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.
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.
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.
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.
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!
