Xbox

Consoles

First generation: Xbox

The original Xbox was released in North America on November 15, 2001, in Japan on February 22, 2002, and in Australia and Europe on March 14, 2002, marking Microsoft's debut in the gaming console market. As part of the sixth generation of video game consoles, 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. Built around a 733 MHz 32-bit Intel Pentium III CPU and a 233 MHz Nvidia GeForce 3-based NV2A GPU with 64 MB of memory, the Xbox was the first console offered by an American company after the Atari Jaguar stopped sales in 1996. Its name was derived from a contraction of DirectX Box, a reference to Microsoft's graphics API, DirectX.

The integrated Xbox Live service launched in November 2002 allowed players to play games online with a broadband connection. It first competed with Dreamcast's online service but later primarily competed with PlayStation 2's online service. Although the two competing services were free, while Xbox Live required a subscription – as well as broadband-only connection, which was not completely adopted yet – Xbox Live was a success due to it having better servers, features such as a buddy list, and milestone titles such as Halo 2 (released in November 2004), which became the best-selling Xbox video game and was by far the most popular online game for the original Xbox system.

Second generation: Xbox 360

The Xbox 360 was released as the successor of the original Xbox in November 2005, competing with Sony's PlayStation 3 and Nintendo's Wii as part of the seventh generation of video game consoles. It featured a custom triple-core 64-bit PowerPC-based processor design by IBM with 512 MB of RAM memory. As of June 2014, 84 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 retail configurations of the core Xbox 360 model were offered over its lifetime, varying the amount of RAM and internal storage offered.

The Xbox 360 showed an expanded Xbox Live service (which now included a limited "Free" tier called Silver), the ability to stream multimedia content from PCs, while later updates added the ability to purchase and stream music, television programs, and films through the Xbox Music and Xbox Video services, along with access to third-party content services through third-party media streaming applications. Microsoft also released Kinect, a motion control system for the Xbox 360 which uses an advanced sensor system.

Two major revisions of the Xbox 360 were released following the initial launch. The Xbox 360 S (typically considered as "Slim"), launched in 2010, featured the same core hardware but with a redesigned, slimmer form factor with a smaller-sized 250 GB hard drive. It also added 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 port designed for the Kinect peripheral. The Xbox 360 S replaced the base Xbox 360 unit, which was discontinued, and sold at the same price. A cheaper Xbox 360 S unit, removing the 250 GB drive while adding 4 GB of internal storage, was released later in 2010; the unit allowed users to hook up an external storage solution or purchase a 250 GB internal add-on.

The second major revision of the Xbox 360 was the Xbox 360 E, released in 2013. It featured a case style similar to the upcoming Xbox One, and eliminated one USB port and the S/PDIF, YPbPr component and S-video connections, but otherwise shared the same specifications as the Xbox 360 S.

Third generation: Xbox One

The Xbox One was released on November 22, 2013, in North America, as the successor to the Xbox 360. The Xbox One competed with Sony's PlayStation 4 and Nintendo's Wii U and Switch as part of the eighth generation of video game consoles. It features an AMD Accelerated Processing Unit (APU) built around the 64-bit x86-64 instruction set and can come with up to 12 GB of memory.

Announced on May 21, 2013, the Xbox One has an emphasis on internet-based features, including the ability to record and stream gameplay, and the ability to integrate with a set-top box to watch cable or satellite TV through the console with an enhanced guide interface and Kinect-based voice control.

Following its unveiling, the Xbox One proved controversial for its original digital rights management and privacy practices; while Microsoft touted the ability for users to access their library of games (regardless of whether they were purchased physically or digitally) on any Xbox One console without needing their discs, and the ability to share their entire library with 10 designated "family" members, all games would have to be tied to the user's Xbox Live account and their Xbox One console, and the console would be required to connect to the Internet on a periodic basis (at least once every 24 hours) to synchronize the library, or else the console would be unable to play any games at all. After an overwhelmingly negative response from critics and consumers (who also showed concerns that the system could prevent or hinder the resale of used games), Microsoft announced that these restrictions would be dropped. Microsoft was also criticized for requiring the Xbox One to have its updated Kinect peripheral plugged in to function, which critics and privacy advocates believed could be used as a surveillance device. As a gesture toward showing a commitment to user privacy, Microsoft decided to allow the console to function without Kinect.

