From Midway to Xbox, The story of Seamus Blackley

Matey-O writes: "Red Herring has an interesting look at Seamus Blackley, the Man behind the Xbox, and what it took to bring the console to market." I like that this article points out the risks that Microsoft took by trying to enter a field with very established competition (and with mixed results, so far).

Comments

wanna know why the xbox sux overseas?

[paradesign]

THERES NO ARCADE UNIT!

Sony has a machine, Sega has several machines, Nintendo is working on one but needs one less so than M$ does.

Japanese gamers live in the arcade, thas why the strange (to us) puzzle games go over so well over there, because there in the arcade. Who is going to buy a 300 dollar console without ever playing it before? I didnt buy my dreamcast until i played several hits in the arcade. (dc is still better than anyhting)

M$ needs to realize that theyre not marketing to PCGAMER anymore. Halo is not a killer app, not by a long shot!

Very interesting...

[nougatmachine]

This was a very well-written article, and I loved the way it portrayed all the insane work, struggle, and worry that goes into the creation of a game console. But at the same time, it reminded me why I've always been a Nintendo man.

Pay careful attention to the part of the article where it describes the Xbox team versus the WebTV team vying for the support of Bill Gates, and notice the tactic which was used to convince Gates that Xbox was a worthwhile venture: "Bill, if we don't go forward with this, Sony will wipe out any hopes of a consumer presence," is the basic gist of it.

Ah, Microsoft. Once again they demonstrate their ability to thrust themselves into a market based on paranoia. Xbox fans, take note: if not for Sony, there would be no Xbox. Hopefully my geekiness isn't getting too extravagant because I have a sense of smugness over having bought a Gamecube. I feel that way because Nintendo doesn't see the Gamecube as a trojan horse to take over my living room's connectivity.

Re:"...box that didn't run windows"

[Alien54]

I wonder about this quote then:

Many of the Xbox team's original ideas were tossed aside, including the team's proposal that the Xbox run Microsoft's Windows operating system. Upon hearing this, Mr. Gates blew his top. But he eventually saw that Windows would only get in the way of developers creating great games.

Re:"Everything went great until it looked like...

[Matey-O]

If it was the presentation _I've_ seen Blackley put on, it wasn't an accident. He demoed NFL 2k2, then pause the playback, zoomed in on the football in mid flight, and commented that the texturemap for the football ALONE was larger than the entire video memory for the Gamecube.