6 ms·

I will never, ever understand why the Xbox didn't just go with 1, 2, 3, etc. Even after the 360, why not do 720, 1080, etc? after the xbox ONE, why not xbox TWO

I will never, ever understand why the Xbox didn't just go with 1, 2, 3, etc. Even after the 360, why not do 720, 1080, etc? after the xbox ONE, why not xbox TWO, THREE, etc? Why go with Series S and X? it makes no sense - literally beyond my comprehension. so, going back to the article, xbox died for me the minute the xbox one came out. the name alone was indicative of a rot and disfunction beyond comprehension.

ddtaylor 9mo ago
My only guesses are either: (a) they wanted to make it hard to know what console was the newest or oldest to promote users to just throw up their arms and buy the newest XBox? (b) they wanted each one to be very unique and different sounding so they would never get confused with one another, but their sequence is difficult to understand
troad 9mo ago
The established wisdom is that it is because the Xbox was one generation "behind" the PS. They didn't want to call the second Xbox an "Xbox 2" because people would assume it was intended to be a competitor to the PS2, when in fact it was a competitor to the PS3 - hence, "Xbox 360". They went off the deep end after that. Xbox One was a stupid name, as is the current alphabet soup. They should have gone from Xbox 360 to Xbox 4. Yes, it would be a little embarrassing to copy your competitor's versioning, but that's a small price for consumer clarity.
- Telaneo 9mo ago
  I imagine the going Xbox 360 -> Xbox 720 would just have been asking to people to joke about it being 720p (even if not actually, the picture quality joke basically writes itself). The solution though was obviously not the brainworm reasoning that got us the Xbox One (nobody was going to call their console 'The One', cf. 'X-bone'). Your alternative of going straight to the Xbox 4 would probably have been considered a loss by the executives, but I imagine it at least wouldn't have been made fun of beyond the release period, since it would have been clear why they did the change.
  - halapro 9mo ago
    > Xbox 4 would probably have been considered a loss by the executives This is moronic to think about as a business. You exist to make money, if "4" leads to more sales then be it.
wpm 9mo ago
It's simple. The people in charge of such decisions were too stupid or self-assured to realize or worry about such obvious problems. There is no meritocracy. These billion dollar brands and endeavors, that have thousands of livelihoods tied up in them, are managed by absolutely brain dead bozos.
ksec 9mo ago
I mean has Microsoft ever released a decent consumer product naming or versioning system? I could name so many bad examples I cant even think of one good one.
- ffsm8 9mo ago
  Yes, windows 95 -> 98 -> 2000 was pretty straightforward to understand. Same with 7 -> 8 -> (@.@) -> 10 -> 11 Let's not oversell their incompetence, is slightly higher then average but not singularly bad
  - drcongo 9mo ago
    But are you talking about Windows™ 98™ Home™ Premium™ Business™ Edition™ or Windows™ 98™ Business™ Premium™ Home™ Edition™?

ddtaylor 9mo ago

My only guesses are either: (a) they wanted to make it hard to know what console was the newest or oldest to promote users to just throw up their arms and buy the newest XBox? (b) they wanted each one to be very unique and different sounding so they would never get confused with one another, but their sequence is difficult to understand

troad 9mo ago

The established wisdom is that it is because the Xbox was one generation "behind" the PS. They didn't want to call the second Xbox an "Xbox 2" because people would assume it was intended to be a competitor to the PS2, when in fact it was a competitor to the PS3 - hence, "Xbox 360". They went off the deep end after that. Xbox One was a stupid name, as is the current alphabet soup. They should have gone from Xbox 360 to Xbox 4. Yes, it would be a little embarrassing to copy your competitor's versioning, but that's a small price for consumer clarity.

Telaneo 9mo ago
I imagine the going Xbox 360 -> Xbox 720 would just have been asking to people to joke about it being 720p (even if not actually, the picture quality joke basically writes itself). The solution though was obviously not the brainworm reasoning that got us the Xbox One (nobody was going to call their console 'The One', cf. 'X-bone'). Your alternative of going straight to the Xbox 4 would probably have been considered a loss by the executives, but I imagine it at least wouldn't have been made fun of beyond the release period, since it would have been clear why they did the change.
- halapro 9mo ago
  > Xbox 4 would probably have been considered a loss by the executives This is moronic to think about as a business. You exist to make money, if "4" leads to more sales then be it.

wpm 9mo ago

It's simple. The people in charge of such decisions were too stupid or self-assured to realize or worry about such obvious problems. There is no meritocracy. These billion dollar brands and endeavors, that have thousands of livelihoods tied up in them, are managed by absolutely brain dead bozos.

ksec 9mo ago

I mean has Microsoft ever released a decent consumer product naming or versioning system? I could name so many bad examples I cant even think of one good one.

ffsm8 9mo ago
Yes, windows 95 -> 98 -> 2000 was pretty straightforward to understand. Same with 7 -> 8 -> (@.@) -> 10 -> 11 Let's not oversell their incompetence, is slightly higher then average but not singularly bad
- drcongo 9mo ago
  But are you talking about Windows™ 98™ Home™ Premium™ Business™ Edition™ or Windows™ 98™ Business™ Premium™ Home™ Edition™?