The Xbox turned 10 today after it first hit U.S. store shelves on November 15, 2001. The Xbox since has sold over 57 million units. As we reported recently the NPD numbers for the Xbox put it as the sales leader in the U.S. for the past 16 of 19 months.
Given the success of Xbox today, it is easy to forget how far Microsoft has come in their journey over the past decade. In fact the original Xbox was the first game console to have an ethernet port with many questioning why it was necessary. This of course was a day before broadband internet was widely available. Microsoft was able to see the future of online gaming and with that the world has enjoyed Xbox Live since 2002. Some of the game highlights that started off the Xbox era are mentioned below.
Highlights included Halo: Combat Evolved, Halo 2, Fable, Psychonauts, Burnout 3, Splinter Cell Chaos Theory, Beyond Good and Evil, Forza Motorsport, Full Spectrum Warrior, Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas, Oddworld: Stranger’s Wrath, Prince of Persia: Sands of Time, Project Gotham Racing 2, Rallisport Challenge 2, Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic, Ninja Gaiden Black and The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind.
The 360’s highlights include games like Batman Arkham City, Grand Theft Auto IV, Gears of War 3, The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, BioShock, Fallout 3, Forza Motorsport 4, Portal 2, Mass Effect 2, Red Dead Redemption, Modern Warfare 3, Braid, Halo 3, Rock Band 3, Limbo, Left 4 Dead 2 and Assassin’s Creed II.
Microsoft also hasn’t been afraid to rejuvenate the Xbox 360’s interface, and keep introducing new hardware models. The most significant hardware revision was the slim version unveiled at the 2010 Electronic Entertainment Expo. More importantly, Microsoft also began to widen its audience, largely thanks to the innovative Kinect sensor. Kinect instantly resonated with a more casual game-playing audience, reinvigorating the Xbox 360 platform. Microsoft sold an astonishing 10 million Kinect sensors in just its first few months on sale.
This current generation console still has quite a bit of life left in it before the next hardware iteration is announced. This was proven this past week as it was confirmed Halo 4 will be coming to this generation Xbox 360. Frank O’Connor, Halo series director at developer 343 Industries posted a response on the gaming message board NgoGAF. 343 Industries is also the development team behind Halo: Combat Evolved Anniversary Edition, a remake of Bungie’s decade-old Halo: Combat Evolved.
“Halo 4 will be on Xbox 360 and use a modified core of the Halo engine(s) […] Not really a singular engine since it goes through fairly radical evolutions all the time.”
So here is to another ten more years on the Xbox console and all those game achievements yet to be had!
