Phil Spencer knows you loved 1 vs 100

Everyone did, Phil included

Fond memories of the Xbox 360 are not in short supply. The long-awaited launch of Halo 3. The annual barrage of quality indies during the Summer of Arcade. Xbox Live parties that stretched ’til 4am. Your third red ring of death. Wait.

But one that keeps coming up, probably because it was criminally cut short long before people were tired of it, is 1 vs 100. The twice-weekly community-driven interactive trivia show was beloved by most all who played it. It turned everyone into a game show contestant, offering up Xbox Live games and currency for those lucky enough to be part of the hundred-strong Mob or The One. It’s not uncommon for people to lament that Xbox should bring back 1 vs 100.

That opinion goes all the way up to the tippy-top. “We should do it again,” Xbox head Phil Spencer says in an interview with Australian outlet Stevivor. Spencer isn’t necessarily talking about 1 vs 100 specifically because that’s a property Microsoft doesn’t own and would require some sort of leasing agreement. But, spiritually, Spencer wants to do something that’s the same as 1 vs 100.

Games like HQ Trivia have proven that there’s a very sizable audience for live trivia shows. And Microsoft is in prime position to offer it. With Mixer as a streaming service and Project xCloud allowing people to essentially use their Xbox from mobile devices, most of the barriers to hosting a live event are eliminated.

This sounds like a matter of when rather than if. Spencer confirms that him and Xbox Game Studios head Matt Booty have brainstormed how something like this might work. He also says resurrecting this sort of trivia show “is something we’d love to do” and that he “suspect[s] you’ll see something from us in that space because I think it just should happen.”

Xbox exploring alternatives to 1 vs 100, says Phil Spencer [Stevivor]