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[IbizaPocholo]

20 Years Later, Xbox Creator Apologizes To AMD CEO For Last-Minute Switch To Intel - "Pure Politics"

It was "pure politics," Seamus Blackley says.

www.gamespot.com

The original Xbox was released 20 years ago next month, and to mark the upcoming anniversary, the console's designer has apologized to AMD's engineers and its CEO for Microsoft's last-minute decision to drop AMD for rival Intel.

Seamus Blackley apologized on Twitter to the AMD engineers who worked with Microsoft to create the prototype Xbox consoles that the company used in the lead-up to the OG Xbox's release in November 2001. To AMD CEO Lisa Su, Blackley said, "I beg mercy."

"I was standing there on the stage for the announcement, with [Bill Gates], and there they were right there, front row, looking so sad," he said of AMD engineers in the room. "I'll never forget it. They had helped so much with the prototypes. Prototypes that were literally running the launch announcement demos ON AMD HARDWARE."

"I felt like such an ass," Blackley said.

Microsoft dropped AMD in favor of Intel due to "pure politics," Blackley said in another tweet.

 

[IbizaPocholo]

Xbox creator Seamus Blackley joins us for a special episode commemorating the 20th anniversary of Xbox. He shares stories from the early days of building the Xbox at Microsoft, discusses what he thinks of Xbox and the gaming industry now, and much more!

TIMECODES:
00:00 - Intro & Seamus Blackley
14:49 - Unveiling of the Original Xbox
26:54 - Which Launch Games Were Expected to be the Most Successful?
38:20 - Thoughts on Unionization for Game Devs
47:09 - On Flight Simulator’s Marketplace
51:02 - Looking back on the Xbox 20 years Ago
52:58 - Outro

 

[StreetsofBeige]

I'll watch this another day. Didnt know Xbox OG was supposed to use AMD. I didn't know a lot about Xbox as I was a PS2 gamer, so even watching that video earlier today and seeing some guy on stage trying to turn on an Xbox and it didn't work is hilarious. Never knew that.

 

[Knightime_X]

Didn't Xbox get fucked over by Nvidia at some point?
Karma bites back hard.

 

[Nikodemos]

Didn't Xbox get fucked over by Nvidia at some point?
Karma bites back hard.

I remember rumors that it wasn't just nVidia, Intel refused the "dynamic royalty" model as well. Microsoft had two companies squeezing them, no chance of dropping price (without it eating even more into their wallet). That's why they shitcanned the OG as soon as the 360 went on shelves.

Thankfully, AMD managed to survive being dumped by Microsoft, unlike 3dfx after Sega.

 

[killatopak]

Remarkably similar to how Nintendo treated Playstation back then.

History really repeats itself.

 

[IDKFA]

Microsoft did AMD dirty. Really scummy move, but that's what it's like a giant businesses like Microsoft, Apple and Sony. All morals go out the window.

Didn't Microsoft also fuck Apple as well? IIRC, Steve Jobs was trying to get Halo as a Mac exclusive. By all accounts they were pretty close as well, that is until Microsoft saw how close they were and just bought Bungie outright! Lol.

 

[skit_data]

I like Seamus Blackley, especially since the AVGN episode on Trespasser. He seems like a very down to earth guy.

 

[SoloKingRobert]

Microsoft did AMD dirty. Really scummy move, but that's what it's like a giant businesses like Microsoft, Apple and Sony. All morals go out the window.

Didn't Microsoft also fuck Apple as well? IIRC, Steve Jobs was trying to get Halo as a Mac exclusive. By all accounts they were pretty close as well, that is until Microsoft saw how close they were and just bought Bungie outright! Lol.

Microsoft bailed Apple out of Bankruptcy*

 

[IDKFA]

Microsoft bailed Apple out of Bankruptcy*

I'm only refering to the Halo issue. Halo was easily the biggest game on Xbox at the time and it's interesting to think how different things would be if MS didn't buy Bungie. Would Xbox have even been a success if it didn't have Halo? Would Apple be dominant in the gaming arena if Halo was a Mac exclusive?

 

[DenchDeckard]

I'm only refering to the Halo issue. Halo was easily the biggest game on Xbox at the time and it's interesting to think how different things would be if MS didn't buy Bungie. Would Xbox have even been a success if it didn't have Halo? Would Apple be dominant in the gaming arena if Halo was a Mac exclusive?

Would playstation have been as big without tomb raider and final fantasy 7? All big companies make power plays to attempt to cement themselves.

Tomb raider was on Saturn first and we know how big final fantasy was to nintendo. Sony just rolled up with the dump truck of cash and paid to make games exclusive. They still do it today.

