I'm aware that this was Microsoft's original thinking behind the Xbox 360's name, but then they called their next console "Xbox One".

That felt to me like Microsoft deciding that their original concerns had never been legitimate.

"One" instead of "1" suggests unity and oneness, rather than a version number.

I still think it was an awful branding decision, though.

Considering how the PlayStation has dominated the market without messing around with branding like that, it seems like MS dropped the ball by bike-shedding the name instead of nurturing quality content.

<ArmchairExecutive> Personally, I think Microsoft should have put way more effort into polishing their Kinect user experience. The X-bone could have been everything that the Echo/Siri/Google Home ecosystems evolved into if Microsoft had just worked harder on polish up front.

Instead, Microsoft pretty much alienated their core gaming base in order to half-assedly fail at a broader goal. They didn't even manage to push through more than a couple of decent Kinect v2 games </ArmchairExecutive>

PS didn't dominate that generation. It outsold the 360, but only by about 5%.

Ironically the PS 4 did outsell the X1 almost 2:1.

That doesn't hold up because they went Xbox One vs Playstation 4.

At this level, the market demands non-linear value. http://achewood.com/index.php?date=01132006

Same reason it's such a cliché for the fourth movie in a franchise to drop the number and have a subtitle like 'Revolution' or 'Revelation' or 'Revenge'. I assume marketers imagine the public's reaction to a '4' like "Look at you with that new _sequel_. How could you BE so cocky?!"