A Potted History of the Xbox
The games device that became the Xbox was primarily developed by the Microsoft organization by a minute team that involved game developer Seamus Blackley. The Microsoft Corporation delayed many times the console, which was first shown at the end of 1999 following interviews of the Microsoft Corporation CEO. The Chief Exectutive Officer said that a gaming/multimedia piece of kit had become essential for the development of multimedia.
According to the book Smartbomb by Heather Chaplin and Aaron Ruby, the fantastic popularity of the Sony PlayStation greatly concerned Microsoft towards the end of 1999. The expanding gaming console market seemed to threaten the market for the Personal Computer which the Microsoft company had full control of and relied on for a great deal of its substantial revenues. On top of this, a venture into the video game market would diversify Microsoft's line of products, which up until that time had been heavily focussed on software.
According to the writer Dean Takahashi in his book, Opening the Xbox, The device that became the Xbox initially was to be titled the DirectX-box, to illustrate the extensive use of DirectX inside the console's inner workings. Xbox became the ultimate designation taken by Microsoft's marketing, but the equipment currently keeps some hints in the direction of DirectX, most notably the X-shaped logo, which DirectX is famous for, not to mention the X shape at the top of the pieces of euipment. Despite all of this however, it is conceivable that the x86 (Pentium 3) processor could have been the inspiration behind it.
Since that time the main three in gaming have seen their share of ups and downs. During the period that this piece was written, Sony sold 280,800 PS3s topping the 254,600 units of Xbox 360 moved by Microsoft. Beating both consoles, however, was the Wii. Nintendo shipped 432,000 of the cheaper consoles liked by the more casual gamer.
For a good collection of New Xbox Games try this website.
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