The Xbox was made by Microsoft as a home video game console and was their first foray into the gaming console market. It was initially released 2001 in North America, followed by Australia, Europe and Japan. This sixth-generation console competed with Sony's PlayStation 2 and the Nintendo GameCube and was graphically powerful compared to its rivals.
It took many aspects of a conventional PC and wrapped it in a arguably nice black box. It came with a built-in hard drive, Ethernet port, intel CPU and Nvidia GPU. After its launch, Xbox Live, a fee-based online gaming service enabled subscribers to download new content and connect with other players through a broadband connection. It also gave Microsoft an early foothold in online gaming and would help the Xbox cement its position in the console market.
The Xbox 360 was a home video game console developed by Microsoft and initialy released in November 2005. It improved the Xbox Live experience by adding services such as streaming music, television programs, and films. Several peripherals had been released, including wireless controllers, expanded hard drive storage, and the Kinect motion sensing camera.
The earlier versions of the console suffered from a high failure rate, indicated by the so-called "Red Ring of Death", necessitating an extension of the device's warranty period to save their reputation in the gaming business.
It was initially released in 2013 by Microsoft and marketed the device as an "all-in-one entertainment system". The console placed an increased emphasis on "cloud computing", as well as social networking features, and the ability to record and share video clips or screenshots from gameplay, or live-stream directly to streaming services. The console could play Blu-ray Disc, and overlay live television programming from an existing set-top box or a digital tuner for digital terrestrial television with an enhanced program guide. Optionally included was a redesigned Kinect sensor, marketed as the "Kinect 2.0", providing improved motion tracking and voice recognition, but failed to prosper.
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They eventually released a slimmer version "Xbox One S" in 2016 and a high-end model in 2017 "Xbox One X" for being able to render games at 4k resolution.