Book Review: Inside "The Xbox 360 Uncloaked"

There comes a point in Dean Takahashi's new book about Microsoft's latest game console, "The Xbox 360 Uncloaked," where the direction-and perhaps the future- of the entire Xbox business appeared to be in doubt.

The software giant had pumped in massive amounts of manpower, intellect and cash - reportedly close to $4 billion - into its gaming project to produce the original Xbox. However, despite its trend-setting Xbox Live service, the console lost on two fronts: first, Sony's PlayStation 2 sold100-million units compared to a mere 25-million units in Xbox sales. Second, because Microsoft never got the manufacturing costs for the console down to a suitable level, the company lost money every time it sold an Xbox. Indeed, even when Xbox won, it lost.

Now, Microsoft was losing its brain trust, too. The last of the four original Xbox co-creators, Seamus Blackley, left Microsoft unexpectedly in the spring of 2002 (Kevin Bachus left Microsoft altogether, while Otto Berkes and Ted Hase departed the Xbox division and moved back to the Windows unit) while other lesser-known but still important figures also jumped ship.

But as Takahashi writes in Chapter 1, "success is a relative thing." The original Xbox was able to surpass Nintendo as the number-two console and established itself as a serious player with Xbox Live and the best-selling Halo game franchise. In contrast to Sony, it was tough to consider Xbox a success, but Microsoft had in fact succeeded in creating a viable gaming business that had serious potential. And the Microsoft executives who remained with Xbox decided that the next console would be where the Xbox would take the business to the next level.

"Uncloaked," available now from SpiderWorks Press, presents evidence to the theory that Microsoft is at its best when the adversity meter is at its highest point. I interviewed Takahashi recently about his new book and, in fact, he believes Microsoft never wavered on its commitment to Xbox once the company leadership had given the gaming business the green light. While things appeared bleak for Xbox a few years ago, Microsoft rallied and ended up launching its console a full year ahead of Sony and Nintendo.

Instead of being a book about the making of a video game system, "Uncloaked" is about the creative process at the world's largest software company as Microsoft looks to dominate a new market. No only does Takahashi trace the engineering and design decisions for 360, but the author also probes the internal politics at Microsoft and the fascinating, yet complicated Xbox brain trust.