The console was announced in March 2000.[12] With the release of the PlayStation 2, which featured the ability to playbackCD-ROMs andDVDs in addition to playing games, Microsoft became concerned that game consoles would threaten the personal computer as an entertainment device for living rooms. Whereas most previous games consoles used specially designed hardware, the Xbox was built around standard PC components. It uses variations ofMicrosoft Windows andDirectX as its operating system to support games and media playback, and is powered by aIntelPentium III CPU and anNvidiaGeForce 3-basedGPU.[9] The Xbox was the first console to feature a built-inhard disk.[13][14] The console was designed to supportbroadband connectivity to theInternet via an integratedEthernet port andXbox Live, a fee-basedonline gaming service that launched in 2002.[15] The popularity of the system'sblockbuster titles such asBungie'sHalo 2 (2004) contributed to the popularity offirst-person shooters and online console gaming.[16]
The Xbox had a record-breaking launch in North America, selling 1.5 million units before the end of 2001, aided by the popularity of one of the system's launch titles,Halo: Combat Evolved, which sold a million units by April 2002. The system went on to sell a worldwide total of 24 million units, including 16 million in North America; however, Microsoft was unable to make a steady profit off the console, which had a manufacturing price far more expensive than its retail price, losing over $4 billion during its market life.[17][18][19][20][21] The system outsold the GameCube and the Dreamcast, but was vastly outsold by the PlayStation 2.[22] It also underperformed outside of the Western market; particularly, it sold poorly in Japan due to its large console size and an overabundance of games marketed towards American audiences instead of Japanese-developed titles.[23] Production of the system was discontinued in 2005.[6][7] The Xbox was the first in an ongoing brand of video game consoles developed by Microsoft, and it was followed by theXbox 360 in 2005, theXbox One in 2013, and theXbox Series X/S consoles in 2020.
History
Creation and development
Before the Xbox,Microsoft had found success publishing video games for itsWindows PCs, releasing popular titles such asMicrosoft Flight Simulator and the massively successfulAge of Empires after the creation ofDirectX, theapplication programming interface (API) that allowed for direct access of the computer hardware and bypassing Windows.[24] However, the company had not entered the home console market of video games, which was dominated at the time bySony'sPlayStation. Sony was working on its next video game console, thePlayStation 2 (PS2), announced officially to the public on March 2, 1999, and intended for the system to act as a gateway for all types of home entertainment. Sony presented a vision where the console would ultimately replace the desktop computer in the home.[25] Microsoft CEOBill Gates saw the upcoming PS2 as a threat to Microsoft's line of Windows PCs, worrying that the all-encompassing system could eliminate consumer interests in PCs and drive them out of the market. With video games rapidly growing into a massive industry, Gates decided that Microsoft needed to venture into the console gaming market to compete with Sony. Previously,Sega had developed a version ofWindows CE for itsDreamcast console to be used by game developers. Additionally, Gates had directly approached Sony CEONobuyuki Idei before the public announcement of the PS2 regarding letting Microsoft develop programming software for the console. However, the offer was declined by Idei in favor of having Sony create proprietary software.[26] Microsoft had also attempted to meet withHiroshi Yamauchi andGenyo Takeda ofNintendo to potentially acquire the company, but Nintendo declined to go further.[25][27]
In 1998, four engineers from Microsoft's DirectX team—Kevin Bachus,Seamus Blackley, Ted Hase and DirectX team leader Otto Berkes[28]—began discussing ideas for a new console which would run off Microsoft's DirectX technology.[29] Nat Brown, the Windows Software Architect at Microsoft, would also become a regular contributor to the project after meeting Hase in November 1998. The project was codenamed "Midway," in reference to theBattle of Midway duringWorld War II in which Japan was decisively defeated by American forces, as a representation of Microsoft's desire to surpass Sony in the console market.[26] The DirectX team held their first development meeting on March 30, 1999, in which they discussed issues such as getting a PC to boot at a quicker pace than usual.[26] The console would run offWindows 2000 usingDirectX 8.1, which would allow PC developers to easily transition into making games for the console while also granting it a larger processing power than that of most other home consoles.[30] According to Blackley, using PC technology as the foundation for a video game console would eliminate the technological barriers of most home consoles, allowing game creators to expand further on their own creativity without having to worry about hardware limitations.[26][30][31]
