107 Xbox Facts That All Avid Gamers Will Absolutely Adore!

A hardcore multiplayer system with a focus on building a gaming community, the Xbox is quite a defining console in the world of gaming.

In the war of video game consoles, which was mostly dominated by Japan's Sony and Nintendo (Nintendo Switch), it was quite a shocker when an American company, Microsoft, could come into the market and take it by storm. The Xbox was able to do just that.

However, emerging into this new video game market was quite tough with a new console. Microsoft was never a company known for gaming, and a console was a huge risk. These standard Xbox facts would make you realize how Microsoft braved storms after storms to land their perfect console and take a valuable place in the console market.

If you liked this article be sure to check out our articles on Japan children games and the longest time playing video games.

Features Of The Xbox One

Before we look at some of the amazing features of the Xbox One, let's glance over the specifications that this amazing game console has. The Xbox One has an AMD Jaguar 1.8GHz 8-core processor and an AMD GCN Radeon 853MHz GPU. It comes with a tremendous RAM of 8 GB and two variants in terms of storage space - 500 GB and 1 TB. There is also the Kinect sensor feature - the advanced version of the Kinect introduced with the Xbox 360 console. The Kinect is known for its motion-sensing gaming capabilities.

One of the problems with consoles is 'backwards compatibility'. The Xbox One belongs in the eighth generation consoles, and its competitor, Playstation 4, did not come with 'backwards compatibility'. However, Xbox One beats Playstation here since it was 'backwards compatibility' with the previous generation, Xbox 360. On top of that, these games with enhanced as per the specifications of the Xbox One. You are also able to take screenshots and video clips, like in the Xbox 360.

Another great feature about the Xbox One console is that you can download the Xbox app on your phone, too, and you can use your phone as a controller. While it may not feel like a controller with the vibration feature and the general feel, it is a nifty little feature.

Since the start, Xbox multiplayer, especially with games like Halo, voice chat has been quite popular. Yes, it can get really toxic at times (many people still remember their Xbox 360 toxic experiences over voice chat), but Xbox One added a cool feature. Now, there was party text chat too. So, if you don't have a mic or don't want to talk, you can still use Xbox Live with friends using the chat option.

As gamers, no one should shy away from asking for help from other gamers. Xbox One allows gamers to easily ask for help by searching for groups within the Xbox community and making an immediate new post about any problems they are facing during their gameplay.

Achievements are often recorded on your account with any game you play. But Xbox One makes it so much easier to not only track but display your desired achievements.

Almost like a Microsoft Windows computer, this Microsoft console can also monitor the bandwidth that your Xbox console is using. Just go to the Network option, and you can find out the Bandwidth usage of your console over the past months and the current bandwidth use too.

The eight console generation was all about immersion, and Xbox One took it to the next level with the Dolby Atmos feature. This feature, however, can be experienced in full when you get it on the Microsoft store.

Since we are on the subject, we cannot forget the beauty of customizing home screens and controllers. Microsoft's Xbox One offers diverse ways of customizing the home screen. You can pin the games you are currently playing on the home screen for easy access. You can pin a friend and compare their achievements with you. When it comes to the background image, you can place your own background image - perhaps a scene from a game. You can even alter the themes from light to dark on your Xbox One. However, the Xbox home screen is not the only thing that you can customize. You can also customize the Xbox One wireless controller. From button remapping to sensitivity and even vibrational features, Xbox One allows a diverse variety of ways you can customize and personalize your console.

An underrated feature of Xbox One is the Xbox Game Preview. The Xbox Game Preview creates a link with the developer and gamers, where fans of a game can preview and purchase a work-in-progress game. They will participate in the development process of the game and will provide feedback, which, if the creator decides to implement, will help in developing the final version of a game.

Problems With The Xbox One

While the Xbox 360 had almost dominated the seventh-generation console era, the Sony Playstation 4 seems to have won the eighth generation. The reasons were simple - the problem with the messaging and launch of Xbox One.

