As Xbox continues to celebrate their 20th anniversary with news, announcements, and more, one of the more interesting events created quite the conversation. One of Xbox’s panels, which included Xbox pioneers Robbie Bach, Peter Moore, Bonnie Ross, and Ed Fries, was hosted by none other than former Nintendo of America president, Reggie Fils-Aime.
Though Reggie was their to guide their stories, that didn’t stop him from praising Xbox, looking at how far they’ve come in the last twenty years, even going as far as saying the games industry is better because of what they have been doing in recent years.
The moment in time of the launch, the moment in time now, 20 years later, the industry is better because of the Xbox launch, I passionately believe that. And the fact that there are all of these companies making all of this wonderful content, the ecosystem is so robust, Xbox is a big part of that.
Reggie Fils-Aime
Reggie even talked about memories of the Original Xbox and playing Halo: Combat Evolved with his son.
When Xbox launched, I wasn’t in the industry, I was a consumer – I was that prototypical consumer that had a PS2 in my house already, I had an N64, I was thinking about a GameCube but I actually didn’t buy a GameCube until I was already part of Nintendo…but my son, an avid gamer, was the one saying we need to check out this Xbox thing… and the driver was Halo, and that experience is what got the original Xbox into my house with that big old controller. That is my Xbox memory from the very beginning.
Reggie Fils-Aime
The fact that he had so much to say about the brand speaks to his own passion for games, no matter the platform, and what matters most are the people behind those games. It shines a positive light on an industry that has seemed so dark in a lot of ways as of late.
My Take
It was crazy to watch a personality so tied to Nintendo hosting an Xbox panel. Even Reggie admitted he didn’t know why he was hosting, stating “I don’t know what I’m doing here either.” But at the end of the day, all of these visionaries, pioneers, icons, whatever you want to call them, have changed the industry in so many ways for the better, from Xbox Live to the accessibility controller, to GamePass to the Backwards Compatibility program. Xbox has made as many innovations as Nintendo has over the years in different ways. I am proud to be a fan of both.
Source: Yahoo News, Microsoft Alumni Network
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