This one game truly made the big boss at Microsoft develop one of the major gaming consoles today. During Bill Gates’ time as the company’s leader, the Xbox idea didn’t really match the organization’s vision towards software manufacturing. When it was first introduced to shareholders and staff, it was obviously met with strong skepticism.
Gates apparently fell in love with the old classic game called Minesweeper. The tricky, logic puzzle where players are required to click on squares and avoid ticking on mines to clear the game is what pulled the man into making a console. According to Ars Technica, he got so obsessed with Minesweeper that he had to take it off his computer because it ate too much of his time.
Minesweeper, along with Solitaire, Reversi, and the original Flight Simulator, proved to the company that there is a bigger market for video games, and that adults will buy products so they can also play. This became one of the stepping stones to Microsoft releasing the first Xbox. The rest, as they say, was history.
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