Former Xbox Exec Says Developers Didn’t Want a Sony Monopoly

Ed Fries led the team at Microsoft that launched the first Xbox in 2001. Now, a quarter century later, he’s opening up about the early days of Xbox. Specifically, he discusses how some companies sought to prevent monopolies in the 2000s but had to be cautious about the level of support they gave the new challenger.

Xbox is a staple of the gaming industry today, but in 2001, it was anything but. With Sega having recently exited the console race and less than a decade separating the launch of the Xbox from the failure of platforms like the 3DO and the Philips CDi, it wasn’t clear that computer giant Microsoft would succeed in the video game space.

Ed Fries Recalls Visits with Japanese Companies

During an appearance on The Expansion Pass, Ed Fries noted that the Final Fantasy franchise was a missed opportunity for Xbox and that he tried to get the popular JRPG series to become exclusive to Microsoft Hardware. However, Square Enix would have been leaving too much money on the table.

Furthermore, Fries discussed conversations he had with Japanese game development companies, including Square Enix, Capcom, Konami, and Tecmo. When talking about Square, he noted that certain conversations were always difficult because Square wanted Sony to face competition, but they weren’t allowed to be too overt in their support for the new Microsoft console.

“I would go out to Japan fairly regularly and meet with Konami, meet with Capcom, meet with Square, meet with Sega, and some of them, we were able to do deals with some of them, but we weren’t with others. They were able to do some deals, after I left, with Square, but it was always a tough discussion because they wanted Sony to have competition and wouldn’t be too overt in their support for Xbox. They couldn’t make it too obvious that they were supporting Xbox.

Additionally, he noted that Tecmo did Dead or Alive games on Xbox to send a subtle message to Sony.

“They did it, kind of, to tweak Sony because they wanted Sony to have competitors because otherwise they’re a monopoly and monopolies, you know, just do whatever they want.”

Today, Xbox-published titles are on Sony hardware. Even though Xbox is still a console manufacturer, it has found great success porting its titles to PlayStation. Asha Sharma, the current Microsoft gaming CEO, believes the Xbox brand can return to prominence by focusing on hardcore Xbox gamers. Learn more here.

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