Though it’s not usually good news when the vice president of a major division of your company leaves of his own accord, this may not be such a bad thing when it comes to Xbox One. Despite his unexpected departure after nearly 14 years with the company, Marc Whitten appears as enthusiastic as ever about Microsoft’s newest console.
Whitten’s most recent comments come via the latest episode of Major Nelson Radio, which is, of course, a Microsoft podcast. Whether or not Whitten has been instructed to ease fans’ concerns or if these are his true thoughts is unclear — I’d wager it’s a bit of both.
Part of what’s awesome to me right now is I think you’re starting to see what Xbox One can become. So much for us was around, ‘Hey, let’s build this architecture that we could rev quickly, that we could add to, that was flexible, that would allow us to do more things and do more things quickly.’
It’s a great time to be on Xbox… and it’s just beginning. There’s so many things. I can’t wait to see where it goes from here.
He certainly doesn’t sound phony-baloney… and as someone who’s clearly passionate about Xbox (he’s been with the company for over a decade), I’m inclined take his positivity as a good sign.
Despite the departure of both Don Mattrick, Steve Ballmer, and now Marc Whitten, things may be looking up for Xbox One. The latter reached his natural point of retirement (nothing to do with Xbox), while the former was scooped up by Zynga, a company who probably saw his evil attempts at abolishing used games as a huge resume booster. Either way, removing him from the equation is a plus.
With Titanfall boosting sales of Microsoft’s console nearly 100% in the UK last week, and Wii U outselling PS4 in Japan, the next-gen race may end up a lot closer than we initially expected.