Creating 360

Dean Takahashi

"Uncloaked" offers rich details of the 360's development from start to finish. For example, Takahashi offers everything you would ever want to know about the naming process for the next-generation console, from its internal code-name "Trinity" from "The Matrix" movies (which was later dumped because another Microsoft project had already laid claim to it) to the final name of 360 (With PlayStation 3 coming out, Microsoft decided that going with "Xbox 2" would give people the impression it was a generation behind Sony).

According to Takahashi, who is also a staff writer at The San Jose Mercury-News, Microsoft's sense of urgency for round two of the console wars began in 2001, six months before the original Xbox launched. Sony then announced it would make a $400-million, five-year investment with IBM and Toshiba to create the Cell microprocessor for PlayStation 3.

Thus, Microsoft charged into production for 360 with an obsession to take down Sony, just as it had brought down Netscape in the browser wars. While the Xbox team's goal was to match Sony's release date for PS3 and avoid launching 360 second, the company never intended to beat out its two primary rivals by a full year. As Takahashi points out in the book, Microsoft was accidentally brilliant in many aspects of 360's creation.

The book is chock full of some surprising revelations that shed light on the conflict, talent and passion that went into creating Microsoft's gaming business. For example, Takahashi shows just how close Microsoft came to rushing Halo 2 out the door before it was ready and thus ruining the long-awaited sequel and golden goose franchise. Had it not been for Ed Fries, then head of game development for Xbox, and his staunch commitment to giving the Halo developers the required time to make a great sequel, the popular franchise could have been damaged beyond repair, which could have led to Microsoft coming up short against Nintendo and being a distant third in the console war. Fries, however, left Microsoft in early 2004 after his Pyrrhic victory with Halo 2.

Another surprising section details how several key members of the WebTV development team joined the Xbox division after Microsoft's failed Ultimate TV digital video recorder project in 2002, and then took a lead role in the creation of Xbox 360 and its complex hardware designs. The book also details the dramatic friction between Microsoft and third-party partners such as Nvidia, which led to the software company's selection of ATI's graphics chip for the 360; Microsoft's plans to create a handheld console and a behind-the-scenes look at the ambitious Xbox 360 launch in the Mojave Desert.