Clockwise: Robbie Bach, Dean Takahashi, Ed Fries, and Shane Kim.
Clockwise: Robbie Bach, Dean Takahashi, Ed Fries, and Shane Kim.
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Xbox leaders reunion panel — What went right and almost went wrong

  • Posted byby Dean Takahashi
  • Updated
  • 17 min

The former leaders of the original Xbox game leadership team got together for a reunion panel during the Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3).

I moderated the panel, which includes former chief Xbox officer Robbie Bach, former Microsoft Game Studios head Ed Fries, and his successor Shane Kim, also a former head of Microsoft Game Studios.

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Written by

Dean Takahashi

Dean Takahashi is editorial director for GamesBeat. He has been a tech journalist since 1988, and he has covered games as a beat since 1996. He was lead writer for GamesBeat at VentureBeat from 2008 to April 2025. Prior to that, he wrote for the San Jose Mercury News, the Red Herring, the Wall Street Journal, the Los Angeles Times, and the Dallas Times-Herald. He is the author of two books, "Opening the Xbox" and "The Xbox 360 Uncloaked." He organizes the annual GamesBeat Next, GamesBeat Summit and GamesBeat Insider Series: Hollywood and Games conferences and is a frequent speaker at gaming and tech events. He lives in the San Francisco Bay Area.