On June 13, 2016, Microsoft announced the Xbox One S at E3 2016, which featured a smaller form factor, as well as support for 4K video (including streaming and Ultra HD Blu-ray) and HDR. At E3 2017, Microsoft unveiled Xbox One X, a high-end model with improved hardware designed to facilitate the playing of games at 4K resolution.

In November 2014, Microsoft stated it would not release sales numbers for the Xbox One line. Xbox head Phil Spencer said that while they do internally track sales figures, they do not want their developers to be focused on these numbers as to affect their products, and thus have opted not to report further sales of Xbox hardware going forward. In July 2023, Microsoft revealed that the Xbox One line sold over 58 million units.

Fourth generation: Xbox Series X and Series S

The fourth generation of Xbox models, simply named Xbox, includes the Xbox Series X and Xbox Series S that launched on November 10, 2020. Both are considered members of the ninth generation of video game consoles alongside the PlayStation 5, also released that month. Like the Xbox One, the consoles use an AMD 64-bit x86-64 CPU and GPU with up to 16 GB of memory.

The Xbox Series X and Series S are high-end and low-end versions comparable to the Xbox One X and Xbox One S models, respectively, with all games designed for this model family playable on both systems. The Xbox Series X is estimated to be four times as powerful as Xbox One X, with support for 8K resolution and up to 120 frames-per-second rendering, with a nominal target of 4K resolution at 60 frames per second. The Xbox Series S is a digital-only unit with less graphic processing power, but can still render at a nominal 1440p resolution at 60 frames per second with support for 4K upscaling. Both consoles features support for new graphics rendering systems including real-time ray-tracing, and the new Xbox Velocity Architecture that works with the internal SSD drive to maximize the rate of texture streaming to the graphics processor, among other features. Besides games for this new console family, both consoles are fully compatible with all Xbox One games and most hardware, as well as all backward compatible games that were playable on the Xbox One from the Xbox 360 and original Xbox console.

To help transition consumers, Microsoft introduced its Smart Delivery system which most of its first-party games and several third-party games would use to offer free updates to Xbox One versions of games to the Xbox Series X/S version over the first few years of the consoles' launch.

In the latter half of the console's timeframe, the effects of global tariffs and RAM shortage led to price increases of both the Xbox Series X and Series S consoles since 2025. According to Windows Central, Microsoft was losing hundreds of dollars on each console sold as they had not secured enough computer hardware supply before the RAM shortage.

Fifth generation: Project Helix

Microsoft’s fifth generation of Xbox hardware is tied to a broader strategy of treating "Xbox" as a gaming platform and brand beyond just physical consoles. In 2019, Microsoft Studios was renamed Xbox Game Studios, reflecting a shift in focus toward games, subscriptions and services rather than solely hardware sales. Phil Spencer said in June 2019 that Xbox's success was measured by how many players played its games and used its services, not by unit sales.

In February 2020, Spencer said Microsoft did not view traditional console manufacturers as its main competitors, but instead saw cloud computing providers as critical competitors, with Microsoft Azure powering Xbox Cloud Gaming and related services.

In February 2024, Phil Spencer reiterated Microsoft's commitment to Xbox console hardware, stating that first-party games would continue to launch "first and foremost" on Xbox platforms and that Microsoft planned to publicly discuss its next generation of hardware later in 2024.

In June 2025, Microsoft announced a strategic partnership with AMD to co-engineer silicon for the next generation of Xbox hardware across a range of devices, including future consoles and cloud infrastructure. Amid industry speculation about Microsoft's long-term hardware plans, Xbox president Sarah Bond confirmed that development had begun on the next Xbox console.

As of 2026, Microsoft has not announced a release date for its next-generation Xbox hardware; Phil Spencer stated that the timing remains undecided, and earlier leaked FTC documents had indicated a 2028 timeframe, which Microsoft later described as based on outdated plans, although reporting citing AMD CEO Lisa Su has suggested that a 2027 launch is possible.

The codename for the next Xbox, Project Helix, was announced in March 2026. The console is expected to support both Xbox and Windows games, with more information planned at the Game Developers Conference. Xbox's Chief Strategy Officer, Matthew Ball, stated that the global memory supply shortage and price increases due to AI data center demands may have a long-term effect on the production of Helix. Sharma said that with the rising costs of components, the industry has "reached a point where it will be hard to imagine" mass market consoles costing thousands of dollars, and for Xbox, they will need to develop "radically different business models" to make their consoles available to more consumers, though still plan for the larger vision of Project Helix. An internal memo from Sharma in June 2026 indicated that Microsoft was likely planning to release the console in late 2027.

