Xbox

Xbox
Xbox console with "Controller S"
Manufacturer	Flextronics<ref name=Wired2011>O'Brien, Jeffrey M. (November 2011). "The Making of the Xbox". Wired. Condé Nast. Retrieved April 17, 2013.</ref>
Type	Home video game console
Release date	Template:Video game release
Connectivity	100 Mbit Ethernet
Retail availability	2001–2009
Media	DVD, CD, digital distribution
Operating system	Custom
Storage capacity	8 or 10 GB internal hard drive (formatted to 8 GB with allotted system reserve and MS Dash), 8 MB memory card
Successor	Xbox 360

Introduction

The Xbox is a home video game console and the first installment in the Xbox series of consoles manufactured by Microsoft. It was released on November 15, 2001 in North America, followed by Australia, Europe and Japan in 2002.<ref>"Xbox Arrives in New York Tonight at Toys "R" Us Times Square". 2013-06-12. Retrieved 2018-11-20.</ref> It was Microsoft's first foray into the gaming console market. It is a sixth generation console, and competed with Sony's PlayStation 2 and Nintendo's GameCube. It was also the first console produced by an American company since the Atari Jaguar ceased production in 1996.

Announced in 2000, the Xbox was graphically powerful compared to its rivals, featured an 733 MHz Intel Pentium III processor, a processor that could be found on a standard PC. It was also noted for its PC-like size and weight, and was the first console to feature a built-in hard disk.<ref>Herold, Charles. "GAME THEORY; Console Shootout: The Sequel". nytimes.com.</ref><ref>Dyer, Mitch (November 23, 2011). "The Life and Death of the Original Xbox". Retrieved December 30, 2016.</ref> In November 2002, Microsoft launched Xbox Live, a fee-based online gaming service that enabled subscribers to download new content and connect with other players through a broadband connection.<ref name="nelson">"Xbox Live's Major Nelson » Xbox LIVE being discontinued for Original Xbox consoles and games :". Majornelson.com. April 15, 2010. Retrieved April 22, 2013.</ref> Unlike other online services from Sega and Sony, Xbox Live had support in the original console design through an integrated Ethernet port. The service gave Microsoft an early foothold in online gaming and would help the Xbox become a relevant competitor to other sixth-generation consoles. The popularity of blockbuster titles such as Halo 2 contributed to the popularity of online console gaming, and in particular first-person shooters.<ref>"History Of First Person Shooters". Retrieved December 30, 2016.</ref> Despite this and being in second position, ahead of Nintendo's GameCube and Sega's Dreamcast, sales of the Xbox were always well behind Sony's PlayStation 2.<ref>Robischon, Noah. "PlayStation 2 Shortage Frustrates More Than Buyers". nytimes.com.</ref><ref>"BBC NEWS - Technology - Slimmer PlayStation triple sales". Retrieved December 30, 2016.</ref>

Xbox's successor, the Xbox 360, was launched in November 2005. The Xbox was soon discontinued beginning with Microsoft's worst-performing market, Japan, in 2005. Other countries would follow suit in 2006.<ref name="Story of Xbox - VG247">Garratt, Patrick (August 5, 2011). "The Xbox Story, Part 1: The Birth of a Console". vg247.com. Retrieved June 26, 2013.</ref> The last Xbox game in Europe was Xiaolin Showdown released in June 2007, and the last game in North America was Madden NFL 09 released in August 2008. Support for out-of-warranty Xbox consoles was discontinued on March 2, 2009. Support for Xbox Live on the console ended on April 15, 2010.

Hardware

The use of standard desktop components such as a DVD-ROM and hard drive contributed to much of the Xbox's weight and bulk.

A separately-sold remote was required for DVD movie playback on the Xbox.

The Xbox was the first video game console to feature a built-in hard disk drive, used primarily for storing game saves and content downloaded from Xbox Live. This eliminated the need for separate memory cards (although some older consoles, such as the Amiga CD32, used internal flash memory, and others, like the TurboGrafx-CD, Sega CD, and Sega Saturn, had featured built-in battery backup memory prior to 2001). An Xbox user could rip music from standard audio CDs to the hard drive, and these songs were used for the custom soundtracks in some games.<ref>"Xbox: Description of custom soundtracks". Microsoft Knowledge Base. April 25, 2007. Retrieved January 13, 2008.</ref>

The Xbox was the first gaming product to feature Dolby Interactive Content-Encoding Technology, which allows real-time Dolby Digital encoding in game consoles. Previous game consoles could only use Dolby Digital 5.1 during non-interactive "cut scene" playback.<ref>Template:Cite press release</ref>

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-loading DVD-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 discourage modding (hackers continually updated modchip 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 rendered the consoles either unable to read newer discs or caused them to halt the console with an error code usually indicating a PIO/DMA identification failure, respectively. These units were not covered under the extended warranty.