The 4 DirectX team members encountered disagreements with theSilicon Valley engineering team behindWebTV, which joined Microsoft after they purchased the rights to the device. Microsoft executive Craig Mundie wanted the project to be led by the WebTV team, who believed the console should be built from the ground-up as an appliance running off Windows CE; however, the DirectX team were adamant about the idea of repurposing PC hardware components, such as ahard disk drive, arguing that they were cheaply manufactured and could easily be updated every year. The 4 developers gained the support ofEd Fries, the head of Microsoft's gaming division, who believed the use of a hard drive, in particular, would give the console a technical edge among competitors despite its high manufacturing cost. The two opposing teams pitched their arguments to Gates on May 5, 1999, at a meeting attended by over twenty different people. WebTV's team, among whom were Nick Baker, Dave Riola, Steve Perlman, and Tim Bucher, and their sponsor, Craig Mundie, made the case that creating an appliance would be far cheaper, highlighting that most consoles were generally sold at around $300. They also wanted to use a custom-made graphics chip, which could be shared across several different home devices. Conversely, Fries, vouching for the DirectX team, argued that using a PC hard drive would set Microsoft's console apart from competitors by allowing for the direct implementation ofonline access, an argument which Gates sided with. When Gates questioned if PC games could be effectively ported to the new console, Blackley explained that the machine would utilize DirectX hardware, meaning that they could be converted easily. Gates heavily favored this proposition over WebTV's, whose concept relied on Windows CE, a heavily stripped-down Windows variant that was not compatible with DirectX. As such, Gates sided with the DirectX concept and gave Berkes' team permission to create a new video game console. Despite this, WebTV would still play a part in the Xbox's initial launch.[26][25]
Rick Thompson andRobert J. Bach were responsible for overseeing the Xbox's design. The DirectX team began constructing prototype consoles, purchasing severalDell computers and using their internal parts.[32] Initially, it envisioned that after designing the console, Microsoft would have worked with a third-party computer manufacturer to mass-produce the units. However, the early work showed that this would need to be something that Microsoft would have to produce themselves, making the prospect a far more costly operation; the name "Coffin Box" became associated with the project as there were fears the project would end careers at Microsoft.[25] Further, as a gaming console, they could not provide the direct Windows interface to users. While Thompson and Bach had warned Gates andSteve Ballmer about these large-scale changes from the initial proposal in late 1999, the matter came to a head at a February 14, 2000, meeting, informally referred to as the Valentine's Day Massacre, in which Gates furiously vented about the new cost proposal and massive changes in this console from what had been previously presented, since the Xbox appeared to marginalize Windows.[25] However, after being reminded that this was a product to compete against Sony, Gates and Ballmer gave the project the go-ahead along with the necessary marketing budget.[25] Another contentious point of design was the addition ofEthernet connectivity rather than simple support fordial-up networking. At this point, most consumer homes had access to Internet connectivity, butsocial networks had yet to be established which would later demonstrate the viability of this decision. The Xbox leads argued that with the plannedXbox Live functionality, the Ethernet port would help friends be able to play after they have graduated from schools and colleges and moved across the country.[25]
Throughout the console's prototyping, Microsoft was working withAMD for the CPU on the system. According to Blackley, just prior to the system's reveal in January 2001, the Microsoft engineers opted to switch to anIntel CPU, a fact that had not yet been communicated to AMD prior to the reveal.[33]
Among the names considered for the new console were a number of acronyms, including "Windows Entertainment Project" (WEP), "Microsoft Total Gaming" (MTG), "Microsoft Interactive Network Device" (MIND), and "Microsoft Interactive Center" (MIC).[34][35] Also among the names considered was "DirectX Box", referring to the system's reliance on Direct X. At one point, Hase jokingly came up with the names "XXX-Box" and "DirectXXX-Box" as a nod to the system's higher volume of adult content compared to Sony or Nintendo's consoles.[36] "DirectX Box" was quickly shortened to "Xbox" through an e-mail conversation, and was ultimately favored by the development team, though a number of spelling variants were tossed around, such as xBox, XboX, and X-box.[34][36] Microsoft's marketing department did not like this name, suggesting "11-X" or "Eleven-X" as alternatives.[34] Duringfocus testing, the company put the name "Xbox" on the list of possible names simply to prove how unpopular the Xbox name would be with consumers. However, "Xbox" proved to be the more popular name on the list and was thus selected as the official name of the product.[37]
When the physical design of the controller began,circuit boards for the controller had already been manufactured. Microsoft had asked Sony's supplier,Mitsumi Electric, for a similar folded and stacked circuit board design used in Sony'sDualShock 2 controller, but the company refused to manufacture such a design for Microsoft. This led to the controller being bulky and nearly three times the size of Sony's controller. This initial controller design was never launched in Japan. The console instead launched with a smaller, redesigned version named "Controller S" that did use the more compact circuit board design.[38][39]
