Microsoft's Xbox has grown to become one of the largest gaming brands in the entire industry, but before it could even get off the ground, it was almost killed in the crib by Bill Gates and Steve Ballmer, who were the company's chief software architect and CEO at the time, respectively.
Former Microsoft game publishing vice president Ed Fries discussed the infamously heated meeting in 2000 in which Gates and Ballmer almost canned the creation of the original console in a new interview — and also went into detail about why it was ultimately given the go-ahead.
