So this is the prequel to Game of X v.1, which is focused entirely on Xbox and Xbox Live. Believing that more people would be interested in the Xbox story, I made that the first of two volumes; however, I also believe in the power and entertainment value of the stories in this book, Game of X v. 2. I hope you have enjoyed it as much as I enjoyed researching and writing it.
• I chose to focus on Microsoft as a game company, but also, to some degree, remained focused on how the events depicted in this volume led to Xbox.
• I chose to speak to as many people as I could find who would talk to me, to tell the many stories that made up the whole; many stories with many actors instead of singular story with fewer actors. Clearly, one person—Alex St. John—has an enormous presence in this book. He spent many hours working with me, reading manuscripts, and providing additional insight. In hindsight, I think Alex was able to see his history anew and provide perspective, not only on his adventures and antics, his successes and catastrophes, but also on the often chaotic and always evolving organism he infected for so many years with his disruptive, driven, and ultimately highly impactful career at Microsoft.
• As much as possible, I used people’s own words, their language, their expressions because I enjoy language and the way individuals express themselves. I wanted not only to tell stories, but to reveal something about culture and life at Microsoft over the years. Something about the strategies of massive companies doing business and competing against other massive companies—and against just about everyone, including their own internal groups.
• As much as possible, I used original source documents and included many of them in the chapters or the Appendix.
I hope you enjoyed the book, the stories, the people. I thoroughly enjoyed researching and writing it.
-Rusel DeMaria