This book began when I was updating my game history book High Score Expanded. I called Ed Fries, former head of Microsoft’s game division and asked him about the real story of Xbox. That’s where it began. Ed steered me to Otto Berkes and Ted Hase. I followed the trail, which led to a years-long effort and a two-volume story based in large part on interviews with 93 people, all of whom had played a role in the long road to Xbox and the promotion, approval, and ultimate launch of Xbox and Xbox Live. This is the Xbox part of the story. Volume 2 contains the prehistory, or as I like to call it, “The Prequel.”
Just So
When I was young, I remember reading Rudyard Kipling’s Just So Stories. Like How the Camel Got His Hump, How the Leopard Got His Spots, How the Elephant Got His Trunk. You might think of this book as How Microsoft Got Its Console.
In a very real sense, I’m beginning this book at a crucial moment of an ongoing story. I chronicle the long road taken to this point in Game of X v.2: Prequel, which is full of stories about people and events, technology and company culture, accidental successes and colossal failures. It’s a look at the DOS and early Windows era as seen by the 40-plus people I interviewed for that book alone. And in the end, that road leads to this moment, a moment of relative calm and quiet at Microsoft. It comes after the initial furor over the Department of Justice anti-trust actions and after years of controversy over graphics standards has blown into a war of words and recriminations. It comes after the departure of one of the most outrageous, polarizing, controversial, and effective figures in Microsoft’s history. When Alex St. John was finally fired, his talent for disruption left with him. But a little of it remained, and as we’ll see, not everyone was willing to go back to “normal” at Microsoft. There was more disruption to come, and it started with a couple of guys talking in the hallway.
Online Appendix
For the fullest enjoyment of this book, we recommend exploring the extensive Appendix compiled for this book, with many original documents and further technical details online at https://www.crcpress.com/9781138350168.