As the development team began to tighten down the design of the Xbox, they got help fromFlextronics not only in revising the design but in mass production, creating a factory inGuadalajara, Mexico, for this purpose. Early production units had a high failure rate of around 25%, which Flextronics repaired. Later iterations of the hardware design worked to eliminate these failures.[25]
Initial announcement and content acquisitions
Gates first publicly mentioned the Xbox in an interview in late 1999, stating that he wanted the system "to be the platform of choice for the best and most creative game developers in the world".[40] It was later announced officially by Gates in akeynote presentation at theGame Developers Conference in San Jose on March 10, 2000, showing off an early prototype build of the system and a series of demos showcasing its hardware.[26][41] The presentation and the new system were well-received, impressing developers with both the hard drive and the Ethernet port and appealing to them with the notion of easy-to-use development tools.[26]
Microsoft began looking at a series of acquisitions and partnerships to secure content for the console at this time.[25] In early 2000, Sega's Dreamcast sales were diminishing, in part due toElectronic Arts' decision to bypass the console, and Sony's PlayStation 2 was just going on sale in Japan.[42][25] Gates was in talks with Sega's late chairmanIsao Okawa about the possibility of Xbox compatibility with Dreamcast games, but negotiations fell apart over whether the Dreamcast'sSegaNet online service should be implemented.[43] Microsoft also looked to acquire Electronic Arts,Nintendo,Square Enix, andMidway without success.[25] The company did achieve success in convincing developers atBethesda Game Studios andTecmo about the power of the Xbox over the PS2, lining upThe Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind andDead or Alive 3 as Xbox console-exclusives.[25]
Around this same time, Microsoft announced it was rebranding its Games Group, which had been focused on developing games for Windows, to theMicrosoft Games division to make titles for both Windows and the Xbox.[44] Microsoft began acquiring a number of studios to add to the division, notablyBungie in June 2000, shortly after their announcement ofHalo: Combat Evolved. With Microsoft's acquisition,Halo switched from being a release for personal computers to being an Xbox exclusive release and as a launch time to help drive sales of the console.[45][42]
Formal announcement and release
Gates unveiling Xbox
The Xbox was officially unveiled to the public by Gates and guest professional wrestlerDwayne "The Rock" Johnson atCES 2001 inLas Vegas on January 3, 2001.[46] Microsoft announced Xbox's release dates and prices atE3 2001 in May.[47] Most Xbox launch titles were unveiled at E3, most notablyHalo andDead or Alive 3.[48]
The unit's release in November 2001 was partially hampered by the impact of theSeptember 11 attacks on travel, as Microsoft could not travel to the Guadalajara facility to help test units. They were able to arrange to ship the units locally instead of testing at Microsoft facilities to have them ready for launch.[25]
The system was officially launched at midnight on November 15, 2001, three days before the subsequent launch of the NintendoGameCube.[49] A special event was held on the prior night as part of the grand opening of the flagship store ofToys 'R' Us atTimes Square in New York City, in which 1,000 systems were shipped to the store to kick off sales. Bill Gates was present at the event, personally selling the first Xbox console and greeting people in line and playing games with them at the numerous display units present.[30][50][25]
Promotion
In 2002, theIndependent Television Commission (ITC) banned a television advertisement for the Xbox in theUnited Kingdom after complaints that it was "offensive, shocking and in bad taste." It depicted a mother giving birth to a baby boy, fired like a projectile through a window, aging rapidly as he flies through the air. The advertisement ends with an old man crash-landing into his own grave and the slogan, "Life is short. Play more."[51]
The Xbox's successor, the Xbox 360, was officially announced on May 12, 2005, onMTV. It was the first next generation system to be announced. It was released in North America on November 22, 2005.Nvidia ceased production of the Xbox's GPU in August 2005, which marked the end of brand-new Xbox production.[7] The last game for the Xbox in Japan wasThe King of Fighters Neowave released in March 2006, the last Xbox game in Europe wasXiaolin Showdown released in June 2007, and the last game in North America wasMadden NFL 09 released in August 2008. Support for out-of-warranty Xbox consoles was discontinued on March 2, 2009.[52] Support for Xbox Live on the console ended on April 15, 2010.[53]
The Xbox 360 supports alimited number of the Xbox's game library if the player has an official Xbox 360 Hard Drive. Xbox games were added up until November 2007. Xbox game saves cannot be transferred to Xbox 360, and the ability to play Xbox games through Xbox LIVE has been discontinued since April 15, 2010. It is still possible to play Xbox games withSystem Link functionality online via both the original console and the Xbox 360 with tunneling software such asXLink Kai. It was announced atE3 2017 that theXbox One would be gaining support for alimited number of the Xbox's game library.
