A lack of consumer interest has been cited as the predominant reason for phasing out 360 faceplates. That’s according to Microsoft’s global marketing boss, Albert Penello, who revealed that ‘nobody bought’ the things in a recent interview with OXM.
Speaking to the magazine, Penello joins colleagues Phil Spencer and Kudo Tsunoda in looking back at over five years of Xbox 360, and proceeded to explain the rationale behind the ill-fated accessory.
“We don’t ever create an accessory with the intent of having it fail,” Penello told OXM. “The idea wasn’t bad… people used to put faceplates on their cell phones. Rewind five years, faceplates were what everybody wanted to do.”
The Xbox 360 S, as we all know, doesn’t support faceplates. Penello was quick to explain: “[It] turned out nobody bought it. So [we stopped] making them. We killed that one pretty quickly”.
Strange. We rather liked them…
