Our friends at Time Extension recently got a chance to sit down with Xbox co-creator Seamus Blackley as part of an exclusive interview (you can find more excerpts over on their site), and something he revealed was that he's actually talked to a couple of employees at Microsoft about the idea of creating a classic Xbox console.
Firstly though, let's wind back a bit. You may recall that in early 2021, Blackley posed the question to Xbox fans about whether they'd like to see a classic console, and this was followed up with a suggestion that it might be possible.
Unfortunately we never heard anything after this, so we asked our sister site, Time Extension, to follow up about the situation in their interview, and Blackley had a pretty interesting response for them. It turns out that a couple of people on the Xbox team shot down the idea, suggesting that if it was going to happen, it would be an internal thing.
Here's what Blackley had to say:
"It would have been brilliant! I thought okay, we could do this just like the Duke, but then a couple of people internal to the Xbox team said, ‘No, no, we want to do it internally’ and I haven’t heard anything since. So there you have that."
Some intriguing comments from Blackley, then, who isn't involved in the discussions anymore, but appears to think that Microsoft may have had some interest in the idea. It'll be interesting to see if anything comes of this in the future!
Would you like to see Microsoft create a classic Xbox console? Let us know down in the comments below.
[source timeextension.com]
Comments 14
Just make a special edition Series S look like a Original Xbox.
If the Playstation classic was 100$. An xbox could cost even more, and Verizon or some company just sold Series S at 150.
Personally i'd rather they focussed on brining more OG games to Series consoles than a Classic console.
I would much rather leave the old generation stuff alone and focus entirely on new technology and games. Make the 4K at 60FPS a standard. Bring out more Dynamic Backgrounds for the Series X. More 3rd person, single player campaign games.
@Sakko that's actually a really great idea. Bundle it with a few backwards compatible OG Xbox games pre-installed and call it a day.
Just sell me a mini-statue of the OG XBox, that's what I do with my mini-consoles, they sit in front of my TV unplugged and looking pretty.
@Sakko You might be able to put a whole Series S inside an OG XBox... I mean, like the whole plastic case might fit inside the OG case... (Perhaps a bit of hyperbole in these words.)
I'd buy an OG mini.
@themightyant totally agree. While there'd be a novelty to a mini-style OG Xbox, adding to the BC program would be a much more consumer friendly move.
But that's me, I still have an OG Xbox going strong.
This is what I thought 2-3 years ago that Sony could do. My PS2 slim cost $125 in 2006 and PS3 super slims with 500GB hdd were $199 5-6 years ago. So a console that played digital or disc PS1,2, and 3 games could be about $275 in 2020-21.
A re-released OG X-BOX is a good idea, but like my idea there may be licensing problems, music removed, and maybe not compatible with those fun code discs like Game Shark.
What would this be, under the hood? A One S, or maybe a cut down Series S?
It makes no sense to have a dedicated Xbox emulator box, but I'm all for reopening the BC program and adding more OG and 360 games, so they can be bought and played on One/Series consoles.
Say what you want retro is on fire and here to stay.
@NorthwestEagle I didn’t suggest the special edition console someone else did. I suggest just a miniature molded plastic statue I can place on a shelf alongside my other mini (Atari, NES, SNES, PS, Genesis)
@NorthwestEagle Right, a full-blown Series S inside an OG Xbox shell makes sense as a collector's item and as a proper gaming console.
I really doubt that original hardware would be practical at this point, though, whether that's the OG Xbox or the 360. They both rely on very old hardware, and would probably cost far more to make than a One S or even a Series S. (Notice that basically no one else does this- existing retro consoles are all based on emulators or FPGAs.)
And it would be pointless to sell a dedicated emulation box like the NES Classic Mini, as that would require Xbox One hardware at a bare minimum- at which point, you might as well just make it a proper One/Series console.
So yeah, more BC is the way to go. There are still some great games that got left behind for whatever reason, and they deserve another chance!
Imagine an original Xbox classic shaped like the original Xbox concept (the giant X)
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