Hardware
The use of standard desktop components such as a DVD-ROM and hard drive contributed to much of the console's weight and bulk.
A remote was required for DVD movie playback on the Xbox, which was sold separately.
The Xbox was the first video game console to feature a built-inhard disk drive, used primarily for storing game saves and content downloaded from Xbox Live. This eliminated the need for separatememory cards (although some older consoles, such as theAmiga CD32, used internal flash memory, and others, such as theTurboGrafx-CD,Sega CD, andSega Saturn, had featured built-in battery backup memory prior to 2001). An Xbox user couldrip music fromstandard audio CDs to the hard drive, and these songs were used for the custom soundtracks in some games.[54]
Unlike the PlayStation 2, which could play movie DVDs without the need for a remote control (although an optional remote was available), the Xbox required an external IR adapter to be plugged into a controller port in order to play movie DVDs. If DVD playback is attempted without the IR sensor plugged in, an error screen will pop up informing the user of the need for the Xbox DVD Playback Kit. The said kit included the IR sensor and a remote control (unlike the PS2, the Xbox controller could not control DVD playback). Said remote was manufactured byThomson (which also manufactured optical drives for the console) and went on sale in late 2002, which meant a modified version of the remote design used by theRCA,GE andProScan consumer electronics of the era was used for the Xbox remote, and therefore users wishing to use a universal remote were instructed to utilize RCA DVD remote codes.
The Xbox was the first console to feature Dolby Interactive Content-Encoding Technology, which enables real-time Dolby Digital encoding. Previous game consoles could only use Dolby Digital 5.1 during non-interactive "cut scene" playback.[55]
The Xbox is based on commodity PC hardware and is much larger and heavier than its contemporaries. This is largely due to a bulky tray-loadingDVD-ROM drive and the standard-size 3.5-inch hard drive. The Xbox has also pioneered safety features, such as breakaway cables for the controllers to prevent the console from being pulled from the surface upon which it rests.
Several internal hardware revisions have been made in an ongoing battle to discouragemodding (hackers continually updatedmodchip designs in an attempt to defeat them), to cut manufacturing costs, and to make the DVD-ROM drive more reliable (some of the early units' drives gave disc-reading errors due to the unreliable Thomson DVD-ROM drives used). Later-generation units that used the Thomson TGM-600 DVD-ROM drives and the Philips VAD6011 DVD-ROM drives were still vulnerable to failure that, respectively, either rendered the consoles unable to read newer discs or caused them to halt the console with an error code usually indicating aPIO/DMA identification failure. These units were not covered under the extended warranty.
In 2002, Microsoft andNvidia entered arbitration over a dispute on the pricing of Nvidia's chips for the Xbox.[56] Nvidia's filing with theSEC indicated that Microsoft was seeking a $13 million discount on shipments for NVIDIA's fiscal year 2002. Microsoft alleged violations of the agreement the two companies entered, sought reduced chipset pricing, and sought to ensure that Nvidia fulfill Microsoft's chipset orders without limits on quantity. The matter was privately settled on February 6, 2003.[57]
The Xbox includes a standard AV cable which providescomposite video andmonaural orstereo audio to TVs equipped withRCA inputs. European Xboxes also included an RCA jack toSCART converter block and the standard AV cable.
