Hello, everybody! Wynn right here once more. Welcome again to a different Xbox Insider Group interview. Right this moment’s chat is with Andrew—a Buyer Expertise Supervisor on the staff who undoubtedly has extra Xbox 360 video games than you do.

How’s it going, Andrew?

Ha. Going effectively, Wynn. You didn’t need to name me out like that proper from the highest.

If there’s one factor I would like Xbox Insiders to know from this interview, it’s that you’re Xbox 360’s #1 fan and supporter. It’s like that meme. If there aren’t any extra Xbox 360 followers, then we will know you’ve shed your mortal coil.

I can get behind that.

However earlier than we dive into your seventh gen obsessions, let’s take all of it the best way again. Give us the backstory. What began your curiosity in video games?

I’ve been enjoying video games my complete life, whilst a really small youngster. I’m courting myself somewhat right here, however my first console was an Atari Pong residence console.

That’s about as OG as you may get.

Yup! And I’ve been enjoying ever since. All the best way from Mario to Halo, which is absolutely what received me closely into the Xbox ecosystem.

Did you discover your love for the 360 earlier than or after you began right here?

Earlier than. I used to be on that prepare instantly. You keep in mind the Xbox Reside Arcade when it first launched? I used to be sitting on my console each Wednesday getting virtually each single recreation because it got here out. It’s actually my love for the 360 that made me wish to begin working at Xbox. I grew up in rural Ohio, so it wasn’t actually an enormous tech hub.

So how way back did you get employed?

I believe round 13 years in the past or so. Proper at the beginning of the 2010s I received employed to do Twitter Assist for Xbox. I used to be a type of outdated brokers the place we’d reply to tweets or DMs with our initials.

Oh wow! I truly did one thing comparable after I was within the retail shops. In case you clicked “Assist” on Outlook Cell in like 2015-2017, you might have talked to me. It’s a harder job than individuals would possibly assume.

Yeah, you discuss individuals via so many alternative points daily. You turn into a really well-oiled assist machine after some time.

Completely. If I attempted onerous sufficient, I might most likely keep in mind a number of the error codes.

Identical right here. I keep in mind many.

So, how lengthy did you probably did work on Assist?

Properly, I did the Twitter stuff for about six years. Labored my approach up the ladder earlier than I moved over to a program administration place on the Assist Group. Then, I did that for a number of years earlier than transferring to the Insider staff the place I nonetheless kinda do lots of assist. So, actually in some methods, I’m nonetheless Assist, however I left the official “Assist” group again in 2021.

Is there something you’re presently engaged on you could inform the Xbox Insider neighborhood about?

I’m not engaged on an excessive amount of for Xbox Insider particularly proper now, although I’m at all times attempting to enhance the options we flight via this system. I suppose probably the most fascinating stuff I’m doing—that will even be fascinating to this viewers—is that I’m engaged on all of our legacy Xbox 360 providers.

Okay, that’s sick.

Yeah, I’ve been on that staff for some time now and it’s one thing I’m extraordinarily obsessed with. I imagine we’ve got to do the whole lot we will to greatest protect and respect our historical past earlier than we will really transfer into the longer term.

I’m totally with you there on that man. I do know I joked about it earlier than, however I wish to let our readers know that you simply do have virtually each bodily Xbox 360 disc.

Properly, each North American disc. I don’t have a PAL or JPN 360 but, so I don’t purposefully accumulate these in the mean time.

My JPN 360 is gathering mud, however I’ve a bunch of Visible Novels that I ought to play someday on it. Since we’re speaking about your favourite system, do you’ve gotten a favourite second in time from engaged on it because you’ve been right here?

Man, I’ve completed so many issues truly for the Xbox 360, however I can’t actually discuss most of them; even looking back. However I do have one in all my most cherished recreation collections gadgets from working right here.

Let’s hear it.

So, after I began again in 2011, I used to be already pounding my drum about a lot I like the blades on the outdated 360 dashboard.

