Today marks an important anniversary for console gaming as a whole. You see, it was on November 14 a decade-and-a-half ago that Microsoft entered the ring with the first Xbox.
Originally unveiled at CES 2001 by then-CEO Bill Gates and released in November of the same year in the US, the original Xbox was Microsoft’s first foray into the console gaming market, entering the sixth generation alongside Sony’s PlayStation 2, Nintendo’s GameCube, and the short-lived Sega Dreamcast.
What began as a Frankenstein project involving disassembled Dell laptops, the Xbox was the company’s first standalone effort after previously working with Sega to support Windows CE on the Dreamcast. The original Xbox is responsible for pioneering a number of innovative features that would set the tone for future generations of console gaming.
Among others USP’s, the Xbox was the first home console to feature an 8 or 10 GB internal hard disk drive. While a common, expected addition in today’s age, back in 2001 such a feature negated the need for the more commonly used memory cards.
In November 2002, Microsoft launched the fee-based Xbox Live service as online gaming was acknowledged as one of the key pillars in the console’s strategy. This enabled subscribers to connect with other players and download new content via a broadband connection. It’s worth pointing out that Microsoft weren’t the first to bat with the idea: that honor goes to the Sega Dreamcast, which also included online support out-of-the-box.
However, where the Dreamcast failed the Xbox would succeed. Because of Xbox Live’s success the console was able to gain a foothold in online gaming and become a relevant competitor despite being in second place behind the PS2.
While Halo may have the distinction of being a “platform mover” for the Xbox brand as a whole, there’s little denying that a particular racing game by the name of Forza Motorsport shares a similar title. The above review, presented by the familiar face (and voice) of Brian Ekberg, Forza Motorsport was Turn 10’s opening chapter in their efforts to challenge Sony’s racing giant, Gran Turismo.
While Forza’s roster of 231 cars paled in comparison to Gran Turismo 4’s 700+, Forza had a trick up its sleeve: Porsche. No standalone entry in Gran Turismo featured the Stuttgart brand by official means, even to this very day. Realistic damage was yet another feature in the game’s arsenal, giving it another “up” on the competition. The feature wouldn’t be adapted to Sony’s franchise until the 2010 release of Gran Turismo 5.
With several distinct sub-classes for the cars offered, ranging from C to R-P1, Forza offered everything from daily drivers to dyed in the wool racing machines, much like Gran Turismo. The first entry in the franchise offered a mix of licensed and fictional circuits, even including the first taste of night-time racing in the series, a feature that wouldn’t return until 10 years later with the release of Forza Motorsport 6.
As you may have expected, Microsoft has joined in to celebrate the 15th anniversary of their first gaming platform by serving up some particularly interesting stats for the brand over the past 15 years:
- Number of players: 222,468,423
- Number of total gaming hours: 100,539,390,670
- Number of total multiplayer hours: 29,000,304,183
- Number of Achievements unlocked: 32,667,582,157
- Gamerscore racked up: 572,605,554,587
- Highest Gamerscore: 1,416,465
- Number of Xbox Live friendships made: 4,233,891,482
Going one further, Head of Xbox Games Aaron Greenberg shared the following video displaying the original prototype of the console.
The original @xbox prototype hardware on our @snapchat story pic.twitter.com/5IweH06lBS
— Aaron Greenberg (@aarongreenberg) November 15, 2016
Gamers are encouraged to share their experiences with the #15YearsOfXbox hashtag on social media. It begs the question: what are your personal highlights with the brand?
See more articles on Forza Motorsport, Microsoft, and Xbox.
As an xbox one owner, I only played on xbox 360 at a friends apartment back in 2011 or 2012 i think and it was the NFS hot pursuit. Never touched the original xbox before, playstation was really the only childhood console I played on.
Only this year I bought an Xbox one simply for Forza and I would say it’s worth it. Might as we pick up Halo in the future, who knows?
I’m probably going to do the same soon. I’ve always been a PlayStation gamer before going after another console, but I’ve kinda dropped off gaming these last… several years, after I got heavy into modifying real cars. That said, $300 is a lot to spend on a gaming console when I could be putting it into my car, so I’ve just been waiting for GT7 or a new Metal Gear before getting a PS4. But Horizon 3 is looking so good, I’m wondering if it’s worth it to buy a One just for that game; I know I’d end up buying some shooters for it down the line. But I figure, with as much as I still play GT6, just messing around tuning cars, I may as well get the Xbox. I know I’ll play the hell out of Horizon.
Halo parties were the new Goldeneye parties back then!
I didn’t get an original Xbox for myself until after I owned a PS3. To this day, I still play older consoles for games I missed out on when they were relevant. I remember one Halloween in high school when the first Halo was still king and I was at someone’s house that had two or three TVs connected to the same game. Good times.
I didn’t own an Xbox myself, but I remember someone I knew used it as a mediaserver with plenty of pirated games and movies on it. Don’t remember the software used, but you guys probably know. Only dislike is the controller. First time I ever laid my hands on it was when I visited my friend playing Driv3r. It had no RB and LB, and the biiiig logo in the middle instead of a button. I hated that. And it felt too big.
And about that prototype – thank god it didn’t ship like that xD
Wow, 15 years?!?!
I feel old…
Oh ya what a great machine it was. I bought mine on launch day with some of my first money I was making at a ‘Wal-Mart type’ store in Canada (Zellers) and had the Electronics Department dude make sure he set one aside for me. I was doing maintenace and stocking in the evening and remember drooling seeing the first shipment of skids stacked with consoles sitting behind the secured electronics cage in the shipping and receiving area.. : )
Great times, I bought a couple games every month for a solid year. Project Gotham Racing was definitely a game I played a lot right when I got it, but Rallisport Challange was a really fun game to me and played it like a cracker!.. it was prolly the first racing game I would say I REALLY owned in terms of beating the game and trying to beat my own and a good friend who was just unreal with lap/stage times.. we had a lot of late nights and he was the one also who initially got me into GT3.. but I sucked a bit and didn’t really like being shown up… which a year later or so I went back to GT (guess I grew up a bit.. got a license and car) and put some effort into it and realized that real life cars do ask to brake before turning and be driven in a much more careful way and that it’s actually great fun to shave seconds off laptimes.. : )
Well, I gotta say it did do well with having a nice PATA HDD, which beats the PS2 without software manipulation. There are several prototypes of the original Xbox, one was a PC rig for online testing.