What ever happened to 360 faceplates?

by Justin McElroy on Dec 16th 2010 10:30PM

As stock in new Joystiq offshoot PlateTweetz (360 faceplates that can update your Twitter feed, of course) has continued to decline, we look to someone, anyone for answers. Turns out OXM has our backs, asking Microsoft global marketing director Albert Penello about that very topic.

"The idea wasn't bad ... people used to put faceplates on their cell phones. Rewind five years, faceplates were what everybody wanted to do," he said. "Turned out nobody bought it. So [we stopped] making them. We killed that one pretty quickly."

Well, thanks for telling us now, Albert. We suppose you'll be explaining this to our stockholders?

Source: OXM

Tags: Albert-Penello, faceplate, microsoft, oxm, xbox

Reader Comments (52)

Now everyone wants gel covers.

@The Aquacharger
lol yes. on my console. gel.

Leopards. Yuck.

@Mrguy you know that guy

Yes, but they're tasty as hell with some A1 sauce.

I figured they'd been discontinued.. I'd only ever saw my brother with one.. most of the third party ones I'd seen were poor quality too

I don't want any covers or faceplates on my things. I like my electronics to be naked.

@Zenith

And black. I don't know why expensive electronics ever shipped in white anyway it looked so off sitting next everything else black in my entertainment center...

@PlatinumSkeet

I think that's how my white 360 finally died. Couldn't take all the racism in the room from the other electronics in the living room. With them snickering at it telling it to get to the front of the entertainment stand. White guilt is what killed it, not RRoD. Now my elite stands there black and proud. Hooting and Hollering with it's new found friends.

they looked so stupid (well, most of them)... they also made the console look cheap and plasticy

that faceplate matches my briefs.

@un4gvn94538
Hey, Quagmire

@un4gvn94538
Gigity

I would have totally bought face plates, had they not been $25 plus. That was nearly 50% of a game back then.

@Chroma Agreed. I always thought about picking up the piano black face for my Elite, but having to buy a pack of three to get it was a waste of money. Faceplates were a decent idea, but the price killed any chance of me buying one.

The only faceplate(s) I've ever seen anyone interested in are the Eternal Sonata ones, and that was only for collectors.

@Ezio Auditore da Firenze

I also own this one, but.. I don't think I'd ever actually use it.

http://i276.photobucket.com/albums/kk19/Threddd/Faceplate.jpg

This reminds me of forums during the RROD nightmare where people sent in some limited edition faceplate or another and were upset when their refurb it was mysteriously missing.

Lols abounded.

I had a couple of them i got for free. Didn't use them though. The idea wasn't, I'd just rather buy MS Points or 3 months card for the same price. I think a lot of people felt the same way.

@Riley Freeman

The idea wasn't bad*

@Riley Freeman

I think you're right, the idea wasn't bad. The ability to customize one's console easily is actually fairly novel outside of the 3rd party industry, the problem just happened that they were too pricey for a piece of a molded plastic with art on it.

I got a sweet wood grain faceplateon my Elite, makes it look like an Atari 2600!

@bigE I've got the same one for the same reason. A bit of the old days in gaming. But the full price on faceplates was nuts. Got mine on clearance at Target for a few bucks.

Screen only cellphone design killed plates on phones as well

If they weren't vastly overpriced and made the color of the 360 mix-match then they may have gotten popular. I definitely wouldn't want the colors on my console to be so jarringly different.

I only have one, a Winterbottom one that I won on some facebook contest :/

I wanted a bigger selection of faceplates based on games, not a chrome or wood faceplate (you guys remember those). I was all for the idea but never got one due to the limited selection and price.

I took my original faceplate off once to put a larger USB plug into my front ports. Something broke in the process, and now I don't know where to get a replacement :(

It was because most contrasted the design of the xbox (blue faceplate, white box). Also the fact that they ranged from $30-$50 basically put a stop to me ever thinking about one...

i had a Gears of War1 faceplate
i still have the original plate in my closet
maybe i should throw it away now

@Link408:

"Something broke in the process, and now I don't know where to get a replacement"

"i still have the original plate in my closet
maybe i should throw it away now"

Hi Link408, I would like to introduce you to Darklink2009 (2 posts above yours).

@brotherfranciz You could call that... a link to the past.

Hey, stop looking at me like that. Both of the dudes have "link" in their usernames, for crying out loud.

*burp* I'll be here all night.

I still have some faceplates. Wheres my Shag carpet 360 face plate?

@AFATALERR0R I should mention that those USB doors break easily. I started using the USB drive for my gamertag and game saves and it quickly killed my Halo 3 360's drive door.

