Tag Archives: ed fries

Ed Fries, often called the “father of Xbox”, believes gaming platform holders need to wise up to Apple’s disruptive app-based business model.

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Ex-head of Microsoft Game Studios Ed Fries has said there’s still “magic” left at Rare, despite the studio moving away from its roots in recent years.

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Halo’s strong association with Xbox has been a threat to the franchise, Xbox hardware developer and one-time Microsoft Games Studio boss Ed Fries.

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“I think that’s the question all the retailers are asking themselves. Part of what’s exciting as a game developer is that it’s easier and easier for us to make things and get them right out into the hands of people. There aren’t a lot of hoops we have to jump through or a lot of people we have to talk to. If you’re going to put an app up on the app store, a guy can do that in a garage. In a way it reminds me of the old days when it was just one of us making a game and you’d put it on a bulletin board and people would see it and download it. We’ve kind of gone back to the future.” – Ed Fries to IndustryGamers.

The name was decided and the hardware shown: but what of the games? Patrick Garratt looks at the original Xbox’s launch line-up and the console’s release in the final part of our four-feature special.

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In the second part of the story of the original Xbox’s launch, Patrick Garratt charts the terrific obstacles facing the console’s team as it pushed towards a final greenlight from Microsoft boss Bill Gates.

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Xbox celebrates its tenth birthday this year, having launched in the US on November 15, 2001. In this four-part special, Patrick Garratt talks to members of the console’s original team and tells its release story.

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Father of the Xbox Ed Fries is set to give a talk entitled “Creativity and Constraint” at Nordic Game 11.

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Razer has announced that ex-Microsoft Game Studios head Ed Fries has been added to its Board of Advisors.

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Former Xbox boss Ed Fries has said the original Xbox console was met with a bit of hostility in Japan.

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Did you honestly think it was a straight-out love affair between Microsoft and Nintendo over the affections of Rare? Think again: a certain Mr. K was involved too.

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In an interview with Gamedaily, the ex-Xbox exec responsible for Microsoft’s Rare capture, Ed Fries, has warned Microsoft that PS3′s worm is definitely starting to turn.

“I think it’s obvious that Sony got off to a slow start; I think they made some pretty big mistakes and they’ve done a good job in the last year in recovering from those. I think they’re putting up a much stronger battle now,” he said.

“They’ve also done a great job in keeping the PS2 business alive, so you’ve got a lot of happy PS2 customers who are just waiting for the price of PS3 to be right before they switch over. If Sony can keep those guys brand loyal, they will have a lot of people coming over to the PS3.”

“It leaves Microsoft in a kind of awkward position because with Sony winning the Blu-ray battle, it’s nice to have a hi-def player as part of your games machine, and now that that’s the standard I think it’s a big advantage for Sony,” he went on.

“It kind of pushes Microsoft into a box, where the main the thing that they have [going for them] right now is they can exert price pressure on Sony… I think they can cause Sony some pain by making the 360 a lot more accessible price-wise. So Sony’s got the brand on their side and the extra [Blu-ray] capability, but they’re always going to be at a price premium versus 360, and a lot of games are available on both, so for many 360 would be the cheaper choice.”

In case you missed it, Microsoft announced a price drop in the US this morning, as well as a new 60Gb model.

Full interview with Ed through the Gamedaily link.

By Mike Bowden