Rating: 
Summary: An average biography with some interesting insights
Review: After reading books like Renegades of the Empire, Hackers, and Infinite Loop, I found Opening the Xbox to be merely an average book chronicling the history of a piece of technology. The author tended to repeat himself and jump around without any good transitions. One paragraph would be about cracking the japanese market and the next would be on something totally different.
There was some interesting information here but it too often seemed like a list of names without context joining them together. My other complaint is that the author seemed more interested in telling us about irrelevant side stories like people jumping in an elevator than about the xbox itself.
Rating:
Summary: An average biography with some interesting insights
Review: After reading books like Renegades of the Empire, Hackers, and Infinite Loop, I found Opening the Xbox to be merely an average book chronicling the history of a piece of technology. The author tended to repeat himself and jump around without any good transitions. One paragraph would be about cracking the japanese market and the next would be on something totally different.
There was some interesting information here but it too often seemed like a list of names without context joining them together. My other complaint is that the author seemed more interested in telling us about irrelevant side stories like people jumping in an elevator than about the xbox itself.
Rating: 
Summary: Informative yet riveting story...
Review: Dean does a wonderful job of telling the fascinating story of the x-box from beginning to end while keeping the reader excited. I also liked the amount of detail the book went into and how it really makes the reader feel as if they understand the key characters in the x-box's development.
Rating:
Summary: Unprecedented Access
Review: Dean Takahashi is quite possibly the finest reporter ever to dive into the video game arena. He has a shrewd understanding of the financial arena, does not take surface answers seriously, and digs. He is also a fine writer. And all of this is apparent in "Opening the Xbox," the deepest and best coverage ever dedicated to a single game console. I have always belonged to the "Phoenix," "Ultimate History of Video Games," "Supercade," "Arcade Fever" school of game coverage--these volumes seem dedicated to the idea that the book format is so vast that you need to cover the entire industry in it. David Sheff bucked that trend with "Game Over," dedicating an entire book to the history of Nintendo with exemplary results. Then Takahashi comes along and does an entire book on one console--ONE CONSOLE! The result is real depth. "Opening the Xbox" does a great job of capturing the intrigue and excitement of Microsoft's boardrooms. Takahashi takes more than a fly-on-the-wall approach here, he is a genuine fixture--he is pervasive, making everybody explain what they did and why they did it. "Opening the Xbox" offers a most thorough picture of the inside decision making process for one small segment of gaming; and doing so, it offers a big-picture view for any company in an analogous situation.
Rating:
Summary: A great glimpse of the video game industry.
Review: I don't like Microsoft. In fact, I bought a PS 2 just to spite them. But, I couldn't put this book down in the bookstore. The reader gets rare glimpes of the decision making processes for Microsoft, Sony, and Nintendo. The book provides good information on the specifications and history for all 3 systems. The book also gives good insight into the developer's point of view as well. The personalities of the people involved are very interesting, especially the ones from Microsoft. It's one of the best books I've read in a while. I found it very entertaining and informative.
Rating: 
Summary: The only good thing to come from the Xbox.
Review: I'll be straight about it. I think the Xbox is a joke. It has only survived this long because of Microsoft's deep pockets and commitment to monopolistic behavior. It's pretty certain that if the Xbox ever dominates the gaming industry, all the progress we've seen from gaming would come to a grinding halt. For example, what's the difference between Windows 95 and Me, IE 2.0 and IE 6.0, Office 95 and 2000? You see my point. Now that I've got my technological, economic, and philosophical rant out of the way, on to the book. The bad part of this book is that at some points, it's almost an advertisement for the Xbox. The other parts, however, are great. Takahashi gives unprecedented access to the creation of the Xbox. Not just technically, but in terms of finances, company wide politics, relationships with vendors, and a look into the people who developed it. Granted, this in not much a video console book as much as it is a business incubation study. That's what is really pleasing about it. It just happened to be that a video game console is one of the more interesting products to develop. This is well written, the language is fluid, and it's all encompassing. It goes from how one man made a terrible game, then combined with a few other friends to make a console. It goes through its battle within Microsoft, from finding a good economic model, to fighting off the WebTV department. It then delves into supplier issues, game development issues. It ends up with the marketing and development of the game console itself. All the while probing the lives and histories of people involved. The only other problem besides the pro Xbox feel was that chronologically, Takahashi tends to skip around a bit, resulting in confusion as certain points. Other than that, I wholeheartedly recommend this book.
Rating:
Summary: The only good thing to come from the Xbox.
