Come, take a trip back in time with me. The year is 2005 and Microsoft is preparing to unleash the Xbox 360 upon an unsuspecting world, a home console designed to upend the market dominance Sony had perpetuated across two generations with its PlayStation and PS2 systems.
If you listen to Peter Moore tell it, who once held the title of ‘corporate vice-president’ of Microsoft’s Interactive Entertainment Business division, there was some degree of consternation in the air as the Xbox 360 was gearing up for release. So much so that Microsoft brought in a consultancy firm to help Microsoft better understand how the Xbox 360 would weigh up against the PS3. “It’s called wargaming,” says Moore, in an expansive interview with The Game Business, reflecting on his career.
“It was two or three days of ‘this is who you are, and this is what’s going to happen’.” The “what” in this instance was Moore taking on the role of longtime former PlayStation boss Ken Kutaragi – entrusted with a mission to “take on Xbox” in the hypothetical wargaming scenario. “It allows you to expose the thinking of the competition and then what you’re going to do to combat that.”
Moore continues: “So I took on the role of Ken Kutaragi and basically attacked what I thought were the weaknesses of Microsoft and Xbox 360 – the hard-drive capabilities, the price points… everything that you do in a wargaming environment. And, scarily, I won – which shouldn’t have happened.”
“In the end, it all worked out very well. It’s part of what companies do when you go into a nose-to-nose competitive environment,” he adds, speaking to the value of running these sorts of simulations as Xbox went head-to-head with a company already riding high after knocking Sega out of the hardware business. “It’s the art of war. You’ve got to understand what’s going on in the head of the other guys, and the best way to do it is going into the wargaming environment.”
The Xbox 360 ultimately launched on November 22, 2005 in North America and December 2, 2005 in the UK, gaining an early foothold in the seventh generation of home consoles. The PlayStation 3 launched later, arriving on November 17, 2006 in North America and March 23 in the UK, to a more hostile environment than Sony had ever experienced before.
The Xbox 360 was cheaper than the PS3, and easier to develop for. The 360 had also demonstrated that it was a more than capable vehicle for online gaming in the burgeoning broadband era, as well as a wealth of first- and third-party exclusives. The wargaming scenario did its job then, at least in those early days.
While the seventh generation is often remembered for the dominance of the Xbox 360, it’s funny to think that the PS3 did eventually outstrip its competitor. Despite the goodwill generated by the best Xbox 360 games and the headstart the console enjoyed in 2005, the PS3 is estimated to have sold 87 million units when things were all said and done – reportedly three million more than the 360 managed.