In 2002 Microsoft and Nvidia entered arbitration over a dispute on the pricing of Nvidia's chips for the Xbox.<ref name="eetimes-chip-dispute">"Microsoft takes Nvidia to arbitration over pricing of Xbox processors". EE Times. April 29, 2002. Retrieved June 29, 2006.</ref> Nvidia's filing with the SEC 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.<ref>"Microsoft and Nvidia settle Xbox chip pricing dispute". EE Times. February 6, 2003. Retrieved June 29, 2006.</ref>

The Xbox includes a standard AV cable which provides composite video and monaural or stereo audio to TVs equipped with RCA inputs. European Xboxes also included an RCA jack to SCART converter block as well as the standard AV cable.

An 8 MB removable solid state memory 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.

Technical specifications

Its CPU is a 32-bit 733 MHz, custom Intel Pentium III Coppermine-based processor. It has a 133 MHz 64-bit GTL+ front-side bus (FSB) with a 1.06 GB/s bandwidth. The system has 64 MB unified DDR 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.<ref name="anandtech">"Anandtech Microsoft's Xbox". Anandtech.com. Retrieved November 11, 2010.</ref>

Its GPU is Nvidia's 233 MHz NV2A. It has a floating-point performance of 7.3 GFLOPS, capable of geometry calculations for up to a theoretical 115 million vertices/second. It has a peak fillrate of 932 megapixels/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, with Z-buffering, fogging, alpha blending, and texture mapping,<ref>Graphics Processor Specifications, IGN, 2001</ref> giving it a real-world performance of 7.8–21 million 32-pixel triangles/second.

Controllers

Original Xbox controller

Xbox controller S

The Xbox controller features two analog 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).<ref>"Inside Xbox 360 Controller".</ref> The standard Xbox controller (also nicknamed the "Fatty"<ref name="nickname">"Xbox 360 Wireless Controller Tour". IGN. May 13, 2005. Retrieved July 2, 2011. the original "Fatty" Xbox controller didn't have a specific public name</ref> and later, the "Duke"<ref name="nickname2">"Xbox's original beast of a controller making a comeback?". CNET. June 15, 2005. Retrieved October 16, 2011. Anyone who purchased the original Xbox during its launch window quickly came to know its behemoth of a controller, now nicknamed "Duke."</ref>) 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" by Game Informer in 2001,<ref>Games of 2001. Game Informer (January 2002, pg. 48).</ref> a Guinness World Record for the biggest controller in Guinness World Records Gamer's Edition 2008, and was ranked the second-worst video game controller ever by IGN editor Craig Harris.<ref>"Top 10 Tuesday: Worst Game Controllers". IGN. February 21, 2006. Retrieved August 7, 2009.</ref>

The "Controller S" (codenamed "Akebono"), a smaller, lighter Xbox controller, was originally the standard Xbox controller only in Japan,<ref>Ninja Beach Party. Official Xbox Magazine (October 2002, issue 11, pg. 44).</ref> designed for users with smaller hands.<ref>Christopher Buecheler [email protected] (June 24, 2008). "GameSpy.com - Hardware: Xbox Controller S". Web.archive.org. Archived from the original on June 24, 2008. Retrieved November 11, 2010.</ref><ref>"Xbox Retrospective: All-Time Top Xbox News". Gamer 2.0. Archived from the original on May 3, 2010. Retrieved November 11, 2010.</ref> 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.

Software

Operating system

The Xbox runs a custom operating system which is based on the Windows architecture kernel<ref>Trinder, Garry. "The Xbox Operating System". Xbox Engineering. MSDN. Retrieved 31 October 2018.</ref>. It exposes APIs similar to APIs found in Microsoft Windows, such as Direct3D 8.1. The system software may have been partially based on the Windows NT kernel, but it has modified log files.<ref>"The Xbox Operating System". Xbox Team Blog. Retrieved July 3, 2008.</ref>

The user interface for the Xbox is called the Xbox Dashboard. It features a media player that can be used to play music CDs, rip CDs to the Xbox's built-in hard 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 Live users sign in 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 yet so the dashboard's Live feature was unusable.

Xbox Live was released in 2002, but in order to access it, users had to buy the Xbox Live starter kit containing a headset, a subscription, and supplemental.Template:Clarify While the Xbox was still being supported by Microsoft, the Xbox Dashboard was updated via Live several times to reduce cheating and add features.

