Remember when people thought the Xbox One was called the Xbox Infinity? Turns out that actually was one of the names “in the running” at Microsoft for the console’s final branding.
In an interview with Forbes, Albert Penello, Senior Director of Marketing and Planning for Xbox, said “The name Xbox Infinity was in the running, I can say that. [The brand guys are] crafty. Who’s to say that they didn’t leak that name out in the weeks ahead of the launch? They are very crafty.”
I’m not the one to say. I have no idea. Why would they leak just one name, as a form of focus testing? Seems more likely it’d be a fake-out, using a discarded name to throw people off the scent.
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18 responses to “The Xbox Infinity Could Have Been A Microsoft Fake-Out”
The brand guys are not crafty. If they were crafty, they wouldn’t have named their console quite possibly the stupidest name ever conceived.
I know everyone is kind of over this, but I’m not. Xbox One is a terribly confusing and brain numbingly dumb name. It only accentuates how out of touch Microsoft were with their consumers when making this thing.
I already have an Xbox One, and I play Panzer Dragoon Orta and Halo 2 on it.
Brand guys are usually very creative, unfortunately most of the good work is vetoed by higher ups who are out of touch and want to put their own terrible input into a job.
Never found the name, Xbox One to be confusing, personally. I always referred to the 1st Xbox as Xbox and Xbox 360 as 360.
It’s not the best name I guess but Xbox 3 would of sounded just as bad, I hate just using the next number in sequence. Same with games actually. Though Xbox One does make me smile, I try to decide whether it is meant to bring balance to the force or save us from the machines and let us out of the Matrix.
Just curious, how does it accentuate they are out of touch with consumers? That they got some weird name?
I play Brute Force and Kung Fu Chaos on my Xbox…
Out of the infinite (heh) possible names they could have chosen, they chose a name that could be confused with one of its predecessors. It may not cause you confusion, but I know ever since the 360 came out, I’ve referred to the original Xbox as the Xbox one.
When I say Xbox, people think I am talking about the 360. Why wouldn’t they think that? What is the title of this segment of Kotaku? Xbox? When I say “I’m playing Xbox”, I’m playing 360. When I say, “oh, no, I’m not playing the 360, I’m playing the Xbox one,” I’m playing the original Xbox.
Xbox is the name people use to describe the latest installment of the Xbox series. Nobody assumes you mean the original Xbox when you say Xbox. Now nobody is going to assume you mean the original Xbox when you say Xbox one. So what do we call the original console? I keep calling it “the original Xbox”, but that isn’t a name.
The original Xbox now, no longer, has a name. Maybe I was wrong calling it confusing, but it really is baffling.
Not to mention, when you have a console that has always existed alongside the Playstation, calling your latest installment the Xbox one, when there exists the Playstation 1 (I know the correct term is PSX, but really, who doesn’t call the PS1, PS1?), sends a pretty different message.
Now lets look at the fact that they were considering Xbox Infinity. A name that wouldn’t cause any problems, and name that didn’t make any awkward mistakes with number iterations, a name that sounds like the next, bigger installment. Let’s consider the fact that, they chose Xbox One, over Xbox Infinity (apparently).
Were. Not are.
It’s a reference to all the mistakes they made on release. The mistakes they have now backtracked on due to consumer outrage. I mean, DRM? Even if the DRM did have its benefits in the Xbox One’s case, did Microsoft not see the backlash that occurred with Sim City and Diablo 3? I wouldn’t have touched DRM with a million foot pole made of vaginas and mi goreng noodles.
They were already so out of touch with their consumers, and the awkward name was just the cherry on top.
You’d keep that pole for yourself like any smart man.
If they were crafty, they wouldn’t have named their console quite possibly the stupidest name ever conceived.
Wii?
Second stupidest name ever conceived*
I think Wii was actually a very smart name. It was different and stood out and represented the console.
Wii U isn’t bad either, they just don’t market it well enough.
worse than “the new iPad”?
no freakin way.
Sometimes I think it was a cheeky way to rebrand the first Xbox too.
If someone is talking about the first Xbox, they usually call it the “original Xbox” – which isn’t a bad stigma to have.
Nobody would obviously try and rebrand an old product at the expensive of their new product though. I don’t mind the Xbox One name, but I don’t love it either.
Sony aren’t much better — they had the Playstation/PSX that became the PSOne with a revised form factor near the end of its life cycle, as the PS2 was coming out. Then they had another (possibly Japan only?) PSX, but it was just a PS2 with the ability to record gameplay videos and play media.
All Microsoft are trying to do is re-start the franchise after pulling “Xbox 360” out of nowhere, and seeing as the original Xbox hasn’t been on sale for the better part of a decade (the last game released for it was mid-2008) it’s honestly not that confusing.
Silly that there wasn’t much forethought, but hardly complicated — especially in comparison to every other video game retailer getting confused between the Wii and Wii-U.
I feel like this is a similar situation to the Wii. Both consoles are rumored to have a name that inspires and has implications of kicking total ass (Nintendo Revolution and Xbox Infinity), but their real name turns out to be lame marketing gimmickery (Nintendo Wii and Xbox One).
C’mon, it’s not even close to being as dumb or confusing as Wii U.
Third stupidest name ever conceived*
Why not neXbox?
I actually thought Xbox Infinity sounded kind of cool, and had a nice logo. Xbox One is the worst, I couldn’t believe it when I was watching the live stream. I’ve always referred to the original xbox as the xbox one since the 360 came out, as have my friends
I’m fairly goddamn certain that nobody has such a common need to talk about the original Xbox that call the Xbox One “Xbox” or “Xbox One” would be confusing. Chances are if you are confused by it you are a Sony fan trolling or like Fry in Futurama have difficulty mastering things like belt buckles…
At the reveal they had the worst of both worlds. People informed enough to know that Xbox One is new console also knew about the terrible DRM, used-game restrictions etc. Casuals filthy enough to be ignorant of all that, wouldn’t even realise it’s a new console because of the name!
It’s a marketing gaffe so bad that I can’t help but think it was intentional. In that case, what deviant machinations are Microsoft planning now?!!