Dean Takahashi is a staff writer at the San Jose Mercury News, where he covers the semiconductor and video game industries. He writes business stories as well as game and technology reviews. Takahashi has 17 years' experience as a journalist and more than 15 years' experience writing technology stories. He previously worked at the Wall Street Journal, Red Herring magazine, the San Jose Mercury News in an earlier stint, the Los Angeles Times Orange County Edition, the Orange County Register, and the Dallas Times Herald. He is the author of Opening the Xbox: Inside Microsoft's Plan to Unleash an Entertainment Revolution," a book about the making of Microsoft's game console published in 2002.