An interesting look at how projects evolve inside a company like Microsoft and how that evolution effects subsequent strategy. It makes an interesting point of comparison for similar projects in other companies.

A good look at how Microsoft is responding to the question of games and the gaming industry.

What the book is not:

Particularly well-written, at least in my opinion. The writing felt clunky, too much like an extended magazine article and not enough like a book.

Well documented. I expected more than interviews and anecdotal evidence.


Good, fast, easy read of the xbox creation story   January 2, 2004
 5 out of 6 found this review helpful

The video game industry is quickly become a monster of a market into today's economy. This book is a good introduction to the internal organizational politics that occurs. I believe the author has used several themes to highlight the story of how Microsoft created the Xbox.

1. Innovation. This is always a topic for business stories. The book does an excellent job on describing the (almost) day to day activities that an internal, subversive group within Microsoft that hatched the idea for a game console.

2. Corporate culture. Microsoft has been accused of having a insular culture that prohibits risk-taking activities. I think in the Windows Operating System group this might be true. But Microsoft's game console strategy was one of new entrant. Sony, Sega, and Nintendo were the heavyweights. It was interesting to read how Microsoft approached the market by listening to game developers and gamers needs. They outlined a strategy that highlighted several competitive elements that the other, more entrench firms ignored.

3. Overview of Game Culture. The author is a well-known journalist that has been covering the game industry for years. There are some great insights on the industry's perks and unique charactistics. The Japanese game culture is much more highly developed vs. the American. The demographics are very selected in the US -- 18 to 26 males. Microsoft, as part of its initial console strategy, aimed to enlarge this demographic to include woman and older men.

Yet I have several misgivings about this book.

1. There aren't any reproduced internal memos, white papers, or notes that made up the effort to create the console. We are only shown photos of Microsoft employees. It would have been nice to see actual artifacts.

2. The reading sometimes is too easy. The author, of course, is a journalist. It is by far an unscholarly text.


NonInteresting   May 15, 2003
 14 out of 50 found this review helpful

Thought the book talked about the technical aspects of the XBOX.
It did not! It gave a boring historical time line of how the idea of the xbox started and nothing more. Alot of words about nothing of interest. No pictures or diagrams of the XBOX, in or out. It explained nothing at all about how it worked!
If you like history buy the book, but if you want information, look elsewhere.