Xbox, every mention

Microsoft Volume II: The Complete History and Strategy of the Ballmer Years (Audio) · Acquired Jul 22, 2024 · 26 mentions

• ▶ 0:51 Ben Gilbert The Internet, Windows XP, Xbox, the browser, search, and mobile.
• ▶ 1:54:26 David Rosenthal So these three-year agreements that you're talking about, Ben, and that covered Windows, that covered Office, that covered all the products that Microsoft offered except, like, Xbox.
• ▶ 2:07:56 David Rosenthal Certain Microsoft fans have probably been listening to this episode and gripping their phones with all their strength, like, when are you gonna talk about Xbox?
• ▶ 2:08:05 David Rosenthal We're gonna talk about Xbox briefly right now.
• ▶ 2:08:08 David Rosenthal We will do a whole nother episode on Xbox someday.
• ▶ 2:08:14 David Rosenthal My case is I love my Xbox, so.
• ▶ 2:08:18 Ben Gilbert Well, it's important to know Microsoft didn't start in gaming with the Xbox.
• ▶ 2:08:34 Ben Gilbert Amazing piece of technology, put Microsoft on the map, and you have the whole rise in PC gaming for the next six years, even before the Xbox.
• ▶ 2:09:19 David Rosenthal Huge story to tell another day, but you're right, that leads into Xbox and Microsoft's entry into the home console.
• ▶ 2:10:02 Ben Gilbert Ok, while we're in Xbox land, should we finish our Xboxiness right now for this episode?
• ▶ 2:10:08 Ben Gilbert Xbox has become an important part of our world.
• ▶ 2:10:16 Ben Gilbert David and I sort of heard people utter things in our research, like Xbox has kind of been a lifetime breakeven business, or it's never meaningfully contributed to Microsoft.
• ▶ 2:10:55 Ben Gilbert So this is five years after the Xbox has come out, loss making.
• ▶ 2:11:10 David Rosenthal Yeah, as three 60 is, yeah, coming into.
• ▶ 2:12:46 Ben Gilbert If I had to make the case of why Xbox has been somewhat of a folly,
• ▶ 2:12:53 Ben Gilbert It would be, there was a lot of Microsoft's best people worked on Xbox.
• ▶ 2:13:00 Ben Gilbert This is a group of people that went and created Xbox Live that by 20 12 had forty million subscribers.
• ▶ 2:13:13 Ben Gilbert The aesthetics of Xbox from a physical perspective, but also the software.
• ▶ 2:13:27 Ben Gilbert The culture at Xbox was so hard driving to produce, at least in this point in history, up to the 2010 time frame, very little in the way of contributing to Microsoft's business, but soaking up a huge amount of the talent.
• ▶ 2:13:50 David Rosenthal I think Xbox Live is debatable.
• ▶ 2:13:56 David Rosenthal Xbox Live was one of the original pioneering internet services, subscription services, across any category of software and technology, and the DNA and experience that Microsoft built from that served it extremely well.
• ▶ 2:43:45 David Rosenthal We may or may not do an episode on Xbox someday, Ben, that's for Ben and I to discuss, you know, privately for parents to discuss after the kids go to bed, but we're definitely going to do an episode on Google.
• ▶ 2:52:10 Ben Gilbert So you've got Xbox Live, where they have forty million users,
• ▶ 3:04:04 Ben Gilbert They were all over an Xbox.
• ▶ 3:52:46 Ben Gilbert Xbox Live was a always on cloud service, real time, zero latency with forty million subscribers.
• ▶ 4:18:40 Ben Gilbert And they did make some good, you know, Xbox is good.