20 years ago today, Bill Gates and The Rock traded wrestling catchphrases over a newly unveiled Xbox at CES. I spoke to two dozen key Xbox figures for an oral history on how Microsoft became an unlikely console powerhouse: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2021-01-06/xbox-the-oral-history-of-an-american-video-game-empire?srnd=premium

Hardware chief Rick Thompson in mid-99 had turned down an ask to head the project..."The next day, Ballmer showed up in my office with a baseball bat in his hand, literally, and told me that this is what I was going to do," Thomson says

By Feb 2000, Gates was to announce Xbox at the March Game Developers Conference, but a meeting made it clear he wasn't on board. "Bill throws the PowerPoint deck down on the table and says, “This is a fucking insult to everything I’ve accomplished at this company” says @Ed_Fries

Thank you so much to the people interviewed in this story, who were gracious enough to share their time, insights and anecdotes, and put up with me asking them to remember minute details from two decades ago.