Former Microsoft VP Peter Moore shed some light on the premature departure of the original Xbox. He recently told The Guardian that the sudden move between the Xbox and Xbox 360 wasn’t really all about getting the fabled head start in the console wars. It was really a financial decision, brought on by the cost of the hard drive in the original unit.
Not having a hard drive in every Xbox 360 was a hard decision, but we wanted to get price under control. The hard drive in every Xbox killed us; we we’re still selling it at $199 and the hard drive was like $70. That’s why we prematurely left the original Xbox, because the more we were selling – there was still great demand – it was killing us, and there was no way to bring the price down.
Moore then went on to remark that Microsoft felt that they needed to “slow [the sales of the Xbox] down and just not sell anymore.” Of course, after stemming the flow of the consoles it was decided that they had to bring on the 360 as “quickly” as possible. At least this process required a lot less firing and more reasonably pleasant days.
Personally, the entire reason why I decided to let go of my beloved PlayStation 2 was the fact that the Xbox had a hard drive and was reportedly going to have a blockbuster service via the Internet called Xbox Live. It turns out that I made a decent choice in the scheme of things, but couldn’t Microsoft find a cheaper hard drive? Now, they just pawn that cost off on us with the Xbox 360 and kill the ability for developers to harness a HDD in the process. Thanks, Microsoft!
So after getting financially whomped with the xbox1 due to the HD costs... Microsoft goes on to make overpriced harddrives and false ones at that. 20 gb pro HD is really only 14 gb, ya know? oh well.
I dunno, I feel like it was an egg they had to break to make an omelette, which prior to this was the sole responsibility of innovative Sega consoles. Now we all expect HDD in consoles. It was timing and educating the market at the expense of that console. Next generation somebody will say Blu-Ray killed the PS3 due to price but all consoles will ship with a similar technology because we expect it.
I call bullshit as well, even more so because the xbox had about 4 different harddrives in its lifespan.
I was able to put a 250 gig seagate (around when xbox was early in its life and doing very well.. so I know the prices are still relative) for about 120$... so what was their problem.
What this sounds like is a sort of press response mocked up by MS to cover their ass for the story that came out about 60+ something percent failure rate on their 360. It seems they had to come up with some story as to why it was rushed.
The thing they never do explain is why it has so many problems. Now, I am not some tech wiz by any means but awhile ago I read something about how MS never put a logic chip in their 360 to cut prices, so now when anything goes wrong they really cant determine what the actual problem is. Oh MS!
Bulk hard drives are cheaper now, but they were still fucking cheap once you bought 100+ at a time... and to think how many millions Microsoft had to buy for all those Xboxes
Well, I've always thought that the Xbox did console gaming a great favor by making a hard drive standard - but then they got rid of it with 360! You would have thought a standard hard drive on 360 wouldn't have cost so much, especially only 20GB...
Just a little history lesson. Peter Moore never was VP of Microsoft. If that were the case becoming the head of EA Sports would have been a massive degradation for him.
@ Brad
Ok I got caught up in the fucked up structure of American Corporations. Usually one would not call the head of entire division a Vice President. And without the addition of "Entertainment and Devices Devision" it really made it sound like you were talking about him being second in command over the whole company.
But ok my bad.
@dgschrei - Na, I condensed it so I wouldn't have to spill the entire title! I know Moore talked about the downgrade before. He said it was better for his family or something to that effect.
Is there some sort of reason why the hard drives cost so much? Moore has no reason to lie about it anymore, nor to even discuss it at all, so I believe him. Perhaps they have to be modified to work with the Xbox hardware? I have no idea.
there are 8 to GB Drives and by 2004 you could get both brands, YES both seagat and western digtial THEY are normal PC 3.5 inch hard disk with 0 mods to them.
for like $20, they cost nothing to make in 2004, a 8 to 10 gb hard disk is tech from like 1999, low spec PCS hell I had a 12 gb hard disk in my game PC in 1998.
and they would have been buying them OEM in bulk that would have givne them a large discount.
so what the fuck was moore and his xbox choneys somking in 2004-2005 when they killed the xbox making?
god the entire xbox was like 1998 PC hardware. 700mhz CPU lame ass old spec geforce GPU
here you go petter more a xbox spec harddisk 10gb for $10
@ Phantom spaceman and cube - Hard drive + Cables + power + controller = $70, as in, it cost them $70 for to have the hard drives. The more components you put on the board, the more it costs to make.
I think TheStripe has the right idea, since you have to include the cost of all parts when manufacturing something. nVidia did the chipset as well as the GPU, and we know all about the contract scuffle between nV and MS, so the controller was one of many parts to consider, too.
Then again, that might have been $70 at launch. There's always room for BS.
You all forget one simple thing. Harddrives, unlike cpu's and stuff, are the only computer component that does not get dirty cheap over time. Yes, they get cheaper, but at some point they are just discontinued and replaced with a model that has more storage space and sell it for the price of the smaler one.
Which doesn't matter in the pc sector, but is a problem in consoles, since the specs of the machine have to remain the same. So at some point it was impossible for MS to get the small HDDs for a reasonable price, since they where the only ones that needed them.
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4:23 PM on 09.17.2008 
