Here's a great big pile of Xbox One prototype designs – even better than the real thing?
The Xbox One’s design was intended to be “invisible” according to Microsoft’s design teams, though the early reception from the gaming community upon its reveal drew many comparisons to old-skool VHS players for the angular next-gen gaming box.
Would any of the above prototype designs been better received? Revealed by Xbox creative director Carl Ledbetter today at the Worldwide Partner Conference, the eventual design agreed upon was intended to be accessible, while still conveying a feeling that a great degree of craftmanship had been involved. But judging from gamer’s responses to the look of the new console, perhaps a more adventurous design (perhaps like the suspended design pictured above, middle of the left edge) would have been more exciting?
As highlighted by the design sketches above, a team of 30 designers at Microsoft went through more than 200 different designs before settling on the current look of the console.
If it lacks inspiration, it’s not as if their nearest competitor, Sony’s forthcoming PlayStation 4, is massively different. It too has drawn comparisons to a VHS player.
With both current-gen Sony and Microsoft games consoles going through multiple redesigns, perhaps the best is yet to come from the two competing design teams?
