Xbox 360 faceplates were phased out because "nobody bought it", Microsoft's global marketing boss Albert Penello has told OXM.

Speaking in the latest UK issue, Penello joins fellow execs Phil Spencer and Kudo Tsunoda in looking back at five years of Xbox 360 - including plenty of comment on the misjudged faceplate accessory.

"We don't ever create an accessory with the intent of having it fail," Penello told the mag. "The idea wasn't bad... people used to put faceplates on their cell phones. Rewind five years, faceplates were what everybody wanted to do."

The Xbox 360 S was of course unveiled at this year's E3 sans-faceplate functionality. The marketing man explained: "[It] turned out nobody bought it. So [we stopped] making them. We killed that one pretty quickly".

Don't look at us - we quite liked them.

To read OXM's full Five Years of Xbox 360 feature, including interviews with Albert Penello, Kudo Tsunoda and Phil Spencer, in the latest issue on shelves now. Buy it online and have it delivered.

http://www.computerandvideogames.com/ar ... ?id=280879

Meh, things like that are usually an expensive faff...

you'd have to be a moron to buy a faceplate, when you use the xbox you look at the tv not the console plus too many people are into modding themselves but mostly pcs,

idiot MS

my brother bought a faceplate. it was a blank white one when the old one got broken

good riddance, leave the real modding to people who can use a screwdriver. anyway, whats stopping have-a-go modders from just drawing/painting/felt-tipping on them? more personalised that pre-made plates, more fun too