Xbox

This article is about the "Xbox" brand. For the sixth-generation console, see Xbox (console). For other uses, see Xbox (disambiguation).

Template:Infobox brand The Xbox brand is a series of video game consoles created and developed by Microsoft Studios. Spanning the sixth, seventh, and eighth generations of video gaming, the brand was first introduced on November 15, Template:Vgy in North America.

The first console in the series, the Xbox, have reached over 24 million as of as of May 10, 2006. Its successor, the Xbox 360 is the latest console, having reached over 70 million as of as of September 30, 2012.

Consoles

Xbox

Main article: Xbox (console)

The Xbox is a video game console manufactured by Microsoft. It was released on November 15, 2001 in North America, February 22, 2002 in Japan, and March 14, 2002 in Australia and Europe. It was Microsoft's first foray into the gaming console market. As part of the sixth-generation of gaming, the Xbox competed with Sony's PlayStation 2, Sega's Dreamcast (which stopped American sales before the Xbox went on sale), and Nintendo's GameCube. The Xbox was the first console offered by an American company after the Atari Jaguar stopped sales in 1996.

The integrated Xbox Live service launched in November 2002 allowed players to play games online with a broadband connection. It was one feature that made the Xbox so popular, with most critics stating that Xbox Live had a better online experience than PlayStation 2's online service, though Xbox Live required a subscription while PS2's online is free. The best-selling Xbox game is Halo 2 released in November 2004, which was also extremely popular through its online play on Xbox Live.

Xbox 360

Main article: Xbox 360

The Xbox 360 is the second video game console developed by and produced for Microsoft and the successor to the Xbox. The Xbox 360 competes with Sony's PlayStation 3 and Nintendo's Wii as part of the seventh generation of video game consoles. As of September 30, 2012, 70 million Xbox 360 consoles have been sold worldwide. The Xbox 360 was officially unveiled on MTV on May 12, 2005, with detailed launch and game information divulged later that month at the Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3). The console sold out completely upon release in all regions except in Japan.

Several major features of the Xbox 360 are its integrated Xbox Live service that allows players to compete online, download arcade games, game demos, trailers, TV shows, music and movies and its Windows Media Center multimedia capabilities. The Xbox Live also offers region specific access to third-party media streaming application such as Netflix and ESPN in the U.S. or Sky Go in the UK.

At their E3 presentation on June 14, 2010, Microsoft announced a redesigned Xbox 360 that would ship on the same day. The redesigned console is slimmer than the previous Xbox 360 model and features integrated 802.11 b/g/n Wi-Fi, TOSLINK S/PDIF optical audio output, five USB 2.0 ports (compared to the three from older versions) and a special AUX port. Older models of the Xbox 360 have since been discontinued. The first new console to be released features a 250 GB hard drive, while a later, less expensive SKU features 4 GB internal storage.

With the announcement of the Xbox 360 S, Microsoft has said that they believe that the console is only mid-way through its life-cycle and will continue through 2015. Development of the system has also been implied by updates Microsoft employees have made to their resumes, which state that they were working on the next Xbox console.

Xbox 720

The Xbox 720 console is currently in development and is rumored that it will be released at the end of 2013, ahead of Sony's next generation console.

Before going out of business, Xbox World Magazine released a huge spread detailing all that they know about the Xbox 720. "Xbox World has been at the cutting edge of Durango coverage for over 12 months. Unless something really dramatic changes, everything we reveal in our penultimate issue will be revealed long before E3 in June," said Xbox World editor-in-chief Dan Dawkins told CVG. According to Xbox World, the Xbox 720 will utilize Blu-Ray discs for the first time in order to gain access to higher storage capacities. The console will also not only have the standard TV output, but a TV input as well, which should allow for DVR-like recording of broadcast television. The Xbox 720 should also help launch a new version of Kinect, the next iteration of the Kinect motion-gaming system. Kinect's new version has been reported to be accurate enough to read lips. If the Xbox 720 features similar specs to the Durango development kits that have been sent out, then the next-gen Microsoft console should come with a quad-core processor and 8GB RAM. A recent tweet by well-known hacker Marcan stated that the Xbox 720's processor has been clocked around 1.6GHz. Microsoft will also be releasing a cheaper, set-top version of the Xbox 720, according to a recent report. This version should be more entertainment based, and offer casual gaming. A Bloomberg report revealed that Microsoft plans on releasing the Xbox 720 by the 2013 holiday season. There is no word on whether Microsoft will unveil the next-gen Xbox at E3 2013, or hold a separate launch event of its own.

Handheld system

Microsoft has plans for a handheld system for Xbox. The console will be, according to the Xbox 360 Uncloaked, "around half of the Xbox 360 hardware team is hard at work on an as-yet-unamed Xbox portable, which he believes will be released half way through the Xbox 360's lifespan". So far, James Allard will be producing the system, while Dean Takahashi is also hired on the project. Microsoft, in their Xbox 360 Uncloaked review, replied they are using a portable Xbox to compete with Nintendo's Nintendo 3DS and Sony's PlayStation Vita as part of the eighth generation in gaming. However, there has not been much information right now.