Microsoft’s senior industrial design manager Carl Ledbetter revealed that the company examined more than 75 sketched and 3D-printed prototype Xbox One designs before settling on the console’s final look.
The Xbox One’s Kinect sensor additionally saw more than 100 drafted designs before Microsoft decided on a physical shape for the console’s camera peripheral. The Xbox One’s controller was even more painstakingly crafted, requiring designers to draft more than 200 potential gamepad designs during development.
“We were extremely thorough,” Ledbetter said, speaking for a Microsoft-published profile feature. “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.”