One of the revolutions in the world of gaming came in the seventh generation from none other than Nintendo. While Xbox 360 was busy turning the Xbox into an entertainment hub by integrating Netflix into it, Nintendo Wii brought in motion gaming. Xbox took this as a challenge and added Kinect to their system - a motion gaming sensor, which, unlike the Wii, did not need the gamer to hold onto any specific device. The problem was - Kinect did not sit well with hardcore gamers, and many top games like Halo did not support Kinect. However, Don Mattrick, the then leader of Xbox, thought TV to be the next biggest competition of Xbox. He advertised the Xbox One as an entertainment system - a glorified TV, even announcing Xbox Entertainment Studios - a movie and television studio. It was also marketed as an 'all-in-one entertainment system'; hence called Xbox One. During the first unveiling event, there was almost no focus on games. On top of that, the Xbox One was priced at $499, and it was bundled with the Kinect - a peripheral that many hardcore gamers did not have use of. They also announced an always-online feature where even if you had a disk, your Xbox One had to be online at least once when you turn it on to ensure that the game is not pirated and attached to your account.

Fun fact - one of the first launch games of Xbox One was Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag.

It was Phil Spencer who came as the game-changer, correcting the image of Microsoft Xbox One.

The first thing Phil Spencer did was de-bundle the Kinect and cut off $100 from the Xbox One price tag, essentially matching the price with the Playstation 4. He closed down the Xbox Entertainment Studio so that the investment in a studio could be redirected to creating games. He gave a platform on Xbox for independent game developers to have their own gametags and build games. On top of that, he bought a defining game that was popular among kids - Minecraft. Once Microsoft bought Mojang Studios (the developer of Minecraft), they also started buying different famous game studios like Playground Games, Ninja Theory, Compulsion Games, and more. Eventually, in 2020, Microsoft turned head by acquiring Bethesda Studios.

Eventually, the Xbox One sold over 41 million units.

Xbox History

The Xbox history is a history of revolution within the very rigid Microsoft structure. It is a story of taking risks and entering a new business, which could have spelled doom for Microsoft if things did not fall just in place. After all, Microsoft was always into the business of creating productivity software like Microsoft Windows - gaming was something that they did not plan on dipping their toes into.

The Xbox was an idea conceived by passionate gamers Otto Berkes, Ted Hase, Seamus Blackley, and Kevin Bachus back in 1998. They were a small team working in the DirectX department of Microsoft. As the world of consoles was changing, they wanted to enter the market with a few ideas in mind - a console that ran on a simpler OS and which had a developer-friendly architecture. The PlayStation and Nintendo consoles were notorious for being difficult for developers to make games. Xbox could be the game-changer.

However, it was not an idea that would fly in the world of Microsoft. Gaming was not considered serious business - it was just meant for fun. Microsoft was not even considered as a company related to gaming by gamers. Microsoft was considered too 'nerdy' and not cool. It was clear within the company that Bill Gates, too, would not be fond of this idea as it was going against the lifeblood of Microsoft. However, a change came with the advertisements of PlayStation 2. Sony advertised the PlayStation 2 as a PC in the living room - it had a powerful processor and amazing power that was challenging the traditional PC that people work on.

After the initial meeting with the DirectX team and giving the initial green light to the idea of a console, Bill Gates was of the opinion that the Xbox would be a PC with Windows running in the living room. However, this became a challenge. A gaming console required speed - Windows was complicated and would not fit the architecture of a gaming console. It was absolutely clear that the final product would not look anywhere close to Bill Gate's version.

In the final meet for the Xbox, Bill Gates was furious with the concept of using the kernel version of Windows. He thought that the Xbox stood as the antithesis of Microsoft. He was about to scrap the project, but then, he was reminded of Sony and Sony's claims of bringing the computer to the living room. Gates knew the future might be in consoles, and he was willing to try.

The business in which console gaming works was different from PC. Consoles are sold at a loss, and the profits come from the games bought. That means that there should be quite a number of exclusives under the console. Along with that, consoles should have potent hardware that could fit in a stylish cover and can actually run the games. The Xbox had none of them. They approached Dell and Compaq to help them with the hardware, but none agreed. Surprisingly enough, they even wanted to buy Nintendo - one of the, if not the biggest, game companies in the world. Needless to say, they did not make it past the first session of such a meet. It was clear that Xbox had to be made within Microsoft, and if it went down, it would take the brand name of Microsoft with it.

In 2000, at the Game Developers Conference, Bill Gates announced the news of the Xbox console. Even then, while the hardware was decided, the console structure was not yet confirmed. An aluminum X was once considered to be an option - a non-feasible design that made the console extremely fragile. It was creative director Horace Luke, who brought everything together in a nifty box - the first Xbox. It was future-proof, too, coming with an Ethernet port for broadbands, in the time when Dial-up internet was more popular.

