ABSTRACT
Xbox had the Ethernet port that allowed players to link their boxes together, which was a big part of Halo’s success, and even before Xbox Live, was an advantage. Part of Ed Fries new challenges involved signing up companies to support Xbox Live, which was in development and expected to launch within the next year. John O’Rourke claims that the marketing strategy for Xbox was very well executed. O’Rourke admits that, in addition to good strategy, there was also luck. Of course, Nintendo was sufficiently different in their branding and marketing strategy, O’Rourke says that it was fairly easy to differentiate Xbox against them. “After the multiple staggered launches of Xbox in the US, Europe and Japan, Fries was settling in. His son, Xander, who was born in March, shortly after the Japanese launch, was named after Xbox. Fries say that Bill Gates signed a Japanese Xbox for Xander on which he wrote, “Ed Junior’s First Toy.”.
