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Opening the Xbox: Inside Microsoft's Plan to Unleash an Entertainment Revolution
The video game industry is expected to double in sales over the next five years. It has already eclipsed motion pictures to become one of the largest and fastest growing markets in history and a lamplight illuminating where the future of entertainment is headed. In an effort to grab a chunk of that market, Microsoft—an absolute newcomer to the gaming industry—has put billions of dollars on the line in a gamble to build the fastest, most mature, most advanced video game console ever: the Xbox. Is this new Microsoft venture just another experiment that, like WebTV, was launched to much fanfare but will be quickly forgotten? Or will it become the next Windows, finding its way into the homes and lives of millions of people around the world?
In Opening the Xbox, award-winning journalist and gaming-industry expert Dean Takahashi guides you deep into the amazing story of this much-anticipated game console. Through exclusive interviews with top executives at Microsoft, exhaustive research, and a penetrating investigation, he unveils the tumultuous story behind the development of the project and how it could change the entertainment industry forever. Inside, you'll discover that what started as Project Midway, spearheaded by Jonathan "Seamus" Blackley and three of his renegade cohorts, turned into Xbox—a multibillion-dollar enterprise that became Microsoft's largest internal startup ever and a personal pet project of Bill Gates. The colorful infighting, the cutthroat tactics used to lure partners, and the race to vanquish bitter rivals Sony and Nintendo are all laid bare in this unvarnished, high-tech drama. It's a story like no other, full of heroes and villains, plot twists and intrigue—all before the backdrop of Microsoft's grand ambition to move from the office into the living room.
If you're like the millions of gamers, investors, and business spectators who anxiously anticipated the Xbox, then you don't want to miss the explosive, exclusive, behind-the-scenes story in Opening the Xbox.
In Opening the Xbox, award-winning journalist and gaming-industry expert Dean Takahashi guides you deep into the amazing story of this much-anticipated game console. Through exclusive interviews with top executives at Microsoft, exhaustive research, and a penetrating investigation, he unveils the tumultuous story behind the development of the project and how it could change the entertainment industry forever. Inside, you'll discover that what started as Project Midway, spearheaded by Jonathan "Seamus" Blackley and three of his renegade cohorts, turned into Xbox—a multibillion-dollar enterprise that became Microsoft's largest internal startup ever and a personal pet project of Bill Gates. The colorful infighting, the cutthroat tactics used to lure partners, and the race to vanquish bitter rivals Sony and Nintendo are all laid bare in this unvarnished, high-tech drama. It's a story like no other, full of heroes and villains, plot twists and intrigue—all before the backdrop of Microsoft's grand ambition to move from the office into the living room.
If you're like the millions of gamers, investors, and business spectators who anxiously anticipated the Xbox, then you don't want to miss the explosive, exclusive, behind-the-scenes story in Opening the Xbox.
384 pages, Hardcover
First published April 23, 2002
3 people are currently reading
238 people want to read
About the author
Dean Takahashi
9 books26 followersDean Takahashi is a writer for VentureBeat. Prior to his currrent job, he was the Tech Talk Columnist at the San Jose Mercury News, where he wrote gadget reviews and opinion pieces on technology in Silicon Valley. He also wrote the Dean & Nooch on Gaming and Tech Talk blogs and did a regular video podcast on gaming. He has been a journalist for 20 years, most of it covering technology business news. Before he joined the Mercury News in 2002, he was a senior writer at the Red Herring magazine from 2000 to 2002. Before that, he was a staff writer in the San Francisco office of the Wall Street Journal from 1996 to 2000. His first job at the Mercury News was as a chip industry reporter from 1994 to 1996. Before that, he worked at the Los Angeles Times Orange County Edition, the Orange County Register, and the Dallas Times Herald. He has a master's degree in journalism from Northwestern University (1987) and a bachelor's degree in English from UC Berkeley (1986). He is the author of two books, "The Xbox 360 Uncloaked" published in 2006 and "Opening the Xbox" published in 2002. He lives in the suburbs of San Jose and is an avid gamer. His favorite game is Halo.
