Podcast Episode
According to Fries, companies like Square Enix told him directly that they wanted Sony to face real competition in the console market. However, they felt unable to openly back Xbox because Sony held enormous leverage over publishers who depended on the PlayStation ecosystem. Fries suggested that Sony could have punished dissenting publishers by withholding development kits or declining to promote their titles, effectively freezing them out of the platform that represented their primary revenue stream.
The revelations paint a striking picture of how fear and market dominance quietly determined which games players could access for years.
Japanese Publishers Secretly Wanted Xbox to Succeed but Feared Sony Retaliation
April 13, 2026
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Former Xbox VP Ed Fries has revealed that Japanese game publishers privately wanted to support the original Xbox to prevent a Sony monopoly, but were too afraid of retaliation to do so openly. Fries says Sony could punish publishers by withholding development kits or refusing to promote their games. He now regrets failing to secure Final Fantasy for the console.
The Secret Support Xbox Never Got
Ed Fries, the former vice president of game publishing at Microsoft who helped build the original Xbox, has lifted the lid on a hidden dynamic that shaped the early console wars. In a wide-ranging interview on The Expansion Pass podcast marking Xbox's twenty-fifth anniversary, Fries revealed that Japanese publishers privately wanted Microsoft's console to succeed, but were too frightened of Sony's dominance to say so publicly.According to Fries, companies like Square Enix told him directly that they wanted Sony to face real competition in the console market. However, they felt unable to openly back Xbox because Sony held enormous leverage over publishers who depended on the PlayStation ecosystem. Fries suggested that Sony could have punished dissenting publishers by withholding development kits or declining to promote their titles, effectively freezing them out of the platform that represented their primary revenue stream.
The Final Fantasy That Got Away
The power imbalance had real consequences for gamers. Fries named the Final Fantasy franchise as one of his biggest regrets, saying the iconic series never appeared on the original Xbox largely because of this dynamic. While Microsoft eventually struck some deals with Square after Fries departed in 2004, those negotiations remained difficult throughout.Tecmo's Quiet Rebellion
Not every publisher stayed silent. Fries pointed to Tecmo as a rare exception, a company that made Dead or Alive 3 and Dead or Alive 4 exclusive to Xbox specifically to challenge Sony's grip on the market. According to Fries, Tecmo acted deliberately to prevent a single company from holding a monopoly over console gaming.Why Xbox Existed at All
The interview also revealed the origins of the Xbox project itself. Fries described the infamous Valentine's Day Massacre meeting in February 2000, where Bill Gates grilled the Xbox proposal team for hours before finally approving the project. Gates's motivation was not primarily enthusiasm for gaming but rather a strategic hedge against Sony's growing influence in the living room.The revelations paint a striking picture of how fear and market dominance quietly determined which games players could access for years.
Published April 13, 2026 at 12:13pm
