From The Verge · Tom Warren · · 4m
Xbox at 25: Microsoft bets on reinvention again
A quarter-century after launching the original Xbox, Microsoft is preparing Project Helix, a next-generation console that merges PC and Xbox gaming as it shrinks its division by 20 percent.
In brief
A quarter-century after launching the original Xbox, Microsoft is preparing Project Helix, a next-generation console that merges PC and Xbox gaming as it shrinks its division by 20 percent. Microsoft is restructuring Xbox with a twenty percent headcount reduction and preparing Project Helix, a console combining…
Xbox launches 25 years ago
Microsoft released the original Xbox on November fifteenth, two thousand and one, challenging an industry dominated by Sony and Nintendo with a console built around familiar PC technology.
PC technology in a console
The original Xbox used a custom Intel Pentium III processor, Nvidia GPU, and sixty-four megabytes of unified RAM, making it easier for PC game developers to create games for the platform.
Hard drive and online gaming
Xbox included a built-in hard drive and Ethernet port, letting developers cache content and players save games without memory cards.Xbox Live launched in November two thousand and two with friends lists, gamertags, and voice chat.
Xbox 360 expands the vision
The Xbox three sixty added swappable hard drives, digital downloads, wireless controllers, and backward compatibility. Kinect, launched in two thousand and ten, became the fastest-selling consumer electronics device in early two thousand and eleven.
Xbox One's strategic misstep
Microsoft positioned Xbox One around TV and entertainment instead of games, with online DRM and used game restrictions that sparked backlash. Bundling Kinect pushed the price one hundred dollars above PlayStation four.
Game Pass changes the model
Introduced in two thousand and seventeen, Game Pass lets players access hundreds of games through subscription instead of buying individually. Microsoft acquired smaller studios, Bethesda, and eventually Activision Blizzard to power the service.
Game Pass success and questions
Game Pass became one of Xbox's most compelling features, but Microsoft hasn't demonstrated it can become the mass-market success it envisioned. The company stopped regularly disclosing subscriber numbers.
Current Xbox struggles
Xbox Series X and S consoles launched in two thousand and twenty are way behind Sony's PS five sales. Xbox Cloud Gaming hasn't reached the millions of players Microsoft wanted for its ecosystem.
Identity crisis for Xbox
Microsoft's efforts to bring Xbox games to PlayStation and Nintendo consoles have raised questions about what the Xbox brand represents. The company hasn't decided whether to be a third-party publisher, ecosystem owner, or both.
Xbox division shrinks by 20 percent
Microsoft is restructuring Xbox with overall headcount reduced by twenty percent by the end of fiscal year June two thousand and twenty-seven.
“I believe the future of gaming will look more like its beginning, when a small team with a big idea could change how the world plays.”
25-year celebration and layoffs
Microsoft is celebrating Xbox's twenty-five-year milestone today with an event in Seattle and launching Xbox Playback, a personalized look back at players' history. Rumors suggest more Xbox layoffs are coming in November.
Project Helix combines Windows and Xbox
Microsoft is preparing Project Helix, a next-generation console codenamed to play both Xbox games and PC titles. It sounds like an effort to combine Windows and Xbox like never before.
Full backward compatibility promised
The next Xbox could play every Xbox game ever made, thanks to Microsoft's impressive bets on backward compatibility over the years.
Features that don't excite
Jon Clarke, cofounder and editor-in-chief of DayOne, says Xbox has consumer-friendly features like free cloud saves, Game Pass, and a preferred controller. None of these things are particularly sexy or flashy.
“Xbox has the best console ecosystem around, packed with consumer-friendly features like free cloud saves, Game Pass, and my preferred controller.”
Franchise recovery needed
Jez Corden, executive editor at Windows Central, says many Xbox franchises have lost their luster owing to years of mismanagement and potentially a generalized lack of vision. Microsoft needs to invest to rebuild them.
Hardware costs threaten viability
RAMageddon is pushing component prices beyond what consumers can afford. Corden says innovating on console costs is paramount, otherwise it's hard to imagine Xbox will continue to exist in its current form.
PC makers could build Xbox hardware
A console projected to cost between one thousand two hundred and one thousand eight hundred dollars won't grow the Xbox ecosystem.
Xbox must prove it still matters
Twenty-five years ago, Microsoft built a PC and called it an Xbox. Now it's preparing to build something that looks increasingly like a PC again, only this time it needs to convince people Xbox should…
What it means
Microsoft is restructuring Xbox with a twenty percent headcount reduction and preparing Project Helix, a console combining Windows and Xbox, as it struggles to compete with PlayStation and Nintendo after twenty-five years.
