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

How’s it going, Andrew?

Ha. Going effectively, Wynn. You didn’t must 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 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 enjoying video games my total life, whilst a really small baby. I’m courting myself a bit of 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 way in which from Mario to Halo, which is admittedly what obtained 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 a giant tech hub.

So how way back did you get employed?

I believe round 13 years in the past or so. Proper in the beginning of the 2010s I obtained 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 I used to be a kind of outdated brokers the place we’d reply to tweets or DMs with our initials.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 truly did one thing related once I was within the retail shops. In the event you clicked “Assist” on Outlook Cellular in like 2015-2017, you will have talked to me. It’s a more durable job than folks would possibly suppose.

Yeah, you discuss folks via so many various points every single day. You grow to be a really well-oiled help machine after some time.

Completely. If I attempted onerous sufficient, I may most likely keep in mind among the error codes.

Similar right here. I keep in mind many.

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

Nicely, 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 Staff. Then, I did that for a couple of years earlier than shifting to the Insider workforce the place I nonetheless kinda do plenty of help. 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 group about?

I’m not engaged on an excessive amount of for Xbox Insider particularly proper now, although I’m all the time attempting to enhance the options we flight via this system. I suppose probably the most attention-grabbing stuff I’m doing—that may even be attention-grabbing 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 workforce for some time now and it’s one thing I’m extraordinarily enthusiastic about. I imagine we have now to do every part we will to greatest protect and respect our historical past earlier than we will really transfer into the long run.

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.

Nicely, each North American disc. I don’t have a PAL or JPN 360 but, so I don’t purposefully accumulate these for the time being.

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’ve gotten a favourite second in time from engaged on it because you’ve been right here?

Man, I’ve performed so many issues truly for the Xbox 360, however I can’t actually speak about most of them; even looking back. However I do have one in every of my most cherished recreation collections gadgets 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 like the blades on the outdated 360 dashboard.

I believe in the event you pay attention onerous sufficient, that’s a refrain of voices from our group shouting out in settlement proper now.

Haha. I nonetheless suppose it’s the best console working system of all time. However yeah, I used to be actually enthusiastic about telling everybody I may how a lot I liked 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 workforce. Nicely, a long-tenured teammate confirmed up at my workplace a couple of week later. Seems, he labored on the {hardware} workforce, 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 every of my favourite issues I personal. A real gem in my assortment meaning rather a lot to me personally.

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

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

Okay, let’s transfer on to among 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 choose 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 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 way in which for a lot. Even rising up my favourite recreation, and doubtless nonetheless my favourite recreation of all time is Tremendous Mario World 2: Yoshi’s Island. I’d play that recreation again and again and over. I by no means get bored with 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 truly get pleasure from 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 choose although. Not as a result of it’s not a fantastic recreation, however I do know you’re what I prefer to name a “mechanical purist” on the subject 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 wish 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 most likely has extra RPGs in my assortment than every other style, my knuckles is perhaps 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 might be the most effective 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 may have by no means in 1,000,000 years have guessed these solutions.

Haha. You count on 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 model of music?

I noticed the video for Combat the Energy on MTV once I was seven years outdated. It was speedy. 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 positively obtained made enjoyable of for liking this sort of music rising up within the space the place I got here from. It wasn’t actually till 2Pac blew up that folks began getting a bit of extra into it. However even then, I’d attempt to present somebody the brand new Tribe Referred to as Quest document 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 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 obtained into my very own music tastes. Numerous “scene” music. Submit-hardcore, metalcore, and so on. 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 every part there was within the hip hop world from the 80s till 2010. However there have been like 10 totally 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 keep in mind this one time I skipped a college discipline journey to stroll to the document retailer and get the brand new Ghostface album.

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

Within the mid to late 90s, a rapper named Huge L obtained me actually into the underground scene and I’d hearken to radio from in all places. 888hiphop.com, PhillaFlavaDrop.com, Rhymesayers.web, I used to be tremendous into these items. 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 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 all the time have on within the background?

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

Means again once I initially had the concept for these, the rationale this query got here up is we had like three conferences collectively in sooner or later and there was all the time a present on within the background of your digital camera. I’m positively not a “can simply hearken to it” form of man, so I believed it’d be enjoyable to see everybody on the workforce.

Truthfully, I may most likely recite a couple of of my favourite episodes.

Now that’s leisure. We may perhaps cost for that.

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

I’m actually into sports activities. I took trip days to observe the start of March Insanity. I watch plenty of faculty 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 a fantastic 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 threat 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, 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 predominant level in what I’m doing, it’s that I give attention to historical past over the long run. I would like in 60 years folks to nonetheless be capable to entry their video games library, and like hand down their Gamertag to their grandkids or no matter. That’s my superb dream state. My video games assortment is probably the most priceless factor I personal aside from my home, and I do know that lots of people make investments their time, cash, and power into these ecosystems. I wish to do every part I can to make sure we’re respecting that funding and enabling folks 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 talk with everybody right this moment. 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 workforce, 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/