History of Computer Science: Microsoft's Xbox

Source: http://compass.xbox.com/assets/fe/41/fe413ea6-6418-4dba-b28a-3bf299d17fe1.png?n=hero-xbox-one-innovate-955x610.png

Seeing as how the next generation of gaming consoles are on their way out, the Playstation 4 and Xbox One, I thought it would be appropriate to write about the history of the Xbox! I've owned every Xbox console that's been released so which is why I'm focusing on this rather than the Playstation.

Microsoft first announced that they've started developing its own gaming console back in 1998 to compete with the already popular Playstation 2. Some of the huge factors that gave the Xbox an edge over the Playstation 2, was that it had double the processing power as well as the very popular third person shooter, Halo: Combat Evolved. On November 15th, 2001, the Xbox began sales and over the next three weeks, they sold 1 million consoles. Now by today's standards, 1 million is chump change, but back then that was a huge deal! They then launched the online gaming service, Xbox Live, in 2002. It had to compete with the Playstation 2's online service, which was free while Xbox Live was a paid subscription. Ultimately, the Xbox won due to its better servers and features.

Next came the Xbox 360, which was released on November 2005. That's a full year ahead of when the Playstation 3 would arrive. The console sold out completely in all regions, except for Japan. As of June 2013, Microsoft has sold 78.2 million Xbox 360 consoles worldwide. In 2009, Microsoft announced a new toy for the Xbox 360, the Kinect. It was a revolutionary device which offered a motion control system to immerse players within their games. A year later, Microsoft announced a complete revamp of the Xbox 360's look, but with identical hardware.

After eight years of waiting for the next generation console, it has finally come. The Xbox One begins selling on November 22nd, 2013, currently priced at $499. It provides a huge boost in processing power, with games running at 60 FPS (Frames Per Second) in 1080p format. It also comes packaged with a revamped Kinect and controller.

Words can't even begin to describe how excited I am to pick one up and see what it has to offer! None of Microsoft's consoles have disappointed me, I've never got a Red Ring of Death (http://editorials.teamxbox.com/xbox/1651/The-Red-Ring-of-Death/p1/).