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Gears of War Cost Microsoft $1 Billion
- October 24, 2006 15:14 PM PST
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Mark Rein, Vice President of Epic Games, says Gears of War set the standard for 512MB of RAM in the Xbox 360, costing Microsoft $1 billion.
We'd say 512MB of RAM was probably the smart choice for the Xbox 360
During a podcast Q&A conducted by Microsoft's Major Nelson, Rein describes how he and Tim Sweeney, President of Epic, argued for a boost in RAM and a hard drive in the Xbox 360 to support HD games.
On a long-winded note, Rein explains how he "got a call from the chief financial officer of Microsoft Game Studio and he said 'I just want you to know you cost me a billion dollars'. And I said: 'No, we did a favor for a billion gamers'."
To sway Microsoft into going with 512MB of RAM, Rein said, "what Tim did was actually send a screenshot of what Gears of War would look like if we only had 256 megs of memory." According to Rein, this screenshot bolstered Microsoft into taking the more expensive route.
Rein goes on to explain the crucial importance of 512MB of RAM in the Xbox 360, stating, "you couldn't do this level of graphics if you had to both write your program and do your graphics in 256 megs. Nothing would really look that HD."
