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Xbox Co-Creator’s Advice for Xbox One Supremacy

by GH Staff

The co-founder of the Xbox project Ed Fries has stated that free to play and console exclusive games are the key for Xbox One to take the lead in the console wars.

The former Microsoft employee, who retired in 2004 after nearly 20 years in the company, said on an Ask Me Anything on Yabbly last week that the Xbox One “needs better exclusive games than PS4” and “they need to be more open to indie developers”. He went on to say that “They need to adopt free-to-play gaming more aggressively and they need to continue to move Xbox Live forward as the leading online service.

When he was asked about his view on the current generation of console battles and who will come out on top, Mr Fries said that it “really depends on which team executes the best, both on delivering great games and on improving the user experience through better system software on the console”.

During the course of the interview, Fries also talked about Microsoft’s change of heart regarding the DRM policy that was originally in place for the Xbox One. He thinks that “the digital distribution/DRM thing could have been fine if they had just used Steam as their model, but they proposed something that wasn’t like Steam and wasn’t good for their customers. Then people complained, they completely got rid of it instead of fixing it to what people want. Hopefully now that they have more time, they will fix that mess”.

Microsoft have reported that 3 million Xbox One consoles have been sold so far, while PS4 is currently charging ahead with 6 million systems sold worldwide. The controversy surrounding the console before its release has shown to have an impact with the sales. Ed Fries’ advice should be considered by Microsoft, as it could be vital if Microsoft wants to see better success with the Xbox One.

Ed Fries himself is still heavily involved in the video game industry, despite his retirement from Microsoft, by working as a consultant for companies and starting a company called FigurePrints which he says “uses colour 3D printing technology to bring video game characters to life”