I believe if you happen to hear onerous sufficient, that’s a refrain of voices from our neighborhood shouting out in settlement proper now.

Haha. I nonetheless assume it’s the best console working system of all time. However yeah, I used to be actually obsessed with telling everybody I might how a lot I cherished that OS. Quick ahead to round 2017-2018, I had simply transferred over to a brand new CSS position, and I used to be speaking about my love for the blades with my new staff. Properly, a long-tenured teammate confirmed up at my workplace a couple of week later. Seems, he labored on the {hardware} staff, and he had an outdated 360 that also had the blades dashboard on it saved in his archives. He gifted it to me and now It’s one in all my favourite issues I personal. A real gem in my assortment meaning lots to me personally.

I like that a lot. I’d give a not-insignificant portion of a paycheck to determine what all we’ve got buried in places of work round campus. So many cool methods hidden away.

Yeah man. Some individuals have held onto some actually cool stuff for all the 20-year run.

Okay, let’s transfer on to a number of the extra rapid-fire stuff.

What’s a recreation that’s had the most important impression on you all through the years?

Hmm. I’m unsure I can decide only one. However there’s an evolution in my tastes and my curiosity within the medium over time. Like Pong was my intro to video games and I assumed it was fairly cool, however the first Tremendous Mario Bros. is after I knew I used to be going to be enjoying them for the remainder of my life.

It’s onerous to understate simply how revolutionary it was to have performed that in that point interval.

Precisely. It paved the best way for a lot. Even rising up my favourite recreation, and possibly nonetheless my favourite recreation of all time is Tremendous Mario World 2: Yoshi’s Island. I’d play that recreation time and again and over. I by no means get uninterested in it. If I transfer extra into my grownup life, I believe that those that impacted me probably the most are Portal and Braid. Portal as a result of it taught me to really take pleasure in tales in video games, and Braid as a result of it was the primary actually difficult puzzle recreation I performed. It unlocked design-language in my thoughts that I simply didn’t have beforehand.

You’re choosing simply banger after banger. I’m shocked by the Portal decide although. Not as a result of it’s not an ideal recreation, however I do know you’re what I prefer to name a “mechanical purist” in relation to video games.

Oh yeah. I actually can’t stand textual content in my video games. RPGs are my least-favorite style ever. I simply wish to play the sport. However the best way Portal gave me the mechanical depth, but in addition stored me within the over-arching story from second to second gave me a greater appreciation for narrative in video games.

As somebody who most likely has extra RPGs in my assortment than another style, my knuckles may be altering colours, however I respect your opinion.

Let’s transfer on to music although. Favourite albums of all time?

I’ve twenty-one data framed and held on the wall of my front room which can be the most effective music ever pressed. However for the sake of brevity, I’ll go along with Illmatic by Nas and The Undisputed Reality by Brother Ali.

I might have by no means in 1,000,000 years have guessed these solutions.

Haha. You anticipate the everyday like Aerosmith or Nirvana? Nah, most of what I hearken to is rap and hip-hop from the 80s via the 2010s.

Truthfully, I’m unsure what I anticipated, but it surely wasn’t these.

So, now I’m curious. How does a white man from rural Ohio get into this fashion of music?

I noticed the video for Battle the Energy on MTV after I was seven years outdated. It was instant. Flav drew me in, and Chuck taught me classes. From there it was a wrap. Rakim, EPMD, LL, De La Soul; you title it, I used to be listening to it. I undoubtedly received made enjoyable of for liking the sort of music rising up within the space the place I got here from. It wasn’t actually till 2Pac blew up that individuals began getting somewhat extra into it. However even then, I’d attempt to present somebody the brand new Tribe Referred to as Quest report they usually’d name it wack as a result of it was nonetheless too totally different from the hip-hop that was discovering wider success on the time.

