Microsoft’s Xbox One is on sale all around the world (except for here but that day is coming, we’re told) but very few people who pick up one of these new game consoles will give much though to the development process and what it entails.
A recent profile by Microsoft of Xbox One designer Carl Ledbetter has revealed just how much work went into creating the look of the console/media hub that Redmond released. 3D printing played an especially large role in the final product, in the form of over 75 prototypes of the console shell. The final choice was made after all of the prototypes were created but that didn’t end the physical design process. The console’s Kinect addon saw more than 100 prototypes created, while the Xbox One controller managed to double that number
Ledbetter said “We were extremely thorough. We were trying to push boundaries, to do something new and inventive, but there was so much at stake that we had to be really careful as well. The reason why there was so much at stake is that people really, really care about Xbox.”
“We wanted to take every component of what people love about Xbox and amplify it, but also make it disappear into the living room – to stay in the background, robust and reliable.”
Source: Microsoft via Engadget
