[GameSpot] - Microsoft Almost Put A Motorized Rotating Xbox Button On The Xbox One X

[343iBot]

Microsoft has revealed it nearly put a motorized rotating Xbox button on the Xbox One X, but decided against it over concerns about its potential to "fail" and end up creating a costly scenario.

A GQ report said the button would have rotated so the Xbox logo stayed in the correct upright position no matter if the console was positioned horizontally or vertically. The Xbox brand teams apparently loved this idea for consistency's sake. "They never like our logo sitting sideways," Xbox boss Phil Spencer said with a laugh.

Adding the rotating button would have come at a cost of $1, and Spencer said it might seem obvious to the casual observer that this would be money well spent. However, someone at the design meeting made a statement that changed Spencer's mind: "There's a world where we sell a hundred million of these." As such, the $1 decision became a $100 million decision, and Spencer shut it down.

Spencer said the rotating Xbox button was "just another thing that could fail," and the benefits did not outweigh the risks in his eyes. Whether or not the Xbox 360's infamous and costly Red Ring of Death hardware malfunction had any impact on Spencer's decision-making is unknown.

The Xbox One X, which was released in 2017, is a more powerful version of the original Xbox One. It was followed up by the Xbox Series X|S consoles that released in November 2020.

In other Xbox news, the 20th anniversary Xbox video broadcast is coming today, November 15. Microsoft has said to expect no game announcements, but an ongoing rumor is that Microsoft will launch the game's free-to-play multiplayer mode during the event. Keep checking back with GameSpot for the latest.

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