Services

File:Xbox-live-logo.png

150px

On November 15, 2002, Microsoft launched its Xbox Live online gaming service, allowing subscribers to play online Xbox games with other subscribers around the world and download new content directly to the system's hard drive. The online service works only with a broadband Internet connection. Approximately 250,000 subscribers signed up within two months of Xbox Live's launch.<ref>Coleman, Stephen (January 7, 2003). "Xbox Live Subscriptions Double Expectations". IGN. Archived from the original on March 14, 2007. Retrieved September 30, 2007.</ref> In July 2004, Microsoft announced that Xbox Live had reached 1 million subscribers; in July 2005, membership reached two million, and by July 2007 there were more than 3 million subscribers. By May 2009, the number had ballooned to 20 million current subscribers.<ref>"Microsoft touts 30 million Xbox 360s sold, 20 million Xbox LIVE members". Engadget. Retrieved November 11, 2010.</ref> On February 5, 2010, it was reported that Xbox Live support for the original Xbox games would be discontinued as of April 14, 2010.<ref name="nelson"/> Services were discontinued on schedule, but a group of 20 gamers continued to play for almost a month afterwards by simply leaving their consoles on connected to Halo 2.<ref>"People still playing Halo 2 somehow". Eurogamer. April 26, 2010. Retrieved June 4, 2010.</ref>

Sales

Region	Units sold (as of May 10, 2006)	First available
North America	16 million	November 15, 2001
Europe	6 million	March 14, 2002
Asia & Pacific	2 million	February 22, 2002
Worldwide	24 million	N/A

On November 15, 2001, Xbox launched in North America and quickly sold out. Its launch in that region was successful, selling 1.53 million units three months after launch, which is higher than its successor Xbox 360, as well as the GameCube, PlayStation 3, Wii U, and even the PlayStation 2 and Wii.<ref>Orland, Kyle (February 15, 2013). "Wii U has historically bad January, sells about 50,000 units in U.S". Arstechnica.com. Retrieved April 25, 2014.</ref>

The Xbox has sold 24 million units worldwide as of May 10, 2006, according to Microsoft.<ref name="gamers_catch" /> This is divided out to 16 million units sold in North America, six million units in Europe, and just two million units sold in Asia, Australia, and New Zealand.

The Xbox was almost always behind the PlayStation 2 in terms of sales, although in April 2004, the Xbox outsold the PS2 in the U.S.<ref>Thorsen, Tor (May 26, 2004). "Xbox officially outsells PS2 in US". GameSpot.com. CBS Interactive. Archived from the original on June 28, 2013. Retrieved August 12, 2013.</ref> Despite lagging far behind the PlayStation 2's sales, the Xbox was overall a success (especially in North America), keeping a steady second place in the generation sales.

Japan

Despite a strong promotion in Japan,<ref>"Xbox launches in Japan". The Gaming Intelligence Agency. February 22, 2002. Archived from the original on December 12, 2013. Retrieved August 12, 2013.</ref><ref>"Xbox unleashed in Japan". The Age Company Ltd. February 22, 2002. Retrieved August 12, 2013.</ref> the country saw very poor sales (450,000 as of November 2011).<ref>"The Life and Death of the Original Xbox". IGN UK. Retrieved April 25, 2014.</ref> Some analysts already believed that the Xbox would have trouble competing with Sony and Nintendo before its Japanese launch, claiming that the Xbox would be competing against its local counterparts and that the console does not fit well with Japanese society (e.g., console size), as well as the lack of Japanese-appealing launch titles, such as role-playing games.<ref>"Game-over for Xbox in Japan?". Taipei Times. February 21, 2002. Retrieved August 12, 2013.</ref> For the week ending April 14, 2002, the Xbox was by far outsold by its Sony and Nintendo rivals, as well as the WonderSwan and even the PSone.<ref>"Japan GCN sales". IGN Entertainment. April 18, 2002. Retrieved August 12, 2013.</ref> In November 2002, the Xbox chief in Japan stepped down, leading to further consultations about Xbox's future, which had by then sold just 278,860 units in the country since its February launch.<ref>Template:Citation</ref><ref>"Japan Xbox chief steps down". PinoyExchange Forums. November 10, 2002. Retrieved August 12, 2013.</ref> For the week ending July 18, 2004, the Xbox sold just 272 units, which was so poor that even the PSone outsold it by four.<ref>Funky Zealot (July 23, 2004). "Xbox Outsold by PS one in Japan". GamePro.com. IDG Entertainment. Archived from the original on August 17, 2004. Retrieved August 12, 2013.</ref> The Xbox did, however, outsell the GameCube for the week ending May 26, 2002.<ref>"Xbox overtakes GameCube in Japan". computerandvideogames.com. Archived from the original on April 13, 2013.</ref> Despite Microsoft's struggles, some Japanese-appealing games were released exclusively for the Xbox, such as Dead or Alive 3 or Ninja Gaiden, which hugely contributed to the sales of Xbox in Japan. Its successor Xbox 360 sold 1.6 million units as of February 2014.<ref>Phillips, Tom (February 26, 2014). "Wii U has finally overtaken Xbox 360 in Japan •". Eurogamer.net. Retrieved April 25, 2014.</ref>

Modding

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 informally known as modding.