An 8 MB removablesolid-statememory card can be plugged into the controllers, onto which game saves can either be copied from the hard drive when in the Xbox dashboard's memory manager or saved during a game. Most Xbox game saves can be copied to the memory unit and moved to another console, but some Xbox saves are digitally signed. It is also possible to save an Xbox Live account on a memory unit, to simplify its use on more than one Xbox. The ports at the top of the controllers could also be used for other accessories, primarily headsets for voice chat via Xbox Live.
The XboxCPU is a32-bit 733 MHz, custom IntelPentium IIICoppermine-based processor. It has a 133 MHz 64-bitGTL+front-side bus (FSB) with a 1.06 GB/s bandwidth. The system has 64 MB unifiedDDR SDRAM, with a 6.4 GB/s bandwidth, of which 1.06 GB/s is used by the CPU and 5.34 GB/s is shared by the rest of the system.[58]
ItsGPU isNvidia's 233 MHzNV2A. It is capable of geometry calculations for up to a theoretical 115 million vertices/second. It has a peak fillrate of 932megapixels/second, capable of rendering a theoretical 29 million 32-pixel triangles/second. With bandwidth limitations, it has a realistic fillrate of 250–700 megapixels/second, withZ-buffering,fogging,alpha blending, andtexture mapping,[59] giving it a real-world performance of 7.8–21 million 32-pixel triangles/second.
The Xbox controller features twoanalog sticks, a pressure-sensitive directional pad, two analog triggers, a Back button, a Start button, two accessory slots and six 8-bit analog action buttons (A/Green, B/Red, X/Blue, Y/Yellow, and Black and White buttons).[60] The standard Xbox controller (also nicknamed the "Fatty"[61] and later, the "Duke"[62]) was originally the controller bundled with Xbox systems for all territories except Japan. The controller has been criticized for being bulky compared to other video game controllers; it was awarded "Blunder of the Year" byGame Informer in 2001,[63] a Guinness World Record for the biggest controller inGuinness World Records Gamer's Edition 2008, and was ranked the second-worst video game controller ever (behind the Atari Jaguar controller) byIGN editor Craig Harris.[64]
The "Controller S" (codenamed "Akebono"), a smaller, lighter Xbox controller, was originally the standard Xbox controller only in Japan,[65] designed for users with smaller hands.[66][67] The "Controller S" was later released in other territories by popular demand and by 2002 replaced the standard controller in the Xbox's retail package, with the larger original controller remaining available as an accessory.
Theuser interface for the Xbox is called the Xbox Dashboard. It features amedia player that can be used to play music CDs, rip CDs to the Xbox's built-inhard drive and play music that has been ripped to the hard drive; it also lets users manage game saves, music, and downloaded content from Xbox Live, and lets Xbox Live users sign in, customize, and manage their account. The dashboard is only available when the user is not watching a movie or playing a game. It uses many shades of green and black for the user interface to be consistent with the physical Xbox color scheme. When the Xbox was released in 2001, the Live service was not online, so the dashboard's Live sections and the network settings sub-menu were not present yet.[70][71][72]
Xbox Live was released in November 2002, but in order to access it, users had to buy the Xbox Live starter kit containing aheadset and a subscription.[73][74] While the Xbox was still being supported by Microsoft, the Xbox Dashboard was updated via Live several times to reduce cheating and add features.[75]
The Xbox launched in North America on November 15, 2001. Popular launch games includedHalo: Combat Evolved,Project Gotham Racing, andDead or Alive 3. All three of these games contributed to the Xbox's success and would go on to sell over a million copies in the US.[76]
Although the console gained strong third-party support from its inception, many early Xbox games did not fully use its powerful hardware until a full year after its release. Xbox versions of cross-platform games sometimes came with a few additional features and/or graphical improvements to distinguish them from the PS2 andGameCube versions of the same game, thus negating one of the Xbox's main selling points. Sony countered the Xbox for a short time by temporarily securing PlayStation 2 exclusives for highly anticipated games such as theGrand Theft Auto series and theMetal Gear Solid series as well as Nintendo for theResident Evil series. Notable third-party support came fromSega, who announced an 11-game exclusivity deal atTokyo Game Show.[77]Sega released exclusives such asPanzer Dragoon Orta andJet Set Radio Future, which met with a strong reception among critics.[78][79]
In 2002 and 2003, several high-profile releases helped the Xbox gain momentum and distinguish itself from the PS2.Microsoft purchasedRare, responsible for manyNintendo 64 hit games, to expand their first party portfolio.[80] TheXbox Live online service was launched in late 2002 alongside pilot titlesMotoGP,MechAssault andTom Clancy's Ghost Recon. Several best-selling and critically acclaimed titles for the Xbox soon followed, such asTom Clancy's Splinter Cell, andStar Wars: Knights of the Old Republic.Take-Two Interactive's exclusivity deal withSony was amended to allowGrand Theft Auto III and itssequels to be published for the Xbox. Many other publishers got into the trend of releasing the Xbox version alongside the PS2 version, instead of delaying it for months.
