Exclusive: The Xbox 360 Uncloaked - Page 8

But Microsoft stopped short of becoming a hardware company. It didn't need to turn itself into Sony in order to take on the Japanese electronics giant. Rather, Yang, Gibson and Holmdahl all saw a chance to outdo Sony with a hybrid model. They could use their internal expertise to get chip vendors to come up with a semi-custom design. That design would be tailored for the console market, but it could tap into the vast amount of engineering work that was already being done for the PC.
      "We built an overall business model for the entire Xbox 360 generation," Yang said.
      All of the decisions were contingent on just one decision: when was the console going to launch? By looking at the Cell project, Microsoft deduced that Sony would be able to launch a console as early as 2005. That determined the schedule for Microsoft's own console. From Steve Ballmer to Robbie Bach to J Allard, launching at the same time or earlier than Sony was an absolute requirement. If that didn't happen, all hope of gaining market share would be lost.
      "Before we had the conceptualization, the 2005 number was there. We said it was important for us to start the next generation of gaming in 2005," said Holmdahl.
      "Given that, how much time do we have?" Yang said. "We worked our way backward."
      It would take about two years to get everything critical done, from creating marquee games to designing semi-custom chips. That meant that everything critical had to get started by the fall of 2003. More time might even be necessary.
     
     
      1.Electronic Engineering Times, "Microsoft Bets On Xbox 360 To Beat Sony At Its Game," Nov. 14, 2005.

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