That competed with the established industry leaders PlayStation and Nintendo

It was of course, the Xbox

Which has been staking its claim as one of the best gaming platforms ever since

In anticipation of its fourth generation console, the Xbox Series X

It's only right that we cover the origins

And progression of this much-loved entertainment brand

This is the evolution of Xbox

Before the Xbox, Microsoft had, besides making computer software

Already been successful with publishing games for PC

Such as Age of Empires and Microsoft Flight Simulator

Meanwhile, Sony was growing in popularity with the PlayStation 1

And was already working on the PlayStation 2

Because Sony became a threat for Microsoft

And video games were rapidly growing into a massive industry

Microsoft decided to venture into the console gaming market

As far back as 1998

The original development team for the Xbox pitched an idea to Bill Gates

For a console that could harness the power of a PC

The initial concept was dubbed the DirectX Box

And would operate using Windows 2000

Which made it easy for developers

Since they were already familiar with the software

The Xbox could have had a very different name

Such as MITH, Microsoft Interactive Theatre

FACE, Full Action Centre

VIP, Virtual Interactive Player

And probably Elon Musk's favorite name

MARZ or Microsoft Active Reality Zone

Eventually, the name was shortened from DirectX Box to just Xbox

Three years later the machine was showcased by Bill Gates and the Rock

Wait… What??

The Xbox is everything the Rock is

Cutting-edge, powerful, exhilarating

And like the Rock

It will be the most electrifying coming out this year

While the features of the Xbox like

Potential for online play and HD resolution were no doubt impressive

Skeptics viewed the concept as no more than a PC in game console clothing

Regardless, the release date was soon set for the following year

And both gamers and critics alike

Waited with excitement for the launch of this groundbreaking new system

Fun fact; According to, Xbox Co-creator, Seamus Blackley

There was a guy at Microsoft who had fancy markers

Which were immediately stolen by everyone

The only color he had left was the green one

So, he made the designs with that color

Microsoft actually used that green as the iconic Xbox color

Blackley refers to it as, “the green nobody wanted”

In 2001, the Xbox was officially released

Microsoft managed to sell 1 million units in its first 3 weeks

When it was introduced, Microsoft's machine was competing against

Sony's PlayStation 2, Nintendo's GameCube and Sega's Dreamcast

While the PS2 would ultimately prevail in terms of sales by a huge margin

The Xbox did end up outselling the GameCube

With estimated sales of 24 million compared to 21.7 million units respectively

The Dreamcast however only managed to sell 9.1 million units

Prior to its launch

Microsoft had acquired a games development company called Bungie

Bungie adapted their Halo franchise into a First Person Shooter

That could take full advantage of Xbox's impressive specifications

And the rest, as they say, is history

Halo & Halo 2 sold millions of copies

Shattering records and became a classic Xbox exclusive series

As well as a flagship game for the system

Other notable games were Forza Motorsport

Fable

Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic

And Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell

Xbox became known as a platform for Western games and first-person-shooters

Which were quite rare back then

The controller that came with the first console was bulky, to say the least

Given the nickname of “The Duke”, because of its hefty size and weight

A slimmer 'S' version had to be made for the Japanese market

The S model controller eventually replaced the Duke entirely

To the relief of gamers everywhere

In 2002 Xbox Live was made available

Xbox Live is a subscription-based service

Which made it possible to play online multiplayer games

Microsoft lost money on every Xbox they sold

Due to the high manufacturing costs of $425

While the retail price was only $300

In total Microsoft lost a whopping 4 billion on the original Xbox

However, they succeeded in making a name for their console

In 2005 Microsoft doubled-down on their efforts

And released the Xbox 360

Almost a full year before its competitors came out with the PlayStation 3 and Nintendo Wii

Changing to an all-white appearance

The 360 released at price points of $400 for the Pro version

Which came with a 20 gigabyte hard drive

And $300 for the Core version

Which only had 4 gigabytes of internal flash memory

More models off the 360 were released later

In 2007 came the Elite with a 120 Gigabyte hard drive and a black finish

The Core version was replaced by the Arcade

Both are almost identical

In 2010 came the Xbox 360 S

Which was a slimmer model that also has a Wi-Fi adapter

And lastly, in 2013

Came the E model that was restyled with design traits of the Xbox One

Getting the jump on its rivals certainly paid off for Microsoft

As the 360 sold more than 86 million units

And remains the company's highest selling games console to date

Updated hardware resulted in better graphics

And a system that was thought to be much easier and more attractive for game developers

