
The Xbox has become a direct competitor to Sony's PlayStation brand, both offering high performance gaming systems at roughly similar specifications.
XBOX ONE S SERIES
Since its release, there have been four generations of Xbox, with the most recent being the Xbox Series X and Series S units. However, its performance was sufficient to convince the company to continue to produce the line. While the original Xbox had modest sales, Microsoft took a large financial loss to support it. Microsoft's marketing team conducted consumer surveys of the name, using the name "Xbox" as a control believing this would be least desirable, but found that this had the highest preference from their tests, and was selected as the name of the console. Numerous names were suggested for this console, including "Direct X Box", and the "Windows Entertainment Project".
XBOX ONE S WINDOWS
This approach would make it easy for developers on Windows to build games for their new system, differentiating itself from the custom hardware solutions of most consoles. They designed a system that would use many hardware components in common with PCs, effectively running a version of Windows and DirectX to power the games on the console. įour engineers from Microsoft's DirectX team-Kevin Bachus, Seamus Blackley, Ted Hase and DirectX team leader Otto Berkes, began to envision what a Microsoft console to compete against the PlayStation 2 would be like. Microsoft, whose business had been primarily in supporting the personal computer (PC) business with its Windows operating system, software, and games, saw the PlayStation 2 as a threat to the personal computer. When Sony Computer Entertainment first announced the PlayStation 2 in 1999, the company had positioned the console as a centerpiece for home entertainment, as it not only would play video games, but also could play audio CDs and video DVDs.

Microsoft's second console, the Xbox 360, was released in 2005 and has sold 86 million units as of October 2021. It reached over 24 million units sold by May 2006. The original device was the first video game console offered by an American company after the Atari Jaguar stopped sales in 1996. The brand was first introduced in the United States in November 2001, with the launch of the original Xbox console. The brand consists of five video game consoles, as well as applications (games), streaming services, an online service by the name of Xbox network, and the development arm by the name of Xbox Game Studios.

Xbox is a video gaming brand created and owned by Microsoft. For other uses, see Xbox (disambiguation). For the 2001 console, see Xbox (console).
