We all know the Dreamcast will go down in gaming history as a very epic fail (side note: I'm trying to find one to add to my console collection). Most attribute Sega's downfall to the release of the Playstation 2. So how did Moore view Sony as competition for the Dreamcast?

But [Sony] were brilliant at FUD - you know, fear uncertainty and doubt. It was a massive FUD campaign. The consumer thought twice and they started to read, 'can the Dreamcast make it?' It had a tough time in Europe, it had a really disastrous time in Japan. My job was... my personality was such that I'll go up and start being a little more on the front foot... It was like, 'well, what do you do?' You just do it yourself. You start talking, you don't wait for the Japanese to give you messaging - because PR is something they don't do very well, they just don't do that concept of messaging and having passion around the message - the only thing we could do was be passionate. But it was too little too late unfortunately.

Say what you will about Moore, he has always been one of the biggest cheerleaders for the company he works for. Remember that infamous GTA IV tattoo he sported a few years back while touting the release of the series on the Xbox 360? Speaking of Microsoft, we finally got an answer as to why the original Xbox was discontinued:

And in the same way, not having a hard drive in every Xbox 360 was a hard decision, but we wanted to get price under control. The hard drive in every Xbox killed us; we we're still selling it at $199 and the hard drive was like $70. That's why we prematurely left the original Xbox, because the more we were selling - there was still great demand - it was killing us, and there was no way to bring the price down.

With the cost of memory coming down significantly in recent years I think that the cost factor behind the Xbox would have become a non-issue. Though with the death of the Xbox, consumers were left to focus their attention on the 360, a lesson Sony learned too late with the PS2 sharing the marketplace with the PS3.
One last bit from the interview is Moore's thoughts on Rare, who Microsoft paid a pretty penny to acquire as an exclusive developer.

I think the industry had past Rare by - it's a strong statement but what they were good at, new consumers didn't care about anymore, and it was tough because they were trying very hard - Chris and Tim Stamper were still there - to try and recreate the glory years of Rare, which is the reason Microsoft paid a lot of money for them and I spent a lot of time getting on a train to Twycross to meet them. Great people. But their skillsets were from a different time and a different place and were not applicable in today's market.

Some really great insights from a man who has had his share of successes and failures in the business. Check out the full three part interview for more from Moore. I wonder how Sega and Microsoft are responding to his candid thoughts.