Comparison

The following table is a comparison of the four generations of Xbox hardware.

Other devices

At the June 2025 Xbox Showcase, Microsoft revealed the Asus ROG Xbox Ally and ROG Xbox Ally X handheld devices, which run Windows and support Xbox games alongside other PC storefronts, planned for release by the end of 2025. The Verge reported that Microsoft previously explored an internally developed handheld before focusing on the ROG Ally partnership.

Games

Each console has a variety of games. Most games released on the original Xbox are backwards compatible and can be played directly on its successor, Xbox 360. Backward compatibility with Xbox 360 titles was added to Xbox One a year-and-a-half after its launch in June 2015, with specific titles requiring Kinect or USB peripherals not being supported. The Xbox Series X/S supports backward compatibility with all Xbox One titles (except for Kinect-required games), as well as all the Xbox 360 and original Xbox titles that were made available for Xbox One.

Games using the Xbox and Xbox Live brands have also been released for Microsoft Windows, Windows Phone, Android, and iOS devices. Xbox games can also be played using the Xbox Cloud Gaming streaming service.

Services

Microsoft has used the razor and blades model to sell the family of Xbox consoles, selling the console at or below the price of its manufacturing costs, while earning revenue from licensing fees it collects from publishers, developers and from its services offered to players.

Xbox network

Xbox network (formerly known as Xbox Live) is an online service with over 65 million users worldwide (as of July 2019). It comprises an online virtual market, the Xbox Games Store, which allows the purchase and download of games and various forms of multimedia. Online gaming on the Xbox first started on November 15, 2002, worldwide. The service is still active and continues to be played by gamers.

Microsoft Store

Microsoft Store is an online marketplace made for Microsoft's Xbox One and Xbox Series X|S consoles. The Xbox 360 console uses the previous Xbox Games Store client.

Xbox App

The Xbox app is a companion application available for Windows 8, Windows 10, Windows 11, iOS, Android (version 4.0 and above), and Windows Server 2012. It was announced by Microsoft during E3 2012 and released on October 26, 2012, coinciding with the release of Windows 8. It can connect with the console and allows more interactive entertainment, allowing mobile devices to potentially serve as second screens and remote controller.

Xbox Game Pass Cloud Gaming

Xbox Game Pass Cloud Gaming (codenamed xCloud during development) is the Microsoft's Xbox cloud gaming streaming service.

Content filter

In 2019, Microsoft released a content filtering to stop toxicity in online gaming. The service enables players to report messages, Gamertags, photos, and any other toxic content on its platform.

Xbox Game Pass

Xbox Game Pass is a subscription service from Microsoft for use with the Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, Windows 10 and Windows 11. The Xbox Game Pass grants users access to a catalog of games from a range of publishers for a single monthly subscription price. The service was launched on June 1, 2017.

Xbox Wire

Xbox Wire is Xbox's news blog, launched by Microsoft in May 2013 in preparation for the announcement of the Xbox One. It was Microsoft's first Xbox-focused blog since it shut down Gamerscore in early 2009. In March 2022, a Japanese-language version of the site was published as part of Microsoft's focus on the Japanese gaming market.

Software

The main interface for all four generations of Xbox has been the Xbox Dashboard, which allows users to manage games stored on the console, play media, and access system settings. Since 2002, the Dashboard has been integrated with the Xbox network which provides online functionality and storefront options. The operating systems for all Xbox platforms are heavily modified versions of the Windows NT operating system; the original Xbox and the Xbox 360 system software are based on Windows 2000, and the latest system software for Xbox One and Xbox Series X/S is based on Windows 11, with support for Universal Windows Platform (UWP) applications.

Xbox Family Settings App

In May 2020, Xbox presented a preview version of an app that allows parents and guardians to set daily limits for their children's playing time, provides weekly activity reports, filters out age-restricted games, and places limits on online communication. This is the attempt of Microsoft to promote a message of responsible gaming.

Controllers

Xbox controller

Released in 2001, the Xbox control pad was the first controller made for the original Xbox. The Xbox controller features two analog sticks, a pressure-sensitive directional pad, two analog triggers, a Back button, a Start button, two accessory slots and six 8-bit analog action buttons (A/Green, B/Red, X/Blue, Y/Yellow, and Black and White buttons). The original Xbox controller (nicknamed the "Fatty" and later the "Duke") was the controller initially bundled with Xbox systems for all territories except Japan, which received a more compact controller called the Controller S. The Controller S was later made the standard included controller in all territories.

