The Xbox One is not only the most powerful console on the market, but also the most social.
With features like the Kinect 2.0, which allows you to use your voice and gestures to control your console and live chat over the internet with friends whilst playing games.
Here are ten fun facts about Microsoft’s Xbox console:
1. The first Xbox was released on November 15, 2001 in North America. The second Xbox, Xbox 360, was released four years later in 2005.
2. The original name for the Xbox was “DirectX Box” but it was changed to just “Xbox” before release.
3. The Xbox was the first console to use a hard drive for storage. It came with an 8GB hard drive!
4. The original Xbox controller was designed by none other than Microsoft co-founder, Bill Gates.
5. Halo: Combat Evolved, one of the most popular games for the Xbox, wasn’t actually supposed to be an exclusive title for the console. However, due to delays in development, it ended up being released as an exclusive game for the Xbox.
6. The best-selling game on the original Xbox is Halo 2 which sold over 8 million copies worldwide!
7. You can thank Peter Moore, former president of Sega of America, for helping make Microsoft’s entry into the video game market a reality. He convinced then-CEO Steve Ballmer to invest $50 million into developing a gaming console back in 1999 and even joined Microsoft as part of their team working on the project!
8. The word “Xbox” is actually derived from a combination of two words – “DirectXBox” which refers to Microsoft’s Direct X graphics API that powers many modern video games and “boxy” which describes its box-like shape (at least compared to rival consoles at the time).
9. When it launched in 2001,the original price tag for an Xbox unit was $299 USD – pretty pricey considering today you can get an Xbox One S starting at just $249 USD!
10. Xbox One runs on no less than 300,000 servers.
