The Making of a Bad-Ass Machine

by Dean Takahashi

This book comes on the 10th anniversary of the launch of Microsoft’s Xbox video game console, which debuted Nov. 15, 2001. This history follows the Xbox from conception to launch, and then from launch through today.

53 pages, Kindle Edition

First published December 8, 2011

About the author

Dean Takahashi is a writer for VentureBeat. Prior to his currrent job, he was the Tech Talk Columnist at the San Jose Mercury News, where he wrote gadget reviews and opinion pieces on technology in Silicon Valley. He also wrote the Dean & Nooch on Gaming and Tech Talk blogs and did a regular video podcast on gaming. He has been a journalist for 20 years, most of it covering technology business news. Before he joined the Mercury News in 2002, he was a senior writer at the Red Herring magazine from 2000 to 2002. Before that, he was a staff writer in the San Francisco office of the Wall Street Journal from 1996 to 2000. His first job at the Mercury News was as a chip industry reporter from 1994 to 1996. Before that, he worked at the Los Angeles Times Orange County Edition, the Orange County Register, and the Dallas Times Herald. He has a master's degree in journalism from Northwestern University (1987) and a bachelor's degree in English from UC Berkeley (1986). He is the author of two books, "The Xbox 360 Uncloaked" published in 2006 and "Opening the Xbox" published in 2002. He lives in the suburbs of San Jose and is an avid gamer. His favorite game is Halo.

Reviews

[David · Rating 4 out of 5]

Dean Takahashi is a reporter's reporter. He's also a machine. I (humbly) hold my work ethic in high regard, but Takahashi's output is positively prodigious, and he combines quality research and writing with the sheer quantity of his words.

Case in point: XBOX: THE MAKING OF A BAD-ASS MACHINE is his second book on Microsoft's debut console and its follow-up, the Xbox 360. At roughly 120 pages, it's sort of an abridged version of his first book, UNCOVERING THE XBOX, published in 2011 in celebration of the Xbox's 10-year anniversary.

Just because BAD-ASS is abridged doesn't mean Takahashi skimps on details. Think of it as a just-the-facts account. It moves at breakneck speed, introducing you to all the major players in and out of Microsoft that made the Windows company's console bid successful. The second half of the book goes into detail on the Xbox 360's highs and lows, succinctly capturing what made the 360 a success (its influence on popular media and dominance in the living room) and its failures (the "Red Ring of Death" hardware failure that made the 360 as much of a failure in the eyes of many as it was a commercial success).

I picked up BAD-ASS for research into a book I'm writing, and will be reading UNCOVERING THE XBOX later this year. I started with BAD-ASS because I wanted a concise overview. Takahashi provided that and much more. UNCOVERING is hard to find--I believe it's out of print--but BAD-ASS is three bucks for Kindle, and money well spent.