The Xbox Exhibition disc collection was agame demo compilation series fromMicrosoft Game Studios used to advertise and preview upcoming Xbox games, featuring several playable game demos, game trailers, video content fromG4 TV, music videos, and music fromindie artists that were downloadable to the Xbox's hard drive. These discs were distributed at retail over seven volumes from 2002 to 2005. The discs are credited as an early iteration of thedownloadable content model, with content including additional levels, roster updates for sports games and expanded game types.[85][86]
On November 15, 2002, Microsoft launched its Xbox Live service, allowing subscribers to play online Xbox games with other subscribers around the world and download new content directly to the system'shard drive. The online service works only with abroadband Internet connection. In its first week of operation, Xbox Live received 100,000 subscriptions,[31] and further grew to 250,000 subscribers within two months of the service's launch.[87] In July 2004, Microsoft announced that Xbox Live had reached one million subscribers; in July 2005, membership reached two million, and by July 2007 there were more than three million subscribers. By May 2009, the number had ballooned to twenty million current subscribers.[88] On February 5, 2010, it was reported that Xbox Live support for the original Xbox games would be discontinued as of April 14, 2010.[15] Services were discontinued on schedule, but a group of users later known asthe "Noble 14" continued to play for almost a month afterwards by simply leaving their consoles on connected toHalo 2.[89] Despite the discontinuation of Xbox Live in 2010, there are revival servers, such asInsignia which has brought back online multiplayer and other online features to the Xbox again.[90][91]
Prior to launching, anticipation for the Xbox was high, withToys 'R' Us andAmazon reporting that onlinepreorders had sold out within just 30 minutes.[92] Microsoft stated that it planned to ship 1–1.5 million units to retailers by the end of the year, followed by weekly shipments of 100,000 units.[49][93] The launch was one of the most successful in video game history,[94] with unit sales surpassing 1 million after just 3 weeks[30] and rising further to 1.5 million by the end of 2001.[94] The system also attained one of the highest-ever attachment rates at launch, with over 3 games selling per unit according tothe NPD Group.[94] Strong sales were tied in large part to the highly anticipated launch title,Halo: Combat Evolved, which had surpassed sales of 1 million units by April 2002 and attained a 50% attach rate for the console.[31] In 2003, the console had knocked the GameCube down to third place in terms of market share.[95] By July 2004, the system had sold 15.5 million units worldwide—10.1 million in North America, 3.9 million in Europe, and 1.5 million in Asia-Pacific—and had a 33% market share in the US.[96]
Despite strong sales in North America, Microsoft struggled to make a profit from the Xbox due to its high manufacturing cost. With its initial retail price of $299, Microsoft lost about $125 for every system sold, which cost $425 to manufacture, meaning that the company would have to rely on software sales in order to make any money.[26] According to Robbie Bach, "Probably six months after we shipped, you could see the price curve and do the math and know that we were going to lose billions of dollars."[25] These losses were further exacerbated in April 2002, when Microsoft lowered the retail price of the Xbox even further to $199 in order to further drive hardware sales.[30][31][97] Microsoft also struggled to compete with Sony's more popularPlayStation 2 console, which generally saw far higher sales numbers,[98][99] although the Xbox outsold the PS2 in the U.S. in April 2004.[100] By its manufacturing discontinuation in 2005, the Xbox had sold a total of 24 million units worldwide, 16 million of which had been sold in North America. These numbers fell short of Microsoft's predicted 50 million units, and failed to match the PlayStation 2's lifetime sales of 106 million units at the time, although it did surpass the GameCube andDreamcast's lifetime sales of 21 million and 10.6 units, respectively, though the GameCube turned out to be more profitable than the Xbox.[8][30][31] Ultimately, Microsoft lost an accumulative total of $4 billion from the Xbox, only managing to turn a profit at the end of 2004.[31] While the Xbox represented an overall loss for Microsoft, Gates, Ballmer, and other executives still saw it as a positive result for the company as it brought them into the console marketplace against doubts raised by the industry, and led to Microsoft's further development of other consoles in the Xbox family.[25]
