History of Xbox

The first TV I bought when I moved out was something like a 32 inch Tube TV in ‘99 that was a two-man project to carry it into the house. It was the biggest tube TV I could buy, it couldn’t afford the projection TVs that ran into the thousands of dollars.

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shoes, the pic is not mine, but i have a pair from launch day, still in the bag, officially i think it was supposed to be part of our daily wear but i set mine aside.

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our other daily wear, xbox long sleave, or short sleeve shirts, the shiny xbox jacket,

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Here’s another commercial, this one a joint effort between Walmart and Xbox and dates from the Series X|S launch. I include it here for the same reason I posted the above one, it leans heavily into the history of the brand:

Some pretty nice photos of the original Xbox in this piece, and an almost philosophical analysis of the eject button on the original Xbox, and what it symbolises. As well as what its size indicates about its importance on each Xbox from the original to present day.

Also available here: https://archive.is/jRcGx

I already posted this link over in Phil Spencer’s lifetime achievement award thread, but I felt it also fits in here, considering how much of Xbox’s history that profile covers, and what an outsized impact Spencer has had on the brand.

This is kind of fun. I wish the guy was a little more enthusiastic and also that he’d shot some more actual unboxing, but it’s still a neat little time capsule:

John and Audi revisit Indiana Jones and the Emperor’s Tomb, and discuss a little bit in general about the original Xbox and the hidden gems on that console.

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Just a little tidbit of history but from a developer point of view, they had a different name for game patches on every generation of Xbox for some reason.

on the original Xbox, patches were an “AU”, Automatic Update.

On Xbox 360, they were a “TU”, or Title Update.

On Xbox One and Series, they’re a “CU”, or Content Update.

It’s entirely officepolitic, but there you go.

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As I’m sure most here are aware, Ed Fries was a guest on the latest episode of the Xboxera podcast, and while the whole episode is worthwhile, the most interesting bit for the purposes of this thread is the section where Fries speaks at length about the launch of the original Xbox and the 20th anniversary.

Here’s a direct link to the beginning of that part:

He mentions that leading up to the anniversary he posted a bunch of photos related to Xbox history, and I encourage you to check those out too. I especially like the Xbox keyring and the Blinx clock:

https://www.instagram.com/p/CU5Tz_Zp3_h/

https://www.instagram.com/p/CVV1T1SP5J1/

The first photo was posted on October 4th, 2021 and the last one was posted on November 16th, 2021.

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Anyone who’s read Opening the Xbox might remember how part of Seamus Blackley’s job was to woo developers, and the various demos that he would use to show off what the Xbox could do.

Well, these are those demos:

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https://twitter.com/GameHistoryOrg/status/1562107400567627777?t=VbFnDLxqbVYrjDI-MpznRA&s=19

Something that popped in my timeline that I thought would be cool to share.

Between the paragraphs below, I attached images from a game called Wishworld. A small studio named Big Blue Box that was created as Bullfrog began to collapse after Peter Molyneux left, developed the concept for this game. But it wasn’t until later when they would merge with Lionhead that the game would go from being Wishworld to Project Ego. From there Project Ego would eventually be renamed to Fable.

Related directly to Xbox though. Dene and Simon Carter are siblings, and were also the founders of Big Blue Box Studios. Damian Buzugbe is a concept artist that worked on Fable 1 and 2. What they say about the original Xbox console and Duke controller after seeing it for the first time is pretty great!

While Fable didn’t begin life as an Xbox exclusive – it was in development for the Sega Dreamcast at one point – it would be Microsoft’s involvement that elevated the project to a whole new level of importance. “When I joined in 2000, Microsoft were already on board, which was excellent as they were developing this brand new, crazy-looking console,” recalls Fable artist Damian Buzugbe. “What better fit than this brand new crazy-looking game. It seemed perfect to me.”

Wishworld, the concept that would become Fable.

The sheer size of Microsoft’s new console was a surprise when the team first laid eyes on it, however. “The Xbox design wasn’t exactly restrained,” chuckles Simon. “If the PS2 was an elegant Japanese bento box, the Xbox was a flame-grilled double-whopper with extra cheese.” Buzugbe is in agreement. “You couldn’t get a bigger, louder and brasher-looking console than that. That thing had room for a family of four to easily sit around it and still have room to invite granny round.” The massive ‘Duke’ controller was also a point of contention. “At that point, we had the controllers that were the size of a large roast dinner, and about as easy to handle,” says Dene. “Out of sheer frustration, we stole a couple of the smaller Japanese ‘Controller S’ joypads during one E3 show. A year later we ran into some bugs on the controller driver and, rather helpfully, reported this to Microsoft. They said: ‘Uh… you’re using controller 3.5.275b. You shouldn’t have those! Where did you get…’ – at which point we put down the phone and tried to pretend the whole incident had never happened.”

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Gaming Historian is a great YouTube channel, well worth a visit for anyone interested in the history of videogames.

He’s got a long-running (and very sporadic) series of videos detailing what he considers are the three biggest mistakes of various videogame companies. He’s covered Nintendo, Sega, and Sony, and now it’s Microsoft’s turn:

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Kevin Kenson talks about the console that could have been the Dreamcast 2, and the story behind the passing of the baton by Sega to Microsoft.

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Love this:

Credit goes to the Web Design Museum and @BigM_Milk4 for making me aware of that website.

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23 years ago today, Bill Gates gave the opening address at GDC 2000, where he discussed Microsoft’s ongoing commitment to the entertainment market and announced Xbox:

edit: If you want to skip ahead to the announcement itself, start watching at the 16:09 mark.

Some of the demos that Seamus Blackley showed that day are available in another post of mine earlier in the thread.

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21 years ago today, the Xbox launched in Europe and Australia. Below I’ve linked a BBC archives page with a 2-minute news report on it. It’s well worth a watch, not only because it’s interesting to hear contemporary thoughts on the Xbox launch, but also for the supporting footage they’re using.

I particularly like the PS3-like font at 1:55. Yet another innovation by Xbox that Sony later incorporated into their own ecosystem. :wink:

Screenshot_20230314-063829

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This year is the 10 year anniversary of ID@Xbox, and Xbox has released a nice little 11-minute documentary on the program’s history, starting with a brief overview of Xbox Live Arcade.

Definitely recommend checking this out:

Additionally, here’s an interview with Chris Charla, the director of ID@Xbox. It, too, is well worth checking out.

edit: I’m adding this edit almost two months since I made this post, so not sure how many people will actually see it… but I recently listened to the Chris Charla episode of Game Maker’s Notebook and wanted to include links to it in this post.

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I was honestly expecting some ID questions on the Fanfest Trivia the other day & was a tad disappointed. I went & tried to find stuff ahead of time so I’d know it & it wasn’t at ALL helpful.

Also Chris & the ID program are amazing. While I love that they’re now big enough to have their own shows a couple times a year, I actually do wish they would show a few as part of Not-E3, etc. the way they used to with the reels.

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BBC recently posted a piece in the aftermath of the ABK acquisition being finalised that’s basically a high-level recap of the console war between Xbox and Sony.

There’s nothing new in the article, but I thought it was pretty factual and unbiased, and in light of all the very lopsided reporting that’s been going on about the ABK acquisition and Starfield, it was a breath of fresh air.

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