Xbox designed to "stop" Sony, says ex-Microsoft exec

Microsoft's entire console business was founded as a response to Sony developing the PlayStation and rebuffing a partnership with the Windows-maker.

According to former Microsoft 20-year veteran Joachim Kempin, one-time VP of Windows Sales, Bill Gates was so worried that Sony could develop its console into a living room-based PC rival that he felt obligated to competed.

"The main reason was to stop Sony. You see, Sony and Microsoft…they never had a very friendly relationship, okay? And this wasn’t because Microsoft didn’t want that," the former executive told IGN.

Kempin's account of the two companies' history is that Microsoft made advances to partner up with Sony buy these were rebuffed by the Japanese giant.

He continued: "As soon as they came out with a video console, Microsoft just looked at that and said 'well, we have to beat them, so let’s do our own.'"

Apparently this directive came straight from the top, with Gates directly influencing the first few steps of Xbox development.

However, it was far from smooth sailing, as the former executive told how the company struggled with the harsh reality that most console makers sell their devices at a loss.

"Sony could not make money on that hardware model, ever. So they supplemented it with software royalties, and Microsoft copied that model," he explained.

James Lee

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James Lee is a freelance writer and analyst with extensive experience in the technology, media and games sectors. For the past few years he has provided content for internationally published industry reports, SEO companies and a variety of news-focused websites. Prior to this, James was responsible for covering news and producing in-depth features for GamesIndustry.biz while occasionally contributing to its sister-site. Eurogamer.net. In addition to this he has contributed to other notable sites such as CVG.co.uk, Edge-Online and DigitalSpy.