Microsoft’s 1 vs. 100 video game from 2009 was an odd experiment that didn’t live past 2010. But now, recent reports claim that Xbox is developing yet another title in the game show series.
GamesBeat report Jeff Grubb spoke about it on his show on Giant Bomb called Grubbsnax, as picked up via Video Games Chronicle. Grubb stated that Xbox was “definitely making that game” at AltspaceVR, which is in Microsoft’s Mixed Reality Division. AltspaceVR has done experiences with musicians like Reggie Watts and Pitbull in the past, but isn’t a traditional video game developer. However, it appears to be using avatars, which is something prominently featured in the AltspaceVR virtual reality app.
“1 vs. 100 is coming back,” Grubb said. “They are definitely making that game… and it seems like it’s coming from the AltspaceVR team. They’re spearheading the project and all of the avatars we saw in the Microsoft Teams thing last week, they’re going to use those avatars and bring that stuff in.”
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While Grubb has a reliable track record, this also backs up what Head of Xbox Phil Spencer has said in the past. In October 2020, after the team tried and failed to put on a game show, he seemed to very specifically make a reference to 1 vs. 100.
“We’ll learn. Maybe we should even be building our own trivia game, like from our past, that allows people to play a trivia game more often, maybe that could happen,” he said.
One year earlier, he told Stevivor that he, along with Head of Xbox Studios Matt Booty, have spoken about the possibility a lot. But it might be difficult, given how it is based on a real game show.
“The problem with 1 vs 100 specifically is it’s an IP that’s owned by a a game show company,” said Spence. “But I’ll say Matt and I have had a lot of discussions about the idea, whether it’s that IP specifically or just the idea of what it was, is something that we’d love to go do. So we’re out there kind of looking at ideas and talking to teams. Because I think that was one of those ideas — and it’s a cliché, almost — that might’ve been a little ahead of its time.”
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Microsoft spoke about 1 vs. 100 before during the Xbox One era, too. In 2014, General Manager for Lifestyle Entertainment at Microsoft Studios Dave McCarthy told Polygon that something like 1 vs. 100 was coming to Xbox One. However, nothing ever came of that.
As its name implies, 1 vs. 100 was a live game show on the Xbox 360 with hosts and was free to everyone on Xbox Live. It put a single player, dubbed “The One,” against 100 others, also known as “The Mob” in a trivia game. The One had a chance to win 10,000 Microsoft Points. The earnings would be divided up with the surviving members of The Mob and they would all win a downloadable game if they could take down The One. There were only two 13-week seasons.