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Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews
August 30, 2020
OPENING THE XBOX is Dean Takahashi's first book and, by that logic, his first dive into Microsoft's original Xbox. He's written two: OPENING, and XBOX: THE MAKING OF A BAD-ASS MACHINE, which I reviewed earlier this year. I read both for research into my own book, and because I enjoy and admire Takahashi's reporting, writing, and work ethic.
The amount of research Takahashi conducted for OPENING is staggering, and doubly impressive since I believe he wrote this book in the late months of 2001 and early months of 2002--the launch of the Xbox and its first few months as a squalling newborn, respectively. From the tightly knit "renegades" who conceived of making a console by artists, for artists, to an opposing team of engineers who wanted to make their own box, to executives at Microsoft, NVIDIA, GigaPixel, and other companies whose fortunes rose and fell along with the Xbox team's, Takahashi interviewed extensively and pulled from numerous sources to write an exhaustive account of what goes into making a console.
Exhaustive, and entertaining and edifying. OPENING is as fun to read as it is informative. There are some weak spots, of course. Occasionally Takahashi relates anecdotes that don't seem connected to the story's main beats; some of these seeds bear fruit later, and some don't. He defines some jargon and names at odd moments, such as at his second or third instance of using them. The first half of the book can be vague at times, whereas some segments in the back half contain perhaps too much detail.
My biggest pet peeve is OPENING's "sexed-up" language. There's a tendency in games writing to punch up verbs and nouns two or three levels from where they need to be, as if the author fears that the subject matter isn't "cool" enough for some readers and wants to make things sound more hyper-intense and hyper-exciting than they really are. But this is Takahashi's first book, and I did this often enough in my early publishing endeavors (and still do, more than I care to admit).
There's also at least one glaring omission. I do not recall one mention of the Xbox's jumbo-sized "Duke" controller that shipped with the console in November 2001. The controller's heft and bulk was controversial within Microsoft, and press and critics jumped all over it. You either loved the Duke, or hated it. It was so divisive that Microsoft quickly released the "Controller S," initially conceived for the Japanese market, since the Japanese have smaller hands on average than Americans, but that soon became the default controller everywhere. I was quite surprised Takahashi neglected to mention this. Then again, he covers most other areas so comprehensively that one oversight can be forgiven.
None of these issues should detract from the enjoyment you'll find and information you'll glean from reading OPENING THE XBOX. Anyone curious about what goes into creating a console from conception to launch will appreciate this story.
The amount of research Takahashi conducted for OPENING is staggering, and doubly impressive since I believe he wrote this book in the late months of 2001 and early months of 2002--the launch of the Xbox and its first few months as a squalling newborn, respectively. From the tightly knit "renegades" who conceived of making a console by artists, for artists, to an opposing team of engineers who wanted to make their own box, to executives at Microsoft, NVIDIA, GigaPixel, and other companies whose fortunes rose and fell along with the Xbox team's, Takahashi interviewed extensively and pulled from numerous sources to write an exhaustive account of what goes into making a console.
Exhaustive, and entertaining and edifying. OPENING is as fun to read as it is informative. There are some weak spots, of course. Occasionally Takahashi relates anecdotes that don't seem connected to the story's main beats; some of these seeds bear fruit later, and some don't. He defines some jargon and names at odd moments, such as at his second or third instance of using them. The first half of the book can be vague at times, whereas some segments in the back half contain perhaps too much detail.
My biggest pet peeve is OPENING's "sexed-up" language. There's a tendency in games writing to punch up verbs and nouns two or three levels from where they need to be, as if the author fears that the subject matter isn't "cool" enough for some readers and wants to make things sound more hyper-intense and hyper-exciting than they really are. But this is Takahashi's first book, and I did this often enough in my early publishing endeavors (and still do, more than I care to admit).