Just showing that they've all made power moves

 

[IDKFA]

Would playstation have been as big without tomb raider and final fantasy 7? All big companies make power plays to attempt to cement themselves.

Tomb raider was on Saturn first and we know how big final fantasy was to nintendo. Sony just rolled up with the dump truck of cash and paid to make games exclusive. They still do it today.

Just showing that they've all made power moves

Sure, Sony has also made some power moves, same as Nintendo, but that Microsoft Bungie move was stunning. Right when Apple were in talks with Bungie BOOM. Microsoft fly in and buy the whole studio!

In terms of Tomb Raider and FF7, that's not the same situation. Tomb raider is known as a PS franchise, but it was also on PC, Saturn and the franchise returned to Sega on the Dreamcast.

FF7 is also different. Sony didn't buy the exclusive rights for Final Fantasy or buy Square outright. FF7 was originally in development for the SNES. However, Square saw the benefits of games on CD over the cartridge and switched to PlayStation and PC.

 

[StreetsofBeige]

Microsoft did AMD dirty. Really scummy move, but that's what it's like a giant businesses like Microsoft, Apple and Sony. All morals go out the window.

Didn't Microsoft also fuck Apple as well? IIRC, Steve Jobs was trying to get Halo as a Mac exclusive. By all accounts they were pretty close as well, that is until Microsoft saw how close they were and just bought Bungie outright! Lol.

Business is down and dirty everywhere.

Retailers are the same. They commit to your company they'll accept your product and order 100,000 units. Everything looks swell. The company spends weeks making it (lead time) and getting it ready. It's ready in the warehouse across stacks of pallets.

The sales guy then announces the retailer is not doing it anymore and no PO is coming (purchase order). Sales director fumes and tells the account manager to go back and bring up the emails of committed deals and get them to honour buying it.

Account manager tries and the buyer says nope. Account manager suggest maybe if we offer him another 50 cents off he'll change his mind. Boss says no as that will set a precedent of them taking advantage of the company going forward.

Great times. Company is stuck with $1,000,000 of shit specially ordered for them. Then got to find out a way to get rid of it at a bargain bin price by telling the other account managers who handle other stores Company A balked and you guys have 30 days to help out head office and dump this shit asap as the warehouse supervisor says he needs room for other shipments coming in. Account Manager A says: sorry guys, my store bailed. Other account managers say: no worries happens to everyone. But deep down they think: Fuck now I got to help sell off shit Susie couldnt do herself.

 

[TLZ]

Would playstation have been as big without tomb raider and final fantasy 7? All big companies make power plays to attempt to cement themselves.

Tomb raider was on Saturn first and we know how big final fantasy was to nintendo. Sony just rolled up with the dump truck of cash and paid to make games exclusive. They still do it today.

There's absolutely no way FF7 could fit on a N64 cart. It was Square who bailed out. I think FF7 came on 3 CDs right? Imagine fitting that on a small 64mb cart. That was a major issue for Nintendo.

 

[Kenpachii]

Business is down and dirty everywhere.

Retailers are the same. They commit to your company they'll accept your product and order 100,000 units. Everything looks swell. The company spends weeks making it (lead time) and getting it ready. It's ready in the warehouse across stacks of pallets.

The sales guy then announces the retailer is not doing it anymore and no PO is coming (purchase order). Sales director fumes and tells the account manager to go back and bring up the emails of committed deals and get them to honour buying it.

Account manager tries and the buyer says nope. Account manager suggest maybe if we offer him another 50 cents off he'll change his mind. Boss says no as that will set a precedent of them taking advantage of the company going forward.

Great times. Company is stuck with $1,000,000 of shit specially ordered for them. Then got to find out a way to get rid of it at a bargain bin price by telling the other account managers who handle other stores Company A balked and you guys have 30 days to help out head office and dump this shit asap as the warehouse supervisor says he needs room for other shipments coming in. Account Manager A says: sorry guys, my store bailed. Other account managers say: no worries happens to everyone. But deep down they think: Fuck now I got to help sell off shit Susie couldnt do herself.

If you do a deal on that scope, u need to have it on paper and sue there asses the next day if they don't pay up.

But anyway i would never produce 100k products without a down payment ( atleast covers all your costs ) to see how real there commitment is and to secure your own financial situation. U also don't know if the guy goes bankrupt the next day with your products in stock.

What i see here is just a new company yoloing it. Because the moment the money isn't on your bank the guy technically didn't buy shit from you.

 

[Drew1440]

It was so last minute they forgot to update their security system to work for the Intel CPU, which is why the Original Xbox was easily cracked.

