While he was Head of Game Development at Nintendo, Ken Lobb had a secret. When he got home at night, he was playing Xbox. His interest in Microsoft’s debut console was due to the power and ease of development for the system, as well as his familiarity with Rare Game Studios.

While at lunch with a friend, Ken was told that he should work for Xbox. When Ken told his friend he was happy where he was, the friend encouraged him to talk to Ed Fries, the head of Xbox. Because of the recent retirement of President of Nintendo of America Minoru Arakawa, Lobb stated,

“It wasn’t that hard for Ed to convince me that I should come over.”