Xbox History: A Brief Rundown
Xbox History: A Brief Rundown
Microsoft Xbox consoles have become an integral part of the gaming industry for two decades. During this time, four generations of consoles have come out, making Microsoft one of the main players in this segment, along with Sony and Nintendo.
As strange as it may sound, Microsoft is still new to the field compared to its competitors. But, they brought their share of innovation to the industry and Xbox became another source of income for the corporation. By the way, a casino can become an excellent source of income - try visiting the Casino Chan platform.
Microsoft Xbox: Getting Started
The first Xbox was released in November 2001 and in many ways set the standard that most subsequent consoles would use.
For example, it was the first console with a built-in broadband modem. Internet support was not new at the time, as consoles like the Sega Dreamcast already had 56K modem support. But, for the first time, Internet support was integrated into the console. With this innovation, in 2002, Microsoft launched the Xbox Live subscription service for online gaming.
The 8 GB hard drive was another important innovation of the time. This allowed Xbox owners to store game saves, patches, music, and more on their consoles. Whereas competitors at that time offered memory cards for saving games as paid accessories.
The first console in Xbox history featured a powerful Pentium III processor, 64MB of RAM, and an Nvidia Geforce 3-based GPU. This combination resulted in multi-platform games that looked best on the Microsoft console and PC.
The only downside to the original console was the controller that shipped with it from launch to North America and Europe. Unofficially dubbed the "Xbox Duke", this controller was found by many consumers to be too bulky. Microsoft later made the decision to replace it with the smaller Controller S that came with the console in Japan.
The original Xbox did not have a large library of games, but exclusive games such as the Halo series, Jade Empire, Forza Motorsport, Ninja Gaiden, Steel Battalion, and the Project Gotham Racing series came out for it. It has also received PC ports such as Knights of the Old Republic, Doom 3, Half-Life 2, and The Elder Scrolls III Morrowind. In addition, the console received a lot of support from Sega, which released games such as Jet Set Radio Future and Shenmue 2 on the console. And in 2004, Microsoft launched a service for downloading simple and inexpensive Xbox Live Arcade games that you could buy and / Or try before you buy.
The Xbox was not a financial success for Microsoft as it was losing money for every console it sold. This is not uncommon in the industry at the time of the launch of a new console. Manufacturers can gradually introduce new console models that are cheaper to manufacture, in addition to other sources of revenue such as accessories. Unfortunately for Microsoft, the use of PC parts limited the company in what it could do to cut costs.
Interesting facts about Microsoft Xbox
The "X" in "Xbox" comes from the Microsoft DirectX API for Windows, which handles media, peripherals, and graphics.
Initially, Microsoft showed a console that was literally in the shape of an X.
The Xbox came with a DVD drive and used the DVD to store games, just like the PS2. However, unlike the PS2, it couldn't play DVDs right out of the box. Console users had to purchase a "DVD Playback Kit", consisting of a dongle and a DVD remote control, in order to be able to watch DVDs on the console.
New consoles are still in the process of becoming, so there are not enough exclusive games for them. But some of them already exist. For example, Grounded, Forza Horizon 4, and Gears 5. They can also be played on Xbox One. Future games include Halo Infinite, Fable, and Flight Simulator.
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