Microsoft har presenterat en egenproducerad intervju med Carl Ledbetter, mannen som designat de senaste årens Xbox-produkter och även har det numera standardiserade hjulet mellan musknapparna på sin CV. Där förklarar han bland annat hur tankegångarna gått kring den nya handkontrollen och berättar även att man med 3D-skrivare producerade över 75 varianter av Xbox One-konsolen (varav några syns på bilden nedan), över 100 varianter av Kinect och över 200 versioner av handkontrollen.
"We were extremely thorough. We were trying to push boundaries, to do something new and inventive, but there was so much at stake that we had to be really careful as well. The reason why there was so much at stake is that people really, really care about Xbox."
Tankegångarna var att Xbox One skulle passa in diskret med övrig elektronik i hemmet och samtidigt vara knäpptyst och erbjuda fullgod kylning:
"We wanted to take every component of what people love about Xbox and amplify it, but also make it disappear into the living room - to stay in the background, robust and reliable."
Däremot var Microsoft tydligen inte så intresserade av att göra om handkontrollen:
"...there was never a direct ask for us to make it better. People were a little apprehensive, like, ‘We have a great controller. If it isn't broken, don't fix it'. We had more than 1,000 pairs of hands testing controllers throughout the course of design evaluations to make sure the triggers felt right, the overall form felt right and that people could use the new controller in a way that was as good as or better than the old. We crafted every last detail."
På frågan om vad Ledbetter är mest nöjd med i Xbox One-designen, svarar han såhär:
"It's the stuff that people may not easily notice. The 'white, magical' backlit Xbox logo on the console, Kinect and controller that knows to dim when the room is dark and shine brightly when it's not. The jewel-like, ABXY buttons, which now have a new finish, three different color resins, and are clearer to read. The micro-texture around the sides of the thumbsticks, which now look more crafted and perform better."
