the Red Rings of Death, gaming would be a poorer place for it, you wouldn’t have the competition you have today.”
Moore joined Xbox in 2003 after serving as president and COO of Sega America. Moore is best remembered for helping launch the Xbox 360 and Dreamcast as well as his penchant for announcing high-profile games with fake tattoos. Xbox’s early dominance in the 360-era was driven by games like Halo as well as the launch of Xbox Live.
But Moore also talked about the lows such as the Red Ring of Death controversy. “If we didn’t resolve Red Rings of Death the way that we did I know darn well there’d be no Xbox today.”
Nowadays, the console wars are a bit more downplayed, especially given the current landscape of cross-platform and cross-play titles. Even when Xbox and Sony acquire developers like Activision and Bungie, there are still talks of keeping their biggest games multiplatform, at least for now.
Moore would later join EA to lead its sports division before becoming the CEO of Liverpool Football Club. He has since returned to the tech space and is currently a vice president and GM at Unity.
Matt T.M. Kim is IGN’s News Editor. You can reach him @lawoftd.
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