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.
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).
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.
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!
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!”
Dead rising.
I enjoyed Game Pass already on my PC - I even subbed to it when it was strictly “Console game pass” and so happened to give PC access to a few crossplay titles. I ended up taking someone’s used, dusty Xbox One just to get into some of the console-only games. Later, I upgraded to a Series S since I figured my whole Xbox library was digital and I didn’t own a 4KTV.
But, my enjoyment of Game Pass was reliant on sudden surprise hits like Hi-Fi Rush. So, now that they’re firing the people making games like that, I’m probably done as they’re moving a different direction from what I want.
Halo. And it seemed to me at the time that Xbox had more FPS titles and such.
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.
Halo was my obsession in my teen years
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.
Fucking loved the first and second game. Fell off in the last few. Not bad games. Just a different feel.
