Way back, when all the rumors were flying about the next console generation, a lot of "codenames" were floating around as to what Microsoft's new console would be called: Durango, Fortaleza, but Xbox 720 seemed like the best fit. No one quite expected that it ever be come to known as the Xbox One. Now, if you think that's a horrendous name, you should read the names that were being tossed around the Microsoft office.
Edge magazine spoke Seamus Blackley, a member of the team that launched the Xbox One, who revealed some of the other potential names.
"When we got the first approval, Kevin [Bachus] was told we had to get a new name, because 'xbox' wasn't legally sound, so against his judgment he did so, and got the phase two, or 'car' names. These were so bad we didn't even save them, but I remember making fun of one of them by calling it the 'Microsoft Bunduss'. Then we got the 'acronym' phase from the naming geniuses," said Blackley.
From reading through some of the bizarre acronymns, it's easy to see why the team went with calling it the Xbox One. You can check out a list of them below:
- MAX (Microsoft Action Experience)
- AIO (All In One)
- MIND (Microsoft Interactive Network Device)
- FACE (Full Action Center)
- MITH (Microsoft Interactive Theatre)
- XON (Experience Optimised Network)
- MVPC (Microsoft Virtual Play Center)
- TAC (Total Action Center - discs/games could be called TACs)
- MARC (Microsoft Action Reality Center)
- LEX (Live Entertainment Experience)
- M-PAC (Microsoft Play and Action Center)
- RPM (Real Performance Machine)
- MOX (Microsoft Optimal Experience)
- E2 (Extreme Experience)
- MTG (Microsoft Total Gaming)
- VIP (Virtual Interactive Player)
- PTP or P2P (Powered To Play)
- VIC (Virtual Interactive Center - disks/games could be called VICs)
- MARZ (Microsoft Active Reality Zone)
- TSO (Three, Six, Zero)
- EHQ (Entertainment Headquarters)
- O2 (Optimal Ozone or Optical Odyssey)
- MIC (Microsoft Interactive Center)
- R&R (Reality and Revolution)
- MEA (Microsoft Entertainment Activator)
- AMP (Active Microsoft Player)
- VPS (Virtual Play System)
- MAP (Microsoft Action Play)
- MEGA (Microsoft Entertainment & Gaming Attendant or Microsoft Entertainment & Gaming Assembly)
- CPG (CyberPlayGround)
- VERV (Virtual Entertainment & Reality Venture)
- OM (Odyssey of the Mind)
- P2 (PowerPlay)
- IS1 (Interactive System In One)
- MET (Microsoft Entertainment Technology or Microsoft Entertainment Theatre)
With such a list of "great' names, why'd they settle on calling it Xbox One? As Microsoft exec Jeff Henshaw told CNET, the idea behind the name is that the console serves as the one thing the audience will need for all their entertainment purposes. As Henshaw explains, "The embodiment that this becomes one device that addresses all the entertainment that you want to enjoy on your TV, and brings it to you in a way that's so simple, that it can be the only input you have connected through your television. It is truly the one place to go for all this. So One ends up being a deeply meaningful thing to us here. It's almost a bar that we are striving to achieve, and I think we nailed it really well with the Xbox One."
Kind of a shame. I would've bought the new console alone just so I could tell people I had the new Microsoft FACE.