Japan
Prior to its Japanese launch in February 2002, many analysts estimated that the Xbox would have trouble competing with the PS2 and the GameCube, its local counterparts in the region, noting its comparatively high price tag, lack of exclusives, and larger size which would not fit as well in Japan's smaller living spaces.[101] Microsoft hoped to ship six million Japanese Xbox consoles by June 2002; however, the system had only sold a total of 190,000 units in the region by April of that year, two months after the system's launch in February.[102] For the week ending April 14, 2002, the Xbox sold only 1,800 units, considerably less than the PS2 and GameCube, and failed to see a single title reach the top 50 best-selling video games in Japan.[103] In November 2002, the Xbox chief in Japan stepped down, leading to further consultations about Xbox's future, which by that point had only sold 278,860 units in the country since its February launch.[104][105] For the week ending July 18, 2004, the Xbox sold just 272 units, even fewer than the PSOne had sold in the same week.[106] The Xbox did, however, outsell the GameCube for the week ending May 26, 2002.[107] Ultimately, the Xbox had only sold 474,992 units in its lifetime.[108] Factors believed to have contributed to the console's poor market presence included its large physical size, which contrasted the country's emphasis on more compact designs, and a lack of Japanese-developed games to aid consumer interest.[31]
Modding
Xbox modding is the practice of circumventing the built-in hardware and software security mechanisms of the Xbox video game console.
History
The popularity of the Xbox, as well as (in the United States) its comparatively short 90-day warranty, inspired efforts to circumvent the built-in hardware and software security mechanisms, a practice known as "cracking". Within a few months of its release the initial layer of security on the Xbox BIOS (which relied heavily onobfuscation) was broken by MIT studentAndrew Huang and the contents of the "hidden" boot ROM embedded on the MCPx chip were extracted using some custom built hardware. Once this information was available, the code was soon modified so that it would skip digital signature checks and media flags, allowing unsigned code, Xbox game backups, etc., to be run. Modding an Xbox in any manner will void its warranty, as it may require disassembly of the console. Having a modified Xbox may also disallow it from accessing Xbox Live, if detected by Microsoft, as it contravenes the Xbox LiveTerms of Use, but most modchips can be disabled, allowing the Xbox to boot in a "stock" configuration.[109][citation needed]
Modchip: installing a modchip inside the Xbox that bypasses the original BIOS, with a hacked BIOS to circumvent the security mechanisms.[citation needed]
TSOP flashing: reflashing the onboard BIOS chip with a hacked BIOS to circumvent the security mechanisms. The Xbox BIOS is contained on a commodityEEPROM (the 'TSOP'), which can be made writable by the Xbox by bridging points on the motherboard.[110] Flashing is usually carried out by using a specially crafted gamesave (see 'Game save exploit', below) to flash the onboard TSOP, but the TSOP can also be de-soldered and re-written in a standard EEPROM programmer. This method only works on 1.0 to 1.5 Xboxes, as version 1.6 (the final hardware version produced) replaced the commodity TSOP with an LPC ROM contained within a proprietary chip.[111]
Softmods: installing additional software files to the Xbox hard drive, which exploit programming errors in the Dashboard to gain control of the system, and overwrite the in-memory copy of the BIOS.[112] Soft modification is known to be safe for Xbox Live if the user enables multibooting with the Microsoft dashboard and an original game disc is used.[citation needed]
Game save exploit: using select official game releases to load game saves that exploit buffer overflows in the save game handling.[113] When these special game saves are loaded, they access an interface with scripts for installing the necessary softmod files. Disassembly of the Xbox is not required when installing most game save exploits.
