XBOX Game Console | Microsoft vs Sony Playstation and Nintendo
1000s of Xbox game consoles at Etflux store to cheer you up. The Xbox is basically a sixth-generation video game console produced by Microsoft Corporation. It was Microsoft's first venture into the gaming console market, and competed directly with Sony's PlayStation 2 and the Nintendo GameCube. It was released on November 15, 2001 in North America, 22nd February, 2002 in Japan, and March 14, 2002 in Australia and Europe. It is the predecessor to Microsoft's Xbox 360 console systems. It was later discontinued in late 2006.
The Xbox was Microsoft's first product that ventured into the video game console niche market, after having collaborated with Sega in porting Windows CE to the Dreamcast console. Notable launch titles for the console included Amped Freestyle Snowboarding, Project Gotham Racing, Dead or Alive 3, Halo Combat Evolved and Oddworld Munch's Oddysee.
The Xbox first edition was initially developed within Microsoft by a small team, that included game developer Seamus Blackley. Microsoft repeatedly delayed the console, which was revealed at the end of 1999 following interviews of then-Microsoft CEO Bill Gates. Gates admitted that a gaming/multimedia device was essential for multimedia convergence in the new times.
According to the book Smartbomb, by Heather Chaplin and Aaron Ruby, the outstanding success of the upstart Sony PlayStation worried Microsoft in late 1990s. The growing video game market that seemed to threaten the PC market which Microsoft had dominated and relied upon for most of its revenues. Additionally, a venture into the gaming console market would help diversify Microsoft's product line, which up to that time had been heavily concentrated on software.
Filed Under: Information • Xbox
