In an interview with the Guardian’s Games Blog, Moore described his initial discussions with Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer. “He wanted to know how I was going to win for Microsoft, how we were going to take on Sony, how would we compete with – or acquire – Nintendo. Those were the conversations in those days. It was a classic build or buy conversation. Xbox had launched but it was an aggressive black box for shooters, and how do we evolve that, how do we build the next Xbox, how do we get after Sony?”
He added, “Interestingly, we were just completely fixated on Sony – Nintendo didn't even come into the conversation.”
That Microsoft has had the desire to purchase Nintendo has been a frequent rumor since the days of the original Xbox; in 2004, a report appeared on the website of financial publication Forbes that alleged Bill Gates had expressed interest in buying its competitor, if only former company president and major shareholder Hiroshi Yamauchi was willing to sell.
Moore goes on in his interview to describe the early days of building and marketing the Xbox 360. In reference to an infamously unaired ad spot for the console titled Standoff, he explained his aggravation and being unable to get Microsoft’s approval. “I went ballistic – it's cops and robbers, it's cowboys and Indians, it's what we did as kids! But we never ran it…”