There's also at least one glaring omission. I do not recall one mention of the Xbox's jumbo-sized "Duke" controller that shipped with the console in November 2001. The controller's heft and bulk was controversial within Microsoft, and press and critics jumped all over it. You either loved the Duke, or hated it. It was so divisive that Microsoft quickly released the "Controller S," initially conceived for the Japanese market, since the Japanese have smaller hands on average than Americans, but that soon became the default controller everywhere. I was quite surprised Takahashi neglected to mention this. Then again, he covers most other areas so comprehensively that one oversight can be forgiven.
None of these issues should detract from the enjoyment you'll find and information you'll glean from reading OPENING THE XBOX. Anyone curious about what goes into creating a console from conception to launch will appreciate this story.
October 12, 2007
Great book about how the xbox came to be. I learned a lot of new things. And I also learned a few things about why they did what they did with the 360 simply from mistakes they made with the first time around.
February 1, 2021
Interesting read that sheds light on the origins and stumbles of Microsoft foray into making their first console. While the story seems to center on Seamus Blackley, you get to see a number of personalities that influenced the console (many of whom were never given credit). Being an Xbox fan, it was fun to get a glimpse into the halls of Redmond during the efforts to enter this new industry. I particularly liked the visibility into Bill Gates input and thoughts, while Steve Balmer was noticeably absent for much of the book. An enjoyable read that may not be for everyone, but if you're a fan of the Xbox or just interested in the background of how businesses make big decisions and stumble on the way, it may be for you.
January 3, 2025
Reading through internet archive, no print edition available near me. I have read the other book about Xbox hardware foundation, and this one seems to be good. Going in the right direction.
January 17, 2013
I enjoyed reading this book. I can see it as a story of (first version of) xbox life time. It is organized well and I didn't feel distracted in following the book. Language of the book is clear and bit praising. However I felt few times that the author telling us stories which is not that important.
The book started from idea of manufacturing a game console by Microsoft, and to break the Japanese monopoly by Sony, Nintendo and Sega. That was not an easy task, it faced some difficulties and hassles. It started with internal challenge by the new formed Xbox team and WebTV team to take the task of making the Microsoft gaming console. The debate was to start working from the PC that Microsoft has more experience or WebTV that is more connected to the TV and home entertainment solutions. Then the author continue the story of the development of the Xbox and the challenges they met and design decisions they made. The book as I said tell us the story of Xbox with it's ups and downs from the idea till the lunch.
The book started from idea of manufacturing a game console by Microsoft, and to break the Japanese monopoly by Sony, Nintendo and Sega. That was not an easy task, it faced some difficulties and hassles. It started with internal challenge by the new formed Xbox team and WebTV team to take the task of making the Microsoft gaming console. The debate was to start working from the PC that Microsoft has more experience or WebTV that is more connected to the TV and home entertainment solutions. Then the author continue the story of the development of the Xbox and the challenges they met and design decisions they made. The book as I said tell us the story of Xbox with it's ups and downs from the idea till the lunch.
March 31, 2009
I really enjoyed reading this book to get an insight into how the Xbox started and the hurdles that Microsoft faced bringing a new console to a highly competitive market.
As with all biographical books, I take some of the more outrageous stories with a grain of salt, but it was a very entertaining read.
As with all biographical books, I take some of the more outrageous stories with a grain of salt, but it was a very entertaining read.
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December 24, 2009Recommended by Joel on Software
April 29, 2010
fan boy flavour
March 30, 2013
A should-read company profile for knowledge workers, managers, directors, C-levels, and entrepreneurs.
December 8, 2013
Very interesting details from original Xbox release and a lot of them I could personally draw parallel to Xbox One release.
April 13, 2015
The story of the creation of the Xbox is interesting enough to hold de book, but there are other books with similar stoyries that at much better...
September 20, 2016
A look behind the scenes in a way that tech companies don't really allow anymore
Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews