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Microsoft admitted to an interesting situation. Before the announcement of the first Xbox, Seamus Blackley lied to journalists and did not admit that he was actually working on the console of the American corporation. The company confirmed this news in an interactive museum.
Microsoft is celebrating the 20th anniversary of the Xbox brand and discovering more cards related to the past of the platform. The corporation reveals various secrets from the history of its console – even the embarrassing ones related to lying to journalists.
Imagine the situation: Microsoft is getting ready to unveil the first Xbox, engineers are polishing the platform, but before the big announcement, the phone rings. In the handset, one of the journalists asks about the “Xbox” – when in fact this equipment has never been disclosed. What is “Xbox Father” doing in this situation? He’s lying.
Next Gen Magazine was the first to receive leaks on the project, and journalists called the company to get the news. David Hufford, who answered the phone, recalled the situation as follows:
“[I] hang up the phone, race downstairs where the engineering team was and say, ‘oh my gosh, you guys, I think they’re onto us.'”
Seamus Blackley, considered the “father of the Xbox”, also received several calls and … He just mentioned another project:
“No, man. I don’t know what you’re talking about. What’s Xbox?”
‘What are you talking about? I’m the program manager for entertainment graphics for Windows. I’m working on API’s for 3-D FX video cards for Windows.’ [I was] just lying to him…”
Microsoft never found out who actually introduced the first Xbox to the press, but David Hufford mentioned that he had some suspicions about who leaked the news.
