The Xbox is a home video game console that was the first in Microsoft’s Xbox series of video game consoles. It was released on November 15, 2001, as Microsoft’s first foray into the gaming console market in North America, followed by Australia, Europe, and Japan in 2002.
It is a sixth-generation console that competes with Sony’s PlayStation 2 and Nintendo’s GameCube. It was also the first major console produced by an American company since the Atari Jaguar’s release in 1993.
The console was unveiled in March of 2000. Microsoft became concerned with the release of the PlayStation 2, which included the ability to playback CD-ROMs and DVDs in addition to playing games, that game consoles would threaten the personal computer as an entertainment device for living rooms.
Whereas most game consoles at the time were built from custom hardware components, the Xbox was built around standard personal computer components, with a 733 MHz Intel Pentium III CPU and a 233 MHz Nvidia GeForce 3-based NV2A GPU, the latter two making the Xbox technically more powerful than its competitors.
When did the last Xbox come out?
The most recent Xbox console was the Xbox Series X, which was released in 2020.