Discussion

• @dinabass Dina Bass on x

  20 years ago today, Bill Gates and The Rock traded wrestling catchphrases over a newly unveiled Xbox at CES. I spoke to two dozen key Xbox figures for an oral history on how Microsoft became an unlikely console powerhouse: https://www.bloomberg.com/...

• @dinabass Dina Bass on x

  By Feb 2000, Gates was to announce Xbox at the March Game Developers Conference, but a meeting made it clear he wasn't on board. “Bill throws the PowerPoint deck down on the table and says, “This is a fucking insult to everything I've accomplished at this company” says @Ed_Fries

• @thirdworldgamer Lirpa on x

  A fantastic article on how the Xbox came to be. Interesting to see how Sony was seen as a threat and how they even went to Nintendo and offered to make hardware. They even tried to buy Square Enix! It's a must-read for any Xbox fan. https://www.bloomberg.com/...

• @6d6f636869 Takashi Mochizuki on x

  Great story by @dinabass. “Steve made us go meet with Nintendo to see if they would consider being acquired. They just laughed their asses off. Like, imagine an hour of somebody just laughing at you. That was kind of how that meeting went.” https://www.bloomberg.com/...

• @bradstone Brad Stone on x

  Come for pics of the early-2000s fashion choices, stay for anecdotes like @Steven_Ballmer walking the Msft offices with a baseball bat. A wonderful oral history of the Xbox by @dinabass: https://www.bloomberg.com/... via @technology

• @jeffsand Jeff Sandquist on x

  20 years ago today, the first Xbox was unveiled. It was an incredible time to be a gamer working at Microsoft. I didn't work on the original Xbox. I participated in many employee only tests/betas. They were amazing, especially the Xbox Live internal beta. Thanks @SeamusBlackley h…

• @nickstatt Nick Statt on x

  Truly an amazing quote: “They just laughed their asses off,” Bachus told Bloomberg. “Like, imagine an hour of somebody just laughing at you. That was kind of how that meeting went.” Read the full Xbox oral history here: https://www.bloomberg.com/... https://twitter.com/...

• @swiftonsecurity @swiftonsecurity on x

  In my hands is a signed Xbox 360. Looking up, Bill Gates is smiling at me. Everybody at Best Buy is smiling. I take off my Oculus. I am back in the retirement home. Nobody has visited me for 12 years. I put back on the Oculus. I hold the Xbox. Everybody in Best Buy is smiling. ht…

• @jasonschreier Jason Schreier on x

  “Steve made us go meet with Nintendo to see if they would consider being acquired. They just laughed their asses off. Like, imagine an hour of somebody just laughing at you. That was kind of how that meeting went.” Oral history of the Xbox by @dinabass: https://www.bloomberg.com/…

• @tomwarren Tom Warren on x

  This quote makes me chuckle. Bill Gates was famously unhappy that Xbox didn't run Windows. A nice look back at how the original Xbox launched 20 years ago this year https://www.bloomberg.com/... https://twitter.com/...

• @newsynick Nick Turner on x

  Fascinating oral history of the Xbox, an iconic product that almost didn't happen. “This is a f—ing insult to everything I've accomplished at this company.” https://www.bloomberg.com/... via @dinabass

• @markmilian Mark Milian on x

  The Xbox was unveiled 20 years ago today. Here in this oral history, the original team recounts how it almost didn't happen https://www.bloomberg.com/...

• @bdsams Brad Sams on x

  EA being a holdout for downloadable content is hilarious in hindsight. Solid writeup by @dinabass about the launch of the Xbox 20 yrs ago - https://www.bloomberg.com/... https://twitter.com/...

• @inafried Ina Fried on x

  Check out this piece of in-depth reporting from the fabulous @dinabass on the history of the original Xbox. https://www.bloomberg.com/...

• @dinabass Dina Bass on x

  Hardware chief Rick Thompson in mid-99 had turned down an ask to head the project..."The next day, Ballmer showed up in my office with a baseball bat in his hand, literally, and told me that this is what I was going to do," Thomson says