console that was signed by Bill Gates to acknowledge the hard work that went into creating the hardware. The original console has become a collector’s item with one such example selling for $951 at Goodwill earlier this year. Original Xbox Launch console signed by Bill Gates.
Moving on to the Xbox 360, one of the key features of the physical console was that it could be easily customized with faceplates. To celebrate the release of that console, Microsoft created a limited edition faceplate for those who worked on the hardware but these sell for around $60 today.
With the Xbox One, Microsoft started to build a custom Xbox controller and console. For this launch, they created the “I Made This” launch Team controllers with a matching white Xbox One console that was the envy of many gamers as the company only released a black version of the console at launch.‘I Made This’ Xbox One Launch Console
This brings us up to last week where Microsoft once again issued custom hardware to those on the launch team (image at the top of this post). This generation of consoles was codenamed Project Scarlett, which you can see printed across the bottom of the peripheral along with “Power Your Dreams” and dates of previous console releases too.
Microsoft also included in the launch swag for employees a ‘Ship It’ award. The company uses these small medallions for employees to highlight the products they have helped move from concept to production too.