Currently rocking a 3rd party chrome one on my RE5 Special Edition Elite

Every time I'd send in my system I'd take the faceplate off, since they said to only ship the core system. Every time it would come back with a new faceplate.

I have the Soul Calibur IV plate with Yoda on my system (or I would, but it's off being fixed) but I only have it because it came with the game. When the systems first came I wanted the wood panneling face plate, but I didn't get a system till about three years ago, and by then faceplates were rare.

@EndynOmni Also, the faceplate in that picture is so tacky that I must have it. If Glenn Quagmire had a 360 that would be his faceplate.

I have a plain black one, it looked kind of cool until the elite came out, and you could actually have a whole black xbox instead of only the front. Oh well...

i just spray-painted mine blue. super cheap, and it doesn't look bad.

by which i mean it looks pretty good, imo.

Didn't somebody custom paint a Joystiq faceplate at some point? I'm a bit surprised you didn't use that for the post photo!

We have a few- two different camps, a cow skin, viva piñata, and some others that popped up. The problem with them was their expense and that they didnt match the console. Looking at the faceplates, they were abruptly different looking from the rest of the device and hence dumb looking in practice.

I have one that I got just after I got the console. Some blue black and white camo pattern, that I think looks pretty cool.

I think another part of it is how much a pain they were to get off. When you pulled it off per the instructions, it felt like you were about to break something.

Well lets see, they were for the most pare either ugly or stupid expensive and required a phd in mechanical engineering to change our without permanently damaging either the faceplate or your systems superstructure.

So ..... decent idea, resigned to failure.

Overpriced and they are just face plates. Since they aren't complete shells most of the face plates created an ugly contrast between the faceplate and the rest of the console. Look at that picture above. Beyond the the leopard print being ugly by itself, it's made even worse by the contrast with the white system.

Well they had the right console for this idea. Whats the average age of a 360 owner? 16? 15?

Desperate to troll I see.

@Duke
That was directed at Co above.

Still have the Unreal 3 faceplate and still think it looks badass.

The faceplates seem designed with the idea that people would put their Xboxes into big media cabinets, neighbored by other media devices. That way, you only see the front of the Xbox, not the top surface.

The thing is... most people with Xboxes probably keep their 360s fairly far away from any other heat-producing items, due to fears of RRODing. I don't think people are sandwiching the Xbox between an amplifier and a VHS player for example. Thus the sides/top of the 360 are visually exposed.

I have several myself that I've never used or opened. I dunno, it was a good idea, but poorly implemented. That the whole back of the console was still white and the disc tray another color while the front could be a design, just seemed goofy ugly to me. I liked the limited edition consoles that came out that skinned the whole system. If Microsoft could have somehow pulled that off as far as customization-- skinning the whole system yourself, I would have been more on board.

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What ever happened to 360 faceplates?

Reader Comments (52)

Posted: Dec 16th 2010 10:32PM The Aquacharger said

Posted: Dec 16th 2010 11:16PM sigma8 said

Posted: Dec 16th 2010 10:34PM Mrguy you know that guy said

Posted: Dec 17th 2010 1:09AM smoothy said

Posted: Dec 16th 2010 10:35PM Mazrael said

Posted: Dec 16th 2010 10:35PM Zenith said

Posted: Dec 17th 2010 10:11AM PlatinumSkeet said

Posted: Dec 17th 2010 2:41PM Youthinized said

Posted: Dec 16th 2010 10:36PM PR0F3TA said

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Posted: Dec 16th 2010 10:55PM Premature ejaculation man said

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Posted: Dec 16th 2010 10:38PM Chroma said

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Posted: Dec 16th 2010 10:38PM Ezio Auditore da Firenze said

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Posted: Dec 16th 2010 10:40PM Jack Kevorkian said

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Posted: Dec 16th 2010 11:49PM Xcrucio said

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Posted: Dec 17th 2010 3:04AM Mr Bungo said

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Posted: Dec 16th 2010 10:51PM imadogg said

Posted: Dec 16th 2010 10:51PM Darklink2009 said

Posted: Dec 16th 2010 10:53PM Premature ejaculation man said

Posted: Dec 16th 2010 11:01PM Link408 said

Posted: Dec 17th 2010 12:51AM brotherfranciz said

Posted: Dec 17th 2010 1:48AM darkinchworm said

Posted: Dec 16th 2010 11:06PM AFATALERR0R said

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Posted: Dec 16th 2010 11:26PM Jdrama418 said

Posted: Dec 16th 2010 11:32PM EndynOmni said

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Posted: Dec 16th 2010 11:40PM (Unverified) said

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Posted: Dec 17th 2010 1:40PM Duke said

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