In 2001, Microsoft's first game console was launched, but this future mighty Xbox was almost stillborn that year.
The front of the people is bright and beautiful, and the people are full of hardships.
At that time, Microsoft was in the ascendant, but the development of Xbox was not smooth, and that little-known history was made by Microsoft into a 6-episode documentary dedicated to every engineer, developer and player who accompanied Xbox for 20 years.
In order to avoid large spoilers, I picked out a few Easter eggs worth talking about here, and if you are interested in reading the article, you may wish to go to Bilibili to search for "Boot: The Story of Xbox" to watch it yourself.
1. They wanted Nintendo to change its name to Microsoft
Microsoft in the 90s of the last century, relying on the Windows system, gradually grew into a huge business giant, and the Windows system could bring more than one billion yuan of profits to Microsoft every month.
At that time, Microsoft was unparalleled in the business field, but in the field of home entertainment, they did not have any right to speak, the company had a team called DirectX, they were responsible for graphics display interface engineering, they had a passion for games, they did not want to see Sony PlayStation occupy people's living rooms, so they also wanted to make a game console.
With this idea and a prototype that could be turned on in three seconds, the team persuaded the superiors, Bill Gates, Steve Ballmer, and finally won the budget.
After the idea was approved by the company's executives, the DirectX team's long march had just begun.
At that time, Microsoft was just a software company, and they knew hardware, and now it was easy for them to build a game console. A bold idea came to their minds: acquisitions.
They set their sights on Nintendo, but in the face of such a group of stunned youths, Miyamoto shigeru did not want to smash his job, and politely refused them at the first meeting.
The Imperial Three Houses almost don't count three.
2. Origin of the Xbox name
You might think that the xbox name is so cool, and it must have been the marketing department that decided to name it after countless brainstorming, and then it wasn't.
They initially wanted to name it DirectX box, but it was too long, so they omitted Xbox.
Sloppiness is really sloppy, and cool is really cool.
3. "Xbox Stole Windows"
The DirectX team lied a little in the process of convincing Bill Gates, and the reason why Gates agreed to let them build a host at an internal propaganda meeting was to continue to expand the influence of Windows and let Microsoft systems occupy the home living room market.
But the Xbox startup team didn't want to cram Windows 98 into a console, after all, no one wanted to sit on the living room couch and do PPT. It didn't work to get a good start on Windows, so they sneaked into the company one night three weeks before the release of the new Windows, stole the code for the new system, and then kept the necessary kernel on top of that, while the other features were as simple as possible.
Finally, I rushed to the product demo and made the Xbox system, but the result was that I was scolded by Gates.
4. Without Sony, there would be no Xbox
Just when everyone thought that the Xbox project would be rejected by Bill Gates and Steve Ballmer, Sony was mentioned again.
As the two most vocal people in the company, they are also reluctant to give up the game market to Sony and Nintendo. So, in the last five minutes of the meeting, the big guys agreed to the Xbox project.
5. Aura's Sergeant Major, Xbox's Savior
The Xbox team took the original Xbox to the May 2001 E3 Game Show, where they wanted to make a good first impression on players, but often the greater the hope, the greater the disappointment. Robbiebach, who was the head of the Xbox project at the time, pressed the power button on the machine at the E3 conference, and the machine did not respond.
Such an accident in the live demonstration session is fatal, which will undoubtedly affect the sales volume of the product when it is officially launched at the end of the year.
Fortunately, they have a hand, and the Xbox team members are veteran players with rich experience in gaming, and they know that without a good game, the most powerful game console is useless.
Microsoft and Bungie together to develop the "Halo" series, the graphics, action design, shooting feel are better than the same period of competition a lot, and this game is Xbox exclusive, players in order to play "Halo", selectively ignored Xbox in the E3 exhibition of the mess, have joined the Microsoft console camp.
The Sergeant Major saved humanity in the game and the Xbox in reality.
6. "Carton Coffin"
In June 2006, the second-generation Xbox console Xbox 360 had a wide range of player complaints, their console lit up three red lights, and could not enter the interface, this phenomenon by players and the media called "death three red", as long as the console lights up red, it declares that the machine is dead.
At that time, Microsoft announced that it would invest more than $1 billion to replace the machine for players for free, and they would send users a courier box so that they could return it. That courier box is jokingly called a "cardboard coffin" by the player.
7. Gears of War
Microsoft later found the crux of the death of the three reds, and replaced and repaired every player, but how to repair the lost confidence of players?
Lucky Microsoft once again ushered in the savior, War Machine. The game landed on the Xbox console platform in November 2006, and with excellent visuals, it achieved millions of sales within a few weeks of launch, and the Xbox console also slowly won back the reputation of users under the influence of a number of new games.
Microsoft used 6 episodes to review the important nodes in the development of Xbox, there are praises and self-criticism, it is worth taking a look at the small partners who are interested in the history of the development of the game.