This article will look at the ideas behind Microsoft’s hugely successful XBox, it’s development and it’s product specifications.
Released in Europe in 2002, the Microsoft XBox was the computing giants first attempt at a games console, and was aimed to directly compete with the Sony Playstation 2, Sega’s ill fated DreamCast and the Nintendo GameCube.
The XBox, whose name is a nod to the Direct X technology which is intergrated into the system, was first unveiled by Microsoft’s CEO Bill Gates in 2002. The XBox was partially developed by a small team of Microsoft engineers working to create a combined gaming and digital media device.
Upon launch, the XBox was sold with a series of now classic and extremely profitable gaming franchises, including Halo: Combat Evolved and Project Gotham Racing. These XBox exclusive titles ensured that the console overtook the Sega DreamCast (whose sales were flagging enormously during this time) and the Nintendo GameCube to become the second biggest selling console in America, after the Sony Plastation 2.
The XBox is considered to be a sixth generation gaming console, and was the first console to bring several advances which are now considered industry standards for all major gaming platforms.
The biggest and most innovative of these advances was the inclusion of an internal hard disk drive for saving game content as well as downloading content from the xbox live home.
Many complained that unlike the Sony Playstation 2’s removable memory devices, the XBox did not allow for the sharing of game content amongst friends, however Sony followed behind the XBox with the inclusion of a similar hard disk drive in their later released Playstation 3.
By far the most well recieved and profitable innovations of the XBox was the inclusion of XBox Live, an online gaming platform which allowed users to compete in games together, as well as download games and updates directly to the console’s hard drive. While the Sega DreamCast has included this innovation before the XBox, it was Mircosoft’s version which really pioneered online gaming.
The original XBox was supplied with analoge and power cables, as well as a single controller. Microsoft also sold the XBox bundled with several of the original launch titles and an extra controller. The original controller was poorly recieved, and criticised for being too large for comfortable use over extended periods of time, and was replaced with a smaller controller within a year of the XBox’s release.
The original Microsoft XBox was superseded by the XBox 360, and in 2005 production ceased. Faulty or broken XBoxes are now replaced with an Xbox 360 free of charge by Microsoft.