The Xbox One reveal may have left many gamers wondering about its VCR-like look as a number of Internet memes have circulated over the past few weeks pointing out their similarities, but the Xbox One’s creative director of design Ramiro Torres took a moment to explain some of the console’s design philosophies in a blog post.
The Xbox One hardware and software were developed together in order to offer a holistic perspective to other Microsoft products by using a unified designed language. “When designing anything on Xbox, you have to consider everything from the way the hardware and user interface looks, to the way the box and branding is expressed. Everything has a role in the way you experience a brand.” That brand, of course, being Microsoft.
Torres also speaks about the team’s decision to make the console a liquid black color, or “the blackest black creatable,” which was decided due to its darker color allowing it to blend in the background better. The Xbox One, Kinect and its controller are said to “melt into the background” when the user views content on their HDTVs.