Xbox 360 Accessories

The Xbox is a video game console that was produced by the computing giant Microsoft. As the first step into the gaming console market for Microsoft, the Xbox competed directly with Sony’s PS2, Nintendo’s GameCube and Sega’s Dreamcast.

The Xbox first hit the shelves on the 15th of November 2001 in North America. February 22nd 2002, saw the Xbox on sale in Japan and by the 14th of March it had been placed on the shelves in stores across Australia and Europe. The Xbox gaming console was stepped out of production in late 2006, but the last game released for the system was in August 2008.

In early 2009, all support for out-of-warranty Xbox consoles was discontinued, although for repairs on a system still in warranty will be happily carried out.

The Xbox was the first serious venture into the gaming console market by Microsoft and the decision to do so was made after collaborating with Sega to place the Windows CE system on the Dreamcast. The launch of the Xbox by Microsoft was repeatedly delayed after it was first mentioned in late 1999. During interviews, Bill Gates stated the need for the production of a gaming console as it was considered essential for multimedia convergence in the modern times.

The Xbox was finally unveiled in 2000 at the Game Developers Conference and audiences were completely stunned by the amazing technology put into the console. By this time, Sony’s PS2 was just hitting the streets in Japan while Sega’s Dreamcast was met with diminishing sales.

The European release of the Xbox was delayed as Microsoft wanted to concentrate on getting a foothold in the Japanese market. Although in the end, Europe turned out to be far more receptive of the Xbox.

During Microsoft’s launch preparations for the Xbox, they acquired Bungie which allowed them to use Halo: Combat Evolved as their major launch title. This proved to be a great decision as the application was able to drive the Xbox sales. During 2002, Microsoft replaced Nintendo in the second place spot for gaming consoles sold in North America.

The most popular launch titles for the Xbox included Dead or Alive 3, Halo: Combat Evolved, Amped: freestyle Snowboarding and Project Gotham Racing.
What many people don’t realise is that the original name for the Xbox was in fact the DirectX Box. This was because the console was produced by a group of Microsoft DirectX developers. After serious focus testing it was decided that the name of the console would be changed to the Xbox. Apparently the Xbox marketing team created a very long list of possible names for the console.

Late 2002 saw the release of Microsoft’s Xbox Live online gaming service. This service allowed for worldwide multiplayer gaming as well as gave the ability to download new content straight to the Xbox’s hard drive. Within the first two months of the release of Xbox Live there were approximately 250,000 subscribers. By mid-2004 the service topped numbers of 1 million subscribers, a figure which doubled to 2 million over the course of the next year.

In July of 2007 the subscribers for Xbox Live had reached 3 million. This figure has since grown massively with over 20 million current subscribers to the online gaming service. The Xbox Dashboard was updated a number of times through the use of Xbox Live in order to add new features and reduce cheating.