 

[Azurro]

But I thought he was a dinosaur driving an suv.

 

[tusharngf]

AMD did gave them powerful SOC for x360. At least they made the right jump back in 2004. Good for SONY that they also changed the hardware back to AMD. I must say AMD engineers and team did a great job in pursuing these big firms.

 

[CobraAB]

Microsoft did AMD dirty. Really scummy move, but that's what it's like a giant businesses like Microsoft, Apple and Sony. All morals go out the window.

Didn't Microsoft also fuck Apple as well? IIRC, Steve Jobs was trying to get Halo as a Mac exclusive. By all accounts they were pretty close as well, that is until Microsoft saw how close they were and just bought Bungie outright! Lol.

The first time Halo was ever shown I believe was at MacWorld in 1999. Halo did come to the Mac but not until years later.

 

[Punished Miku]

This documentary series is probably going to be pretty interesting actually. They will cover red ring of death, and if it's really a 6 part series, they will have to cover Kinect and Don Mattrick. I'm getting kinda excited and appreciate this unusual level of transparency.

Xbox team is really killing it. They have correctly figured out that a lot of what is driving modern console wars is the relationship consumers feel with their brand, and the key people involved. People are highly critical of Jim Ryan, some of it rational and a lot of it just based on his stiff messaging style. Now the main Xbox team are going to be part of a TV show basically. It's kind of brilliant.

 

[Insane Metal]

Damn that is actually really sad.

 

[DaGwaphics]

I'll watch this another day. Didnt know Xbox OG was supposed to use AMD. I didn't know a lot about Xbox as I was a PS2 gamer, so even watching that video earlier today and seeing some guy on stage trying to turn on an Xbox and it didn't work is hilarious. Never knew that.

Complete news to me. AMD stayed all professional about it I guess and went ahead and did the GPU work on 360 so shortly after that too.

 

[AJUMP23]

It is nice to give them a public apology.

 

[zaanan]

Microsoft bailed Apple out of Bankruptcy*

Urban legend. It was actually a lawsuit settlement, and Apple was not going bankrupt:

Stop the lies! The day that Microsoft 'saved' Apple

Last week, with Apple overtaking Microsoft in market capitalization — and with the floating of a crazy rumor that Microsoft's Steve Ballmer would talk up iPhone and Visual Studio 2010 at the keynote of next month's Apple Worldwide Developer Conference — news stories on the Web, in print and on...

www.zdnet.com

 

[alabtrosMyster]

Thankfully, AMD managed to survive being dumped by Microsoft, unlike 3dfx after Sega.

I'm thankful that Sega dumped 3dfx, the PowerVR chip was much better than anything 3dfx ever did.

As for AMD in the xbox, I wonder how it would have turned out to be with something like a 750Mhz Athlon?

 

[Scotty W]

There's absolutely no way FF7 could fit on a N64 cart. It was Square who bailed out. I think FF7 came on 3 CDs right? Imagine fitting that on a small 64mb cart. That was a major issue for Nintendo.

You are correct, though had it been on the N64 it would have been entirely different as it would have been designed with the system’s limitations in mind.

To your point about size limitations: the N64 port of Resident Evil 2 is really impressive, but if it was designed for the N64 first, no designer would subject themselves to that kind of trouble.

 

[SenjutsuSage]

I'm only refering to the Halo issue. Halo was easily the biggest game on Xbox at the time and it's interesting to think how different things would be if MS didn't buy Bungie. Would Xbox have even been a success if it didn't have Halo? Would Apple be dominant in the gaming arena if Halo was a Mac exclusive?

Halo would have never been "Halo" without Microsoft. It would have just been an RTS. No Master Chief, no nothing. Microsoft's influence is what shifted the direction of that game.

 

[boujeejamboree]

Microsoft bailed Apple out of Bankruptcy*

Apple was suing Microsoft (and would’ve likely won). Microsoft was under anti-trust pressures. Steve came back to Apple via acquisition of NEXT and within a few months became the CEO again. Bill and Steve agreed the following: 1.) Apple would drop the suit, 2.) Microsoft will invest in the company to keep around a tanking competitor in the hopes the PR would lessen anti-trust actions, and 3.) Microsoft would develop Office for macOS.

 

[IDKFA]

Halo would have never been "Halo" without Microsoft. It would have just been an RTS. No Master Chief, no nothing. Microsoft's influence is what shifted the direction of that game.

Halo wouldn't be as successful without MS, but the Xbox also wouldn't have been a success without Halo. It's without a doubt not only their biggest IPs, but also one of the biggest gaming franchises around.