Come November, Xbots everywhere will be celebrating the original console’s 10th anniversary. The Xbox was the console that nobody thought would work, as Microsoft was stomping into territory completely dominated by Nintendo and Sony, and to some extent, Sega. Who would have thought that 10 years from now, they’d be neck-and-neck with the big dogs of the video game world?
To prepare for this event, VG247 has actually done a pretty cool retrospective on the system’s origins, titled The XBox Story. It’s a four-part series that looks at the conceptualization, greenlighting, marketing and launch. They really did their homework, and the whole thing is fascinating. Really interesting in particular is the way they first devised it as an answer for PC gaming.
I confess that I was one of those people that doubted the XBox’s staying power when it first came out. I was eventually swayed by Knights of the Old Republic, and later Halo. While this generation still doesn’t give me much of a favorite at the moment in terms of consoles, I’m overall impressed with the 360 and the job Microsoft has done. We’ll see what it does in the future.
So what do you guys think of the 10th anniversary of the XBox? What are some of your favorite games on either console? What do you think of the retrospectives?
I cant believe its actually happening. For me this is one of those systems where I really am seeing its legacy. Granted I owned an N64 before any other system, but the xBox is special. To me it really was what made gaming what it is for me today. Multiplayer and online are what I spend most of my time on and the xBox made that possible. It just feels ‘cool’ to get to see such a milestone in gaming, to me at least. Some of my favorite games for the origional xBox were Halo: CE, Halo 2, Kotor II, and Phantom Crash. On the 360 there are almost too many to name. Notably there are COD MW, Halo 3, Ace Combat 6 and others yet to even come. (Id say Oblivion but I had it on PC)
I think for me the xBox will go down as one of the best game changing consoles of all time. The PS2 to me has such a throne over all other systems as the first one that really was “serious” gaming. With a launch that caused shortages of the system to titles going out all the way to the end of the xBox itself, the PS2 was a king and a game changer. The xBox came in and took that to a whole new level, introducing what has become so popular, the online gaming community and capabilities. Ill even go as far to say that the xBox is more influential than the Wii was/is. Really cool I can watch a generation come and go.