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

How’s it going, Andrew?

Ha. Going properly, Wynn. You didn’t must name me out like that proper from the highest.

If there’s one factor I need 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 are not 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 7^th gen obsessions, let’s take all of it the way in which again. Give us the backstory. What began your curiosity in video games?

I’ve been taking part in video games my whole life, whilst a really small baby. I’m relationship myself somewhat right here, however my first console was an Atari Pong dwelling console.

That’s about as OG as you may get.

Yup! And I’ve been taking part in ever since. All the way in which from Mario to Halo, which is admittedly what bought 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 practice instantly. You bear in mind the Xbox Stay Arcade when it first launched? I used to be sitting on my console each Wednesday getting virtually each single sport because it got here out. It’s actually my love for the 360 that made me need to begin working at Xbox. I grew up in rural Ohio, so it wasn’t actually a giant tech hub.

So how way back did you get employed?

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 I used to be a kind of outdated brokers the place we’d reply to tweets or DMs with our initials.

Oh wow! I really did one thing related once I was within the retail shops. In the event you clicked “Assist” on Outlook Cell in like 2015-2017, you could have talked to me. It’s a harder job than folks may assume.

Yeah, you discuss folks by way of so many various points every single day. You develop into a really well-oiled assist machine after some time.

Completely. If I attempted laborious sufficient, I might in all probability bear in mind a number of the error codes.

Identical right here. I bear 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 manner up the ladder earlier than I moved over to a program administration place on the Assist Staff. Then, I did that for just a few years earlier than shifting to the Insider group the place I nonetheless kinda do a variety 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 that you would be able to inform the Xbox Insider group about?

I’m not engaged on an excessive amount of for Xbox Insider particularly proper now, although I’m at all times making an attempt to enhance the options we flight by way of this system. I assume essentially the most fascinating stuff I’m doing—that may even be fascinating to this viewers—is that I’m engaged on all of our legacy Xbox 360 companies.

Okay, that’s sick.

Yeah, I’ve been on that group for some time now and it’s one thing I’m extraordinarily obsessed with. I imagine we’ve to do all the pieces we will to greatest protect and recognize our historical past earlier than we will actually 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 need 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 acquire these in the mean time.

My JPN 360 is amassing 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 have got a favourite second in time from engaged on it because you’ve been right here?

Man, I’ve achieved so many issues really for the Xbox 360, however I can’t actually discuss most of them; even on reflection. However I do have one among my most cherished sport collections objects from working right here.

Let’s hear it.

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

I believe in the event you pay attention laborious sufficient, that’s a refrain of voices from our group 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 beloved that OS. Quick ahead to round 2017-2018, I had simply transferred over to a brand new CSS function, and I used to be speaking about my love for the blades with my new group. Properly, a long-tenured teammate confirmed up at my workplace a couple of week later. Seems, he labored on the {hardware} group, 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 among my favourite issues I personal. A real gem in my assortment meaning loads to me personally.

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

Yeah man. Some folks have held onto some actually cool stuff for your entire 20-year run.

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

What’s a sport 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 believed it was fairly cool, however the first Tremendous Mario Bros. is once I knew I used to be going to be taking part in them for the remainder of my life.

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

Precisely. It paved the way in which for a lot. Even rising up my favourite sport, and doubtless nonetheless my favourite sport of all time is Tremendous Mario World 2: Yoshi’s Island. I’d play that sport 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 essentially the most are Portal and Braid. Portal as a result of it taught me to truly get pleasure from tales in video games, and Braid as a result of it was the primary actually difficult puzzle sport 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 amazing sport, however I do know you’re what I wish to name a “mechanical purist” in terms of video games.

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

As somebody who in all probability has extra RPGs in my assortment than every other 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 information framed and held on the wall of my front room which are one of the best music ever pressed. However for the sake of brevity, I’ll go along with Illmatic by Nas and The Undisputed Fact by Brother Ali.

I might have by no means in one million years have guessed these solutions.

Haha. You anticipate the standard like Aerosmith or Nirvana? Nah, most of what I take heed to is rap and hip-hop from the 80s by way of the 2010s.

Actually, I’m unsure what I anticipated, nevertheless it 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 Combat the Energy on MTV once I was seven years outdated. It was quick. Flav drew me in, and Chuck taught me classes. From there it was a wrap. Rakim, EPMD, LL, De La Soul; you identify it, I used to be listening to it. I positively bought made enjoyable of for liking one of these 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 Known as Quest document and so they’d name it wack as a result of it was nonetheless too completely different from the hip-hop that was discovering wider success on the time.

I really like when folks 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 bought into my very own music tastes. A lot of “scene” music. Put up-hardcore, metalcore, and many others. Something on Rise or Victory or Sumerian. I’ve a lot of that period of music.

I’ve a ton of CDs. Like, in all probability over 5 thousand of them again dwelling in Ohio organized by launch date. I knew nearly all the pieces there was within the hip hop world from the 80s till 2010. However there have been like 10 completely different albums dropping every single day and I couldn’t sustain anymore.

5 THOUSAND?!

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

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

Within the mid to late 90s, a rapper named Huge L bought me actually into the underground scene and I’d take heed to radio from in all places. 888hiphop.com, PhillaFlavaDrop.com, Rhymesayers.internet, I used to be tremendous into these things. I’d go watch battles and see folks earlier than they blew up. It was only a world I used to be totally immersed in.

Dude, I need 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 have got any TV exhibits that you simply at all times have on within the background?

Ha! Okay, you bought me. Sure, I’ve in all probability had 4-5 episodes of Buddies taking part in on my TV every single day for so long as the present has been off-air. Properly, that and South Park.

Means again once I initially had the concept for these, the explanation this query got here up is we had like three conferences collectively in sooner or later and there was at all times a present on within the background of your digicam. I’m positively not a “can simply take heed to it” type of man, so I believed it’d be enjoyable to see everybody on the group.

Actually, I might in all probability recite just a few of my favourite episodes.

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

Okay, shifting away from media, do you have got any hobbies outdoors of the home?

I’m actually into sports activities. I took trip days to look at the start of March Insanity. I watch a variety of school soccer as properly.

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 amazing 12 months.

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

Every other groups you get pleasure from? I received’t danger guessing the Bengals, the Reds, or every other 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 satisfaction there.

Oh. I additionally actually get pleasure from MMA. I get a bunch 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, properly 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 important level in what I’m doing, it’s that I give attention to historical past over the longer term. I need in 60 years folks to nonetheless be capable of entry their video games library, and like hand down their Gamertag to their grandkids or no matter. That’s my ideally suited dream state. My video games assortment is essentially the most precious factor I personal aside from my home, and I do know that lots of people make investments their time, cash, and vitality into these ecosystems. I need to do all the pieces I can to make sure we’re respecting that funding and enabling folks to maintain taking part in lengthy after we’ve turned to mud.

That’s highly effective stuff man. Extremely acknowledged.

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

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

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

Till subsequent time! Wynn/