Xbox staff worked closely with game development studios

And secured more exclusive titles like the Gears of War franchise

Gamers had access to a wide variety of online and offline hits such as

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2

Fable II

Forza Motorsport 4

Grand Theft Auto V

And, of course, many Halo games

Such as Halo 3

Halo Reach

And Halo 4

The 360 was a great home entertainment system too

Playing CDs and DVDs while supporting services like Netflix

The user interface, or dashboard

Has undergone many changes throughout the Xbox's history

With the aim of making the user experience smoother and easier for all

However, it was not always received that way

One aspect of the 360 that Microsoft would rather forget about is

The dreaded 'red ring of death'

A console-killing issue that plagued Xbox owners

And was signified by a ring of LEDs on the front of the console turning red

And the system doing not much else

It was often caused by overheating

At least Microsoft's CEO at the time, Steve Ballmer

Had no problem spending over 1 billion dollars to recall the 360

In order to legitimately solve the red ring of death problem

In 2010, the Kinect add-on was launched

Which consisted of a motion-controlled device and microphone

This allowed players to use their bodies and voice to control the action

Instead of using a traditional controller

Games such as Kinect Adventures

Dance Central

And Kinect Sports helped to sell the gadget

In total 24 million units were sold

For those paying attention

You'll recall that's as many sales as the original Xbox console

The next Xbox console was released in 2013

It was marketed as an “all-in-one entertainment system” hence the name 'Xbox One'

Every Xbox One initially would be sold with the new Kinect sensor

It made use of a full HD camera with a wider angle coverage

Improved tracking accuracy, and heart-rate monitoring

The Xbox One with the Kinect sensor came at a high price of $500

Especially next to Sony's $400 PlayStation 4

The high price plus other drawbacks such as an inability to share or resell games

Privacy issues with the Kinect sensor

And having to always be connected to the internet

Resulted in a terrible launch of the Xbox One

Microsoft did retract and change many of their initial requirements

But for a lot of gamers the damage had already been done

It's fair to say the Xbox One a shaky start

Though it did recover somewhat

And to date has sold over 47 million units

Ultimately though, it lost ground to Sony, who sold 109 million PS4s

And Nintendo who sold 52 million of their Switches

Microsoft marketed the Xbox One as more of a multimedia device

With owners able to play media from USB devices, CDs, DVDs, and Blu-ray discs

As well as being able to capture and stream gameplay footage

The console's original operating system was based on Windows 8

But the user interface was not well received

It has been updated over the years though

The focus on home entertainment as opposed to just gaming

Has led some to believe that Xbox has fallen behind in terms of the game titles it now offers

Still, it has a number of exciting exclusives

Such as Forza Horizon 4

Gears 5

Sea of Thieves

And Halo 5

More iconic games available to play on the Xbox One include

Red Dead Redemption 2

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare

Minecraft

Battlefield 1

And Cuphead

Oh man… This game can be frustrating

The Xbox One controller is refined from the Xbox 360

The D-Pad is improved

The analog sticks are easier to move and have more grip

The X, Y, A and B buttons were moved closer together

And the trigger and bumper buttons were made much wider

It is now also possible to design your own controller with Xbox Design Lab

Multiple models of the Xbox One were released

In 2016 came the smaller Xbox One S

This Xbox can upscale games to 4K resolution and supports High Dynamic Range

Which broadens colors and contrast

The Xbox One X is a high-end model which was released in 2017

It features upgraded hardware which is a lot more powerful

And can play games in 4K resolution

And in 2019 came the Xbox One S All-Digital Edition

It doesn't have a disk drive and stores everything in the cloud

And finally, scheduled for release at the end of 2020 is the Xbox Series X

At the time of writing, no price has yet been announced

But Xbox appears to be focusing on a high-end product

The new system is claimed to be twice as powerful as the Xbox One X

And will be able to play games in 4K resolution

Has a 1 terabyte SSD

And can render 120 frames per second

It is also backwards compatible allowing to play games from all Xbox consoles

New games coming for the Xbox Series X are Forza Motorsport

Hellblade 2

Dirt 5

Fable

Cyberpunk 2077

And, of course, Halo Infinite

Unfortunately though Microsoft Flight Simulator has not yet been announced for the Xbox Series X

Xbox certainly intends to stay competitive

But surprisingly Microsoft's head of Xbox, Phil Spencer

Revealed that it isn't PlayStation and Nintendo whom they see as their main competition for the future

It actually is Google and Amazon

Since the future console wars could be with cloud gaming services

Cloud gaming still seems like it's in the distant future

So for now let's just wait in excitement for the next generations of Xbox consoles!