The next challenge for Microsoft Xbox was to bring exclusives to this new console. Nintendo had it's Mario and Zelda; Sony PlayStation had God of War. It was time for Xbox to shine in the world of console exclusives. The underdog appeared in the form of Bungie Studios. Bungie Studios was a Mac-only game studio known for making games like Marathon and Myst. They were experimenting with a new third-person shooter - Halo. The Halo trailer was once showcased at a Macworld unveiling in 1999. However, Microsoft acquired Bungie in 2000. Halo: Combat Evolved, was soon going to be the Xbox launch title.

While it started as a third-person shooter, Bungie quickly shifted and made it into a first-person. This shift was revolutionary. First-person shooters on consoles were something that people really were not warmed up to. Mouse and keyboard had been a staple for FPS games. However, things changed when Halo was showcased. The analog sticks worked perfectly for maneuvering. The best part about Halo was the LAN games. Since Xbox came with the Ethernet port, people transported their TV, console, and controller to their friends' house and played Halo - connecting it via LAN. The original Xbox became not only about gaming but about building communities. It was the first video game console to take such a leap.

Xbox Live (launched in 2002) was the next big step for the original Xbox. The original Xbox had already become a multiplayer system, but it was about to go global. With Xbox Live, multiplayer would go to the next level where people would be connected via the internet and can play with people from different areas of the world. It would usher in the era of online gaming. The original Xbox, coupled with the Xbox Live, made it even better for the Xbox and gaming community. The membership fee of Xbox Live was $49.99 a year. It was also possible now to include voice chat in Xbox Live and store achievements. These achievements would be stored on a single Gamertag, connected with your Xbox Live account.

Flying high on their success, Microsoft was the first to step in to define the next generation console with the Xbox 360 - launching it a year earlier (November 22, 2005) than the PlayStation 3. Peter Moore oversaw the project. A better console with potential not only for online gaming but watching movies and accessing social networks; the Xbox 360 was going to be a next-generation entertainment hub. It was also priced at $399, which was significantly less than the PlayStation 3, priced at $599. However, Microsoft, while trying to capture the game market early, faced a major hitch when multiple Xbox 360 consoles started facing hardware difficulties: The Red Ring Of Death.

The Xbox 360 had an amazing system where four lights would turn on, surrounding the 'X' on the Xbox. The green lights meant that the system was running fine. However, red lights indicated a problem. One red light meant a hardware failure; two lights meant that a component was overheating, and three red lights indicated The Red Ring Of Death - a hardware malfunction. There were several Xbox components with the Red Ring of Death which made Microsoft shut down production. Eventually, they had to invest a billion dollars in the repairs of the previous Xbox 360 systems to get back the faith of the gamers. However, Xbox 360 was still a hit in the market. It was game-developer friendly, delivered an amazing online experience, and new games like Gears of Wars looked impressive on it.

Xbox was gearing up for the next big step in console gaming - the next-generation - Xbox One.

Xbox 360 Controller

The Xbox 360 controller was quite an improvement over the original Xbox controller and the later controllers only slightly modified the Xbox 360 controller in its later variations like the Xbox One Controller or the Xbox Series X controller.

The Xbox 360 controller had the back, and the start button moved centrally, and the middle X button was shrunk to accommodate for these buttons. As a result, the controller could easily fit in your hand and was more ergonomic. Another great feature of the controller was the guide button. The guide button had a ring of light which gave gamers different inputs during gameplay. For example, if one quadrant is lit up doing a split-screen multiplayer, the controller quadrant shows which screen is being controlled by the player.

Xbox Games' Store

With the Xbox 360, Microsoft opened their own Xbox Games Store to purchase games. Later on, with Xbox One and Phil Spencer as the captain of the Xbox team, this store had to do something redefining.

If you like to play and enjoy video games, then the Xbox Game Pass is an amazing subscription service from Xbox. The Xbox Game Pass lists several games which you can download and play, get the required achievements and enjoy either as casual gamers or a hardcore multiplayer gamer. After the botched Xbox One's presentation, the focus of Xbox was now on games and in creating an ever-growing gaming community. More and more players entered the Xbox ecosystem with the Game Pass and experimented with playing games. Plus, since Xbox is made by Microsoft - the company that focuses on Windows - the Xbox Game Pass goes for cross-device gaming - focusing both on providing services to Xbox console gamers as well as PC gamers worldwide. It is fulfilling the dream of gamers from all over the world.

Here at Kidadl, we have carefully created lots of interesting family-friendly facts for everyone to enjoy! If you liked our suggestions for Xbox facts, then why not take a look at the first video game console or facts about video games?