Hot swapping: using a computer to change the data on the hard drive. This requires having the Xbox unlock the hard drive when it is turned on, then swapping the powered hard drive into a running computer. By using a Linux-based Live CD, data on the hard drive can be read, altered, and deleted. In most cases, an automated script will automatically install the softmod files directly to the Xbox hard drive. This technique has been used extensively to harbor cheating on many online games. Disassembly of the console is required to perform a hot swap. It's the least recommended as it might shock the Xbox hardware or the user's PC components.[citation needed]
^O'Brien, Jeffrey M. (November 2011)."The Making of the Xbox".Wired. Condé Nast.Archived from the original on November 4, 2012. RetrievedApril 17, 2013.
^abGarratt, Patrick (August 5, 2011)."The Xbox Story, Part 1: The Birth of a Console". vg247.com.Archived from the original on June 11, 2013. RetrievedJune 26, 2013.Discontinued in Japan in 2005 and the following year in the rest of the world.
^abAsher Moses (August 30, 2007)."Prepare for all-out war".The Sydney Morning Herald.Archived from the original on November 6, 2012. RetrievedJuly 16, 2008.Combined, the first two Halo games have notched up sales of more than 14.5 million copies so far, about 8 million of which can be attributed to Halo 2, which is the best-selling first-generation Xbox game worldwide.
^Dudley, Brier (May 25, 2011). "Last of Xbox Dream Team, Otto Berkes Is Moving On".The Seattle Times. p. A12.Berkes and Hase were among a group of four who first pushed Microsoft to develop a Windows-based gaming system to compete with Sony's PlayStation 2, which was luring game companies from the Windows platform in the late 1990s. The other two were Seamus Blackley, who left in 2002, and Kevin Bachus, who left in 2001.
^Dudley, Brier (May 24, 2011)."Exclusive: Microsoft loses last Xbox founder, mobile PC visionary".The Seattle Times.Archived from the original on May 26, 2011. RetrievedMay 25, 2011.In 1998, Berkes and his team ordered a few Dell laptops, took them apart and built the first prototypes of a Windows gaming console. In order to appeal to young people, the name zBar (pronounced zed-BAH); later Ed Fries was leading Microsoft's games publishing business when the four Xbox founders pitched a "Direct X Box" based on the Windows DirectX graphics technology that was developed by Berkes' team.
^Alexander, Leigh (August 14, 2009)."Interview: Former Microsoft Exec Fries Talks Xbox's Genesis".Gamasutra. UBM TechWeb. Archived fromthe original on June 6, 2011. RetrievedMay 25, 2011.Direct X-Box, of course, was truncated to 'Xbox,' -- and "marketing hated the name," says Fries. "They went off and created this whole, long list of better names for the machine." In focus testing, the marketing team left the name 'Xbox' on that long list simply as a control, to demonstrate to everyone why it was a horrible name for a console. "Of course, 'Xbox' outscored, in focus testing, everything they came up with. They had to admit it was going to be the Xbox."
^"Xbox 360 Wireless Controller Tour".IGN. May 13, 2005.Archived from the original on August 11, 2011. RetrievedJuly 2, 2011.the original "Fatty" Xbox controller didn't have a specific public name
^"Xbox's original beast of a controller making a comeback?".CNET. June 15, 2005.Archived from the original on February 6, 2012. RetrievedOctober 16, 2011.Anyone who purchased the original Xbox during its launch window quickly came to know its behemoth of a controller, now nicknamed "Duke."
^Trinder, Garry (February 17, 2006)."The Xbox Operating System".Xbox Engineering. MSDN.Archived from the original on November 2, 2018. RetrievedOctober 31, 2018.
^"Xbox dead in Japan?",GamesTM, no. 1,Imagine Publishing, p. 11, December 2002,ISSN1478-5889,archived from the original on April 9, 2016, retrievedApril 25, 2014,Xbox is failing in Japan, there's no denying it. Despite the country's fascination with America, it seems uneasy investing in a non-Japanese product; so far just 278,860 Xbox consoles have been sold, compared to almost 700,000 GameCubes during the same period. These embarrassing figures have resulted in Hirohisa Ohura, Director of Xbox Japan, being moved to a different department within Microsoft, hinting that a certain amount of re-structuring is about to take place.
