When Microsoft were finalising their plans surrounding Xbox 360’s launch, they had been so focused on defeating Sony’s PlayStation 3 that they had mistakenly “completely discounted Nintendo.”

That’s according to former Microsoft executive Peter Moore – now at Electronic Arts – who shared that they saw GameCube as such “a disaster” that they didn’t believe that Nintendo would pose a threat.

They had wargamed their launch plans, where Moore had pretended to be Sony Computer Entertainment’s Ken Kutaragi. But they hadn’t factored in that Nintendo’s Wii would captivate consumers worldwide to outpace both Microsoft and Sony’s systems.

“I also then remember the E3 when, God bless, Kaz Hirai and Jack Tretton announced $599, and we were all back stage like ‘Woohoo!’,” Moore shared in IGN’s Podcast Unlocked. “We knew then we had an opportunity to get ahead, drive ahead, get our games out quickly and get that lead. And I always said that the first to 10 million wins.”

He continued, “It was one of the greatest times of my career. You had to build a team, because we were growing then. We had prematurely put the Xbox to sleep, we needed to get ready for this and we knew what we needed to do.

“We had a three-day meeting at the Sheraton in Bellevue where we wargamed the scenario, and I actually played Ken Kutaragi. And we brought in a consultancy, it was a lot of fun. And the one thing we’d forgotten about, I don’t know if you remember this Phil [Spencer], we completely discounted Nintendo. Because they came off the GameCube and it was a disaster.”

Spencer added, “…and they destroyed both of us!”

Moore continued, “Yes, with the Wii. But we wargamed for three days, what are you going to do, what do the launch titles look like, what are the marketing budgets, what is the positioning? And it was a fascinating experience which I’ll never forget. And this is a decade ago. And I actually played Ken, and my job was to destroy the launch of the Xbox 360.”

source: http://www.nintendo-insider.com/2015/07/05/microsoft-completely-discounted-nintendo-when-launching-xbox-360/

Podcast Unlocked reminiscing the glory days.

The whole of Podcast Unlocked 201 was such an amazing listen. Every Xbox fan needs to listen to it, hell Ive never owned an Xbox in my life and I loved every second of it. Always interesting to hear them open up a bit more on what happens behind the scenes.

Funny to see the Gamecube as a "disaster" when your own console at the time barely sold any better. =D

XBox was their first console, meaning they had no experience, no franchises, no fanbase and no previous goodwill to fall back on.

At the same time, Nintendo was a household name, with many great gaming franchises in tow, with 3 previous successful consoles and two portables as well. Yet they sold worse than the newcomer.

I think sales of those two consoles cannot even be compared at the same level, and taking into consideration Nintendo's presence until then, GC was certainly a "disaster",

Yeah, they certainly destroyed both of you. Now Sony and MS are destroying them! lol.
:P

Nintendo released their console during the aftermath of a video game market crash and succeeded entirely because they held an illegal monopoly on 3rd party developers. Sony released their console after Sega imploded with the Sega CD, 32x, and Saturn, while Nintendo released a clearly inferior product. Microsoft released their console two years after the launch of what is now the best selling home console of all time and three days after Nintendo's launch; not to mention Nintendo already had cemented a solid fanbase. Ignoring context is not wise here.

Useless article. What would've gone differently if they had them on the radar?

stupid comparison. consoles where dead when nintendo released the nes. there was no competition from consoles. yet nintendo didn't even launch the nes by themselves in the most parts of europe.

playstation again is another story. until playstation, console gaming basically was kids stuff. adults either played more serious games on pc, tetris (and only tetris) on gameboy or not at all.

now if one wants to compare playstation and xbox, keep in mind that sony basically created the market of mature console gamers as well as launched the ps2 way earlier.

and yes, good podcast.

That was probably my favorite overall generation. It offered great variety and, in the end, all three experienced success. Heck, even handhelds were wonderful with the DS and PSP.

In my ideal world that's how every gen would go.

And in response to ofrm1, the NES succeeded for reasons outside of just 3rd party dominance... They had a few "killer apps" in first party games as well. Any kid who saw Super Mario Bros in 1985 immediately wanted the system... You're certainly selling nintendo short.