Was it the games? The hardware? The marketing? Tell us!
We’re fast approaching the 25th anniversary of Xbox (look out for it November 2026!), and over the past couple of decades, the brand has racked up millions of fans who have spent thousands on consoles, games and more.
It might be a fairly short history all things considered, but so much has happened in that time. Each of the original Xbox, Xbox 360, Xbox One and Xbox Series X|S eras have come with their own ups and downs, from major successes like the release of Halo and the glory days of the Xbox 360 library, to the Red Ring of Death and the botched Xbox One launch.
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Halo CE. And the controller layout, I still love the Duke.
Controller layout, and then later on achievements is what caught me. I can’t stand the ps controller. Cramps my hands so much.
I’m still convinced the person who chose the location of the sticks on the PS2’s controller had never seen human hands before. Or at the very least, they weren’t at all aware which direction our thumbs bend in.
Seriously. And for some insane reason they haven’t changed it after all this time!
I remember mocking how ugly the controller looked (like an obese parody of the Dreamcast’s) but then I held it. As I large-handed person, it was so comfortable after years of Japanese pads designed for smaller hands. I just wish they still made the thing but with all the modern upgrades so I could use it with my PC.
Hyperkin makes Duke replicas that are detected as Xbox One gamepads. Only downside is they are not wireless.
My cousin bought me a new USB Duke as a gift. It’s awesome.
The controller, and Minecraft, I didn’t have a PC and back in the day it was only available on Xbox 360
I was at Walmart with my parents, my dad had asked me which console I thought my older brother would like more. He said it was gonna be for his birthday. I looked at the games for both Xbox and PS2 and chose Xbox just because it looked cooler. Little did I know he was tricking me and they bought it for me.
The rest is history.
Sneaky parents aha.
Series X is my first Xbox after lifetime with Sony and Nintendo. There are barely any new games on next gen consoles so I’m using this opportunity to catch up with Xbox back catalog. Backwards compatibility is so nice that I ended up doing unexpected playthrough of Final Fantasy XIII among some other oldies. I also ended up doing loads of split screen gaming with my gf - started with Halo but we’re on second BG3 playthrough (after going back to Divinity 1&2).
Halo. And it seemed to me at the time that Xbox had more FPS titles and such.
My parents got rid of one of those giant old cabinet TVs and we needed something equally as giant to replace it. LOL XBOX IS HUEG!
Picked up a series S from GameStop online because it was the only thing in stock. Thing is, I love really powerful hardware in small form factors, but the series S really shows the cracks in Microsoft’s plans IMO. It’s very clear the series S is supposed to be the gamepass console, problem is gamepass quality has been steadily dropping over time and Microsoft buying up companies makes a ton of sense since they haven’t had any major releases other than Forza.
I haven’t touched the series S in probably months. My kids have been playing it quite a bit for games like the Sims and super Lucky’s tale. Everything else can be played on PC, my ps5 or my stream deck so I have no need of it anymore. Not to mention the streaming quality for me on PS5 is just better than XCloud, and that’s just a bonus.
I’ve said it before, Jim Ryan was correct when he said publishers don’t like gamepass and it’s bad for the industry. When I look at the quality of ps plus vs gamepass, it’s clear PlayStation really thinks of it as a supplemental service than a major revenue stream, but doing it that way drives the need to have more quality features and games vs just letting every and any game on your service.
Gamepass. My first xbox was series x. It was fun while it lasted until they forced full screen ads. Sold the xbox a couple days later and sold my xbox account since it still has a gamepass subs. Bought a PS5 a while later. I cant stand ads, it ruins everything. The moment sony introduced ads, im going back to PC.
All my consoles were purchased with modding in mind. I have no loyalty to any company
Smart.
I don’t know why, but I could not stand Gran Turismo 4. I loved the first three and preordered 4, but within a week I was at GameStop trading in my PlayStation for an Xbox. I honestly don’t know what about it pissed me off so much, but I haven’t looked back.
Halo 3. I had played Halo 1 on PC and Halo 2 with a friend in his Xbox, and the multiplayer stuff with Forge convinced me to pick up Halo 3.
I stuck around for Mass Effect.
Beating the scalpers
During the hight of covid I became obsessed with beating the scalpers and managed to get both the series x and ps5 at retail
Nothing on the PS2 was compelling enough for me to buy one at the time, and I found the dualshock’s stick layout uncomfortable. Then Xbox came along with Halo and that was that, really.
The PS3 was overpriced and underwhelming while the 360 knocked it out of the park. Still my favourite console ever.
Then the Xbox One and PS4 happened… Yeah, MS ballsed up the messaging and then floundered even more every time they tried to re-explain their ideas, but I honestly think the whole put-the-disc-in-once licensing thing was ahead of its time. The people claiming that they couldn’t possibly connect their console to the internet for 2 minutes every month to refresh their licences were being disingenuous, and Sony’s “this is how you share games on PS4” bit, while understandable from the free marketing perspective, just came across to me as both short sighted and incredibly mean spirited.
Since then I’ve been team Xbox by default, but they’ve never really recovered from the shit show that was the Xbox One launch and it’s a shame.
Kinect. Skype. The tv tuner features. It plays blu ray. It has streaming apps. On top of that it plays network-based games that I enjoy.
Most of that is gone now. It still has game pass that I check out every now and then.
Halo.
I was skeptical… “Hey, other than Solitaire and Minesweeper, what does Microsoft know about games?”
Then I had hands on with a Halo demo station at a game store.
“Shut up and take my money!”
Halo was my obsession in my teen years
