ABSTRACT
Fahrenheit was intended to be a new high-level 3D application, “where getting the last bit of performance was less important than fast application development,” and was to be based on ongoing efforts already underway at Silicon Graphics Incorporated and Microsoft. While the small proto-xBox team was exploring their concept of a game-centric logo program, other teams at Microsoft were exploring different technologies. Jay Torborg left Microsoft around that time, before the ultimate cancellation of Fahrenheit, whose main relevance to the story is the fact that initially Seamus Blackley was brought in to work on it. There was WebTV, the ex-3DO team that was acquired by Microsoft in April 1997 for $425 million. “There were all kinds of rival groups all trying to put a box of some kind with Microsoft operating system APIs in the consumer living room,” adds Jason Robar.
