Active Theory

20 Years
of Xbox
Museum

Entertainment / Webby Winner
Active Theory

Entertainment

"Our goal was to create a nostalgic user journey that was not only deep and meaningful to the faithful, but light enough for anyone to jump in and have an enjoyable experience." Active Theory
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Q: Can you describe your project and the concept behind it? A: To celebrate the 20th anniversary of Xbox, we created an immersive microverse featuring six 3D environments. Users explored together with real-time avatars, learned about the history of Xbox and generated their own personal museum using Microsoft account data. Our goal was to create a nostalgic user journey that was not only deep and meaningful to the faithful, but light enough for anyone to jump in and have an enjoyable experience.
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Q: What influenced your chosen technical approach, and how did it go beyond past methods? A: Early explorations started with a 2D timeline. While the UX made sense, this proved creatively limiting so we introduced Xbox to the idea of creating a microverse of connected 3D environments. Utilizing our Dreamwave technology, we were able to easily lay the foundations for an immersive 3D museum that would take users through the different generations of Xbox and even include a generative, personalized museum based on their Xbox account data.

When did you experience a breakthrough or an "a-ha" moment during this project?

The initial concept for the museum was to take users into each piece of hardware, with the gallery of each existing inside the console. When we created this in the build, we found it to feel cramped and the color palette lacked variation. A mid-project breakthrough moment was when we decided to shift the concept to include an expansive, multi-colored city backdrop surrounding the original console galleries.

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Q: What web technologies, tools, and resources did you use to develop this? A: One of our biggest achievements at Active Theory has been the launch of our immersive events platform, Dreamwave. Dreamwave allows us to construct custom, digital environments where brands host virtual experiences that connect, educate and entertain. Shifting from a timeline design to an immersive, game-like experience — powered by Dreamwave — really matched the Xbox ethos and helped elevate the project.
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Q: How did you balance your own creative ideas and technical capabilities with a fair representation of the client’s brand? A: An immense amount of content was on display in the museum. To help provide recommendations on how to curate the galleries, we undertook a huge collaborative effort with the Xbox team diving into historic content over the years. We laid this out in a series of FigJam boards and culled down the list to those historical moments that felt most essential.
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Q: How did the final product meet or exceed your expectations? A: The site went live in November 2021 and was immediately picked up on social media and in the press. Using the shareable web link, Twitch streamers invited fans into their personal museums to hang out, and thousands of fans logged in to learn about their Xbox story. The 20 Years of Xbox Museum embodies so many of the reasons we love to build creative experiences on the web. It’s accessible. It’s shareable. It’s easy to use. It’s fun.