Review: I'll be straight about it. I think the Xbox is a joke. It has only survived this long because of Microsoft's deep pockets and commitment to monopolistic behavior. It's pretty certain that if the Xbox ever dominates the gaming industry, all the progress we've seen from gaming would come to a grinding halt. For example, what's the difference between Windows 95 and Me, IE 2.0 and IE 6.0, Office 95 and 2000? You see my point. Now that I've got my technological, economic, and philosophical rant out of the way, on to the book. The bad part of this book is that at some points, it's almost an advertisement for the Xbox. The other parts, however, are great. Takahashi gives unprecedented access to the creation of the Xbox. Not just technically, but in terms of finances, company wide politics, relationships with vendors, and a look into the people who developed it. Granted, this in not much a video console book as much as it is a business incubation study. That's what is really pleasing about it. It just happened to be that a video game console is one of the more interesting products to develop. This is well written, the language is fluid, and it's all encompassing. It goes from how one man made a terrible game, then combined with a few other friends to make a console. It goes through its battle within Microsoft, from finding a good economic model, to fighting off the WebTV department. It then delves into supplier issues, game development issues. It ends up with the marketing and development of the game console itself. All the while probing the lives and histories of people involved. The only other problem besides the pro Xbox feel was that chronologically, Takahashi tends to skip around a bit, resulting in confusion as certain points. Other than that, I wholeheartedly recommend this book.
Rating:
Summary: Terrific Book for Anyone in the Business of Technology
Review: One only has to read Dean Takahashi's excellent work between the covers of Red Herring to know that he's plugged into the game industry in a way very few journalists are. He puts his considerable industry knowledge to good use in Opening the Xbox.
Microsoft receives more than its fair share of analysis and it's refreshing to read something about the workings of the company that isn't mere speculation. From "The Valentine's Day Massacre" to absinthe laced parties with game developers - it's all here. Mr. Takahashi was granted access to the people and the process and shares it with us in a way that keeps you turning pages.
The Xbox may very well be the biggest boondoggle in Microsoft's history and Opening the Xbox continues to show it's relevance in light of Microsoft's recently announced plans for "Freon." Read the book as an excellent case study in technology management or as a tell all featuring many of Microsoft's biggest players. Its well worth your time.
Rating:
Summary: Good, fast, easy read of the xbox creation story
Review: The video game industry is quickly become a monster of a market into today's economy. This book is a good introduction to the internal organizational politics that occurs. I believe the author has used several themes to highlight the story of how Microsoft created the Xbox. 1. Innovation. This is always a topic for business stories. The book does an excellent job on describing the (almost) day to day activities that an internal, subversive group within Microsoft that hatched the idea for a game console. 2. Corporate culture. Microsoft has been accused of having a insular culture that prohibits risk-taking activities. I think in the Windows Operating System group this might be true. But Microsoft's game console strategy was one of new entrant. Sony, Sega, and Nintendo were the heavyweights. It was interesting to read how Microsoft approached the market by listening to game developers and gamers needs. They outlined a strategy that highlighted several competitive elements that the other, more entrench firms ignored. 3. Overview of Game Culture. The author is a well-known journalist that has been covering the game industry for years. There are some great insights on the industry's perks and unique charactistics. The Japanese game culture is much more highly developed vs. the American. The demographics are very selected in the US -- 18 to 26 males. Microsoft, as part of its initial console strategy, aimed to enlarge this demographic to include woman and older men. Yet I have several misgivings about this book. 1. There aren't any reproduced internal memos, white papers, or notes that made up the effort to create the console. We are only shown photos of Microsoft employees. It would have been nice to see actual artifacts. 2. The reading sometimes is too easy. The author, of course, is a journalist. It is by far an unscholarly text.
Rating:
Summary: A good authorised biography
Review: This book is well worth reading, but it is not spectacular. It is interesting to note that Microsoft got Mr Takahashi to write the book. They clearly believe that the Xbox is something spectacular.
The book is the usual business profile project creation book. It has the obligatory references to The Soul of a New Machine and lots of resume-like bios of the main characters involved in the Xbox saga. However, the book is well written and does have a number of insights into how capable the people are at MS, how well and with what determination they look at both the business case and the technology they can build.
The book also has a lot of interesting anecdotes about how the web tv project and the Xbox interacted and about Microsofts possible purchases of other games companies.
The one area where the book could be better is by including more discussion about the Xbox's actual technology, but this would have required a more technical writer and would be for a much more limited audience.
All in all, a well recommended good read.
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