I like when individuals go actually deep into their musical leanings. I largely listened to no matter my dad was listening to rising up. It wasn’t till highschool that I received into my very own music tastes. A number of “scene” music. Put up-hardcore, metalcore, and so forth. Something on Rise or Victory or Sumerian. I’ve a lot of that period of music.

I’ve a ton of CDs. Like, most likely over 5 thousand of them again residence in Ohio organized by launch date. I knew nearly the whole lot there was within the hip hop world from the 80s till 2010. However there have been like 10 totally different albums dropping daily and I couldn’t sustain anymore.

5 THOUSAND?!

Yeah man. I spent like all of my cash as a child on CDs. I keep in mind this one time I skipped a college area journey to stroll to the report retailer and get the brand new Ghostface album.

That was the period earlier than Spotify and the whole lot. How did you even discover that a lot music?

Within the mid to late 90s, a rapper named Huge L received me actually into the underground scene and I’d hearken to radio from in every single place. 888hiphop.com, PhillaFlavaDrop.com, Rhymesayers.internet, I used to be tremendous into these items. I’d go watch battles and see individuals earlier than they blew up. It was only a world I used to be totally immersed in.

Dude, I wish to spend one other hour speaking about all of this, however we gotta wrap up quickly. Particularly since this subsequent query I tailor made for you.

Do you’ve gotten any TV exhibits that you simply at all times have on within the background?

Ha! Okay, you bought me. Sure, I’ve most likely had 4-5 episodes of Buddies enjoying on my TV daily for so long as the present has been off-air. Properly, that and South Park.

Approach again after I initially had the thought for these, the explanation this query got here up is we had like three conferences collectively in in the future and there was at all times a present on within the background of your digicam. I’m undoubtedly not a “can simply hearken to it” form of man, so I assumed it’d be enjoyable to see everybody on the staff.

Truthfully, I might most likely recite a number of of my favourite episodes.

Now that’s leisure. We might possibly cost for that.

Okay, transferring away from media, do you’ve gotten any hobbies outdoors of the home?

I’m actually into sports activities. I took trip days to observe the start of March Insanity. I watch lots of school soccer as effectively.

Wait. I do know this one. O-H!

I’m Ohio State’s worst enemy.

Whelp! That backfired. Haha.

Yeah, I’m a Michigan fan.

Even higher! You had an ideal 12 months.

For the primary time in my lifetime, sure. I used to be ecstatic.

Another groups you take pleasure in? I received’t threat guessing the Bengals, the Reds, or another Oihio-based sports activities entity.

Good! As a result of I’m all about groups not from my state. Payments, Tar Heels, Penguins, Celts, Pirates. Can’t say I’ve an excessive amount of hometown pleasure there.

Oh. I additionally actually take pleasure in MMA. I get a gaggle of buddies collectively and we watch all of the PPVs.

As an Atlanta sports activities fan, I typically want I hadn’t grown up with my hometown groups.

All proper, effectively we’re out of time. Any closing ideas for our Xbox Insiders?

That is going to return to that concept of preserving historical past. If there’s a most important level in what I’m doing, it’s that I concentrate on historical past over the longer term. I would like in 60 years individuals to nonetheless have the ability to entry their video games library, and like hand down their Gamertag to their grandkids or no matter. That’s my very best dream state. My video games assortment is probably the most precious factor I personal apart from my home, and I do know that lots of people make investments their time, cash, and vitality into these ecosystems. I wish to do the whole lot I can to make sure we’re respecting that funding and enabling individuals to maintain enjoying lengthy after we’ve turned to mud.

That’s highly effective stuff man. Extremely acknowledged.

Andrew, thanks a lot for taking the time to speak with everybody right now. It’s been nice!

Thanks for setting this up, Wynn. Till subsequent time!

Xbox Insiders, make sure you be looking out for extra content material all all through February together with extra interviews from the staff, a visit down reminiscence lane, and a lot extra. All of our tenth Anniversary content material will be discovered on our Hub Web page.

Till subsequent time! Wynn/