Aug. 1 (Xinhua) — Today, Microsoft’s game console Xbox business has annual revenue of $16 billion. When this product was still a concept, it was almost killed in the cradle by Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates (Bill Gates). At a meeting of Microsoft executives before the Xbox’s launch, Gates tried to prevent the project from moving forward.
Xbox game console co-founder Ed Fries (Ed Fries) revealed that at a meeting 18 months before the launch of the Xbox, Fries and his team showed Gates and Microsoft co-founder Steve Ballmer a “personal computer” very similar to The idea of a video game console. Another team wanted to make the Xbox a traditional game console, rather than running on Windows.
When he learned that the console would not run on Windows, Gates was so upset that he almost canceled the Xbox project. Gates said the launch of the Xbox console without Windows was an “insult” to everything he had done at Microsoft.
Ballmer, on the other hand, expressed concern about abandoning a project that had already cost so much money.
Frys said that because the rival Sony was mentioned in the meeting, it allowed Microsoft executives to reach a consensus and bring the Xbox to market. It was mentioned that Sony has the potential to become a competitor to Microsoft and that it is becoming more and more influential in the home entertainment space. After mentioning Sony, Gates and Ballmer signed a release agreement for the Xbox.
Last fiscal year, Microsoft Xbox revenue reached a record $16.28 billion, up 17 percent year-over-year, with content and services revenue up 8.8 percent and hardware-related revenue up 63.3 percent year-over-year.
The Xbox game console was released on November 15, 2001, sparking fierce competition between Microsoft and Sony. The initial Xbox sold over 24 million units, and the Xbox 360, released in 2005, did much better, selling over 80 million units.
It’s hard to imagine how Microsoft would have done without the Xbox. If no one had mentioned Sony and its potential dominance of the console and home entertainment market, the Xbox might never have emerged.
