the.com/xbox
microsoft's decades-long bribe to sit in your living room and play halo.
means a family of gaming consoles and services made by microsoft, built to out-power sony while quietly turning your tv into a windows outpost.
from born 2001 from a skunkworks project nicknamed the directx box, microsoft's answer to sony's dominance, launched with a hulking console and one killer app: halo: combat evolved.
original codenamedirectxbox, shortened for obvious reasons
launch loss leadersold below cost for years, banked on games
game pass betnetflix-for-games model, subscribers over console sales
halo effectone launch title basically justified the whole console
for instance
original xbox — 2001, secretly a pc with a chip inside
xbox 360 — 2005, red ring of death and live achievements defined a generation
xbox one — 2013, stumbled hard on always-online rumors at reveal
xbox series x — 2020, nicknamed the fridge, chased raw power over exclusives