On November 15, 2001, US tech giant Microsoft released a large black box into a gaming industry traditionally dominated by Japanese companies.
There was not much subtlety about the Xbox. The console was enormous compared with its competitors. Its original controller was similarly oversized. A fluorescent green circle bearing the letter X sat at the centre of the machine.
Microsoft was entering hostile territory. Sony had already found enormous success with the original PlayStation and its successor, the PlayStation 2, was quickly becoming the dominant console of its era. Nintendo, still three years away from launching the game-changing Wii console, had fallen out of favour and was synonymous with only its first-party exclusive games.
Yet 25 years after that first North American launch, Microsoft remains one of the three names that define console gaming.
The original Xbox never came close to defeating the PlayStation 2 commercially, but that is arguably the least important part of the story. Microsoft used its first machine to establish Halo, bring broadband multiplayer into the console mainstream and introduce an online infrastructure that would influence almost every gaming system that followed.
Microsoft enters console war
Show caption: Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates presents the original Xbox i…
At the end of the 1990s, console gaming was undergoing a rapid transformation.
The first PlayStation helped move the industry towards 3D games and CD-based media, while Sony was preparing to unveil the PlayStation 2. Nintendo was developing what would become the GameCube and Sega had already released the Dreamcast.
Microsoft, meanwhile, had built much of its gaming business around the PC. Windows and its DirectX programming tools had helped developers make games for computers, but the company did not have a dedicated games console.
That changed publicly on March 10, 2000, when Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates appeared at the Game Developers Conference in California and announced plans for a machine called the Xbox. Rather than trying to imitate Nintendo or PlayStation, the console felt like a powerful gaming PC condensed into something that could sit underneath a TV.
It used an Intel processor and Nvidia graphics technology, but two features were particularly important – an internal hard drive and a built-in ethernet connection.
The hard drive meant players did not need a separate memory card to save games, while the ethernet port would eventually become central to Microsoft’s vision for online console gaming.
Powerful hardware alone, however, was never going to convince players to buy an Xbox. Microsoft needed games.
Finding its selling point
Show caption: Halo has become one of Microsoft’s biggest gaming franchises…
One acquisition made in the summer of 2000 would fundamentally alter the company’s fortunes. Microsoft bought Bungie, an American developer that at the time was working on a sci-fi game called Halo.
The game had not originally been conceived as the title that would define Microsoft’s new console. But by the time Halo: Combat Evolved arrived alongside the Xbox, the two were almost inseparable.
Microsoft also secured support from companies including Electronic Arts, Sega, Namco and Konami. The North American launch line-up included Project Gotham Racing, Dead or Alive 3 and Oddworld: Munch’s Oddysee, but Halo was the game that gave the console an immediate identity.
The Xbox launched in North America on November 15, 2001, for $299.99.
Gates appeared at the Toys ‘R’ Us shop in Times Square in New York for the release, and early demand was strong. By the end of 2001, about six weeks after launch, Microsoft had sold 1.5 million Xbox consoles in North America.
Players were also buying more than three games for every machine, according to figures quoted by Microsoft at the time.
Multiplayer gaming was just as important. Four-player split-screen matches turned the Xbox into a fixture at gatherings between friends, while connecting several consoles together made larger LAN matches possible.
For many players, Xbox did not simply launch with Halo. Xbox was Halo.
Taking on PlayStation
Show caption: Xbox struggled to match PlayStation’s global dominance, but …
Microsoft’s early North American success did not translate as well around the world. Xbox launched in Japan in February 2002 and in Europe a month later. Microsoft made a serious effort to attract Japanese players, securing support from Sega, Konami, Capcom and Tecmo, but the country remained difficult territory for the brand.
North America became the console’s strongest market.
Globally, the original Xbox sold about 24 million units. That placed it ahead of Nintendo’s GameCube, which sold 21.74 million, but far behind the PlayStation 2, which went on to become the best-selling console of all time.
Microsoft was nevertheless willing to spend heavily to establish itself.
Only six months after launch, Xbox’s price in the US was cut from $299.99 to $199.99. The company also began bundling games and eventually replaced its huge original controller, later nicknamed the Duke, with the smaller Controller S.
The Xbox was never going to win its generation in sales, but Microsoft was creating enough of an audience to remain in the industry.
A year after launch, it introduced the feature that would arguably become more important than the console itself.
Xbox goes Live
Show caption: Xbox Live helped turn online multiplayer, friends lists and …
On November 15, 2002, Microsoft launched Xbox Live in North America. Online console gaming already existed, but Microsoft attempted to create something more unified.
Players could use a single online identity across supported games, communicate through a headset, maintain friends lists and play against others over broadband.
The response was immediate. Microsoft sold 150,000 Xbox Live Starter Kits during the first week of sales. By January 2003, the service had more than 250,000 subscribers. A year after launch, the community had reached half a million before passing one million members in July 2004.
More importantly, Xbox Live began changing what players expected from a console.
Persistent usernames, voice communication, friends lists and online matchmaking gradually became expected features rather than technological novelties.
Halo 2, released in 2004, accelerated the shift. Its online multiplayer became one of the defining experiences of the early broadband era and demonstrated the potential of a console designed around internet connectivity.
The Ethernet socket on the back of the original Xbox, seemingly just another technical feature in 2001, suddenly looked far more significant.
A legacy bigger than its sales
Show caption: The original Xbox established the foundations for Microsoft’…
Judged purely against the PlayStation 2, the first Xbox lost badly. Judged as Microsoft’s attempt to enter one of the world’s most competitive entertainment industries from scratch, the effort was far more successful.
Its 24 million sales established an audience that Microsoft could carry into the Xbox 360, while Halo became one of gaming’s most recognisable franchises.
Xbox Live proved even more important. The idea of a console being permanently connected to a larger online community would shape not only Microsoft’s future systems but the expectations surrounding PlayStation, Nintendo and gaming more broadly.
Twenty-five years later, the original Xbox looks both ancient and surprisingly modern.
Its enormous body, wired controllers and standard-definition output clearly belong to another era. But a console built around PC-style architecture, internal storage, internet connectivity, online identities and multiplayer communities sounds remarkably familiar.
But the, first Xbox did not need to beat PlayStation to change gaming. Microsoft needed it to prove there was room for one more major player.
