Lorne Lanning, founder of Oddworld Inhabitants and creator of the Oddworld series, has told Forbes that Microsoft forgot why it became successful with Xbox in the first place.
“The original Xbox was designed less by guys within black boxes of hardware engineering and more by guys who knew how to build games,” said Lanning.
“It was a fresh breath at the time for development the community and it made costs more predictable for independent game developers. This was important because every dollar over budget in that publisher model came against you as a developer and it was tricky to forecast development budgets back then on PS2. Xbox was a promise to make development more predictable and it meant better games.
“Once Xbox became successful, Microsoft suffered the ills that many big global companies undergo – they forgot why they became successful in the first place. The original Xbox knew it was a big underdog in the games space and Microsoft spun gaming in the right direction to make it a success. Today, it’s hard to tell what’s going on with the company and you certainly don’t see that underdog behavior.”
Reports suggest Microsoft – or at the very least, its Xbox division – is due to undergo restructuring as early as July 1st.