The era of console wars appears to be nearing its end, but certainly one of its key players, Peter Moore, who led the charge through the launch of the Xbox 360, is sharing his memories of his time on the gaming frontlines. When it got here to pitting the Xbox 360 against the PlayStation 3, Moore says 10 million was the magic number–“You’ve got got this flywheel effect … of [if] your mate in the varsity yard’s got one, you higher get one.”
Talking to Eurogamer, Moore explained that getting the Xbox 360 into the market ahead of the PS3 was key to its strong performance, saying that the primary 10 million sales were vital. “I feel it was really essential to get it out first,” Moore said. “Get going, get momentum, and aim for that 10 million installed base that I felt that will give us an incredible advantage over whatever Sony could do to catch up.”
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He explained that having the ten million install base creates a network effect where a way of social pressure could drive sales–“Unexpectedly you are misplaced and also you’re on the skin should you’re not coming to high school, or going to class in college the following day, and even coming to work, and saying what an evening we had playing Halo, or whatever game it happened to be.”
The Xbox 360 did find yourself beating the PS3 to 10 million sales, a proven fact that was celebrated in a 2008 press release from Microsoft. While the PS3 eventually beat the 360’s lifetime sales by just a couple of million, many gamers still consider the Xbox 360 the winner of that exact generation–that is, unless you think about the runaway success of the Nintendo Wii.
Moore became certainly one of the important thing players within the early days of the console wars, after he was hired by Microsoft specifically to assist the corporate compete with Sony’s dominance within the console space. Moore has even previously said that he encouraged the thought of the console wars amongst his team, saying it helped to advertise healthy competition with Sony.
Within the interview, Moore also discusses how essential it was for Microsoft to construct Xbox into a robust, standalone brand in a time where Microsoft was seen as a “nerdy” company that belonged within the office, not the front room. Moore was a key figure on this branding shift, becoming notorious for stunts where he would have game announcements literally tattooed on his body, saying a part of his role was to “be a bit of irreverent.”
As of 2025, many within the industry consider the console wars effectively over, as Microsoft is finally bringing the last of its formerly exclusive first-party franchises to the PlayStation with Halo: Campaign Evolved. The PS5 recently topped the Xbox 360’s sales figures, meaning every PlayStation console has officially outsold every Xbox console, but the top of the console wars continues to be removed from clear-cut. Xbox stays a robust gaming brand and appears to proceed dominating the software side of the industry, with quite a few the industry’s biggest developers now incorporated under its banner.