Xbox 360 controller

Released in 2005, the Xbox 360 controller for the Xbox 360 succeeded its predecessor. A standard Xbox 360 controller features eleven digital buttons, two analog triggers, two analog sticks and a digital D-pad. The right face of the controller features four digital action buttons; a green "A" button, red "B" button, blue "X" button and yellow "Y" button. The lower right houses the right analog stick, in the lower left is a digital D-pad and on the left face is the left analog stick. Both analog sticks can also be "clicked in" to activate a digital button beneath. In the center of the controller face are digital "Start", "Back" and "Guide" buttons. The "Guide" button is labelled with the Xbox logo, and is used to turn on the console/controller and to access the guide menu. It is also surrounded by the "ring of light", which indicates the controller number, as well as flashing when connecting and to provide notifications. The left and right "shoulders" each feature a digital shoulder button, or "bumper", and an analog trigger.

Xbox Wireless Controller (2013–present)

Xbox One controller

The Xbox One console has a revised controller with forty improvements over the 360's controller. This new controller is built to work with Kinect. The Start and Back buttons are replaced with Menu and View buttons. It has impulse triggers that replace the regular triggers. The Xbox button still brings up the mini-guide as of recent dashboard versions, though in earlier iterations it brought up the main dashboard menu while leaving the game uninterrupted.

Xbox Series X/S Controller

The fourth generation Xbox Controller doesn't change much from the Xbox One controller, but the new wireless Xbox Controller does add a capture and share button, a hybrid d-pad, and better gripping on the bumpers and triggers. The controller is also promised to be cross compatible with certain PC's and mobile devices.

Xbox Adaptive Controller

The Xbox Adaptive Controller is a special controller designed for accessibility features for players. Besides being physically larger than typical controllers, it includes additional ports to allow other devices to be connected and mapped to other controller functions. The controller is not limited to just Xbox and Windows platforms but also is compatible with the PlayStation and Nintendo Switch.

Other accessories

Kinect

Kinect (stylized as KINECT) is a motion sensing input device by Microsoft for the Xbox 360 video game console and Windows PCs. Based around a webcam-style add-on peripheral for the Xbox 360 console, it enables users to control and interact with the Xbox 360 without the need to touch a game controller, through a natural user interface using gestures and spoken commands. The project is aimed at broadening the Xbox 360's audience beyond its typical gamer base. Kinect competes with the Wii Remote Plus and PlayStation Move with PlayStation Eye motion controllers for the Wii and PlayStation 3 home consoles, respectively. A version for Windows was released on February 1, 2012.

Kinect was launched in North America on November 4, 2010, in Europe on November 10, 2010, in Australia, New Zealand and Singapore on November 18, 2010, and in Japan on November 20, 2010. Purchase options for the sensor peripheral include a bundle with the game Kinect Adventures and console bundles with either a 4 GB or 250 GB Xbox 360 console and Kinect Adventures.

The Kinect claimed the Guinness World Record of being the "fastest selling consumer electronics device" after selling a total of 8 million units in its first 60 days. 24 million units of the Kinect sensor had been shipped as of January 2012.

Microsoft released Kinect software development kit for Windows 7 on June 16, 2011. This SDK was meant to allow developers to write Kinecting apps in C++/CLI, C#, or Visual Basic .NET.

Additional information on the Xbox One Kinect was released on June 6, 2013, including information on how to turn off the "always on" feature.

Although featuring improved performance over the original Xbox 360 Kinect, its successor the Xbox One Kinect was subject to mixed responses. It was praised for its wide-angle, its fast response time and high-quality camera. However, the Kinect's inability to understand some accents in English was criticized. Furthermore, controversies surround Microsoft's intentional tying of the sensor with the Xbox One console despite the initial requirements for the sensor being plugged in at all times having been revised since its initial announcement. There have also been a number of concerns regarding privacy.

Headsets

When the Xbox Live online service was launched in 2002, the Xbox Communicator headset was included with the Live Starter Kit. The Communicator, which enabled in-game voice chat, consisted of a wired headset and an interface module. The module plugged into the controller's top expansion slot, and the headset plugged into the module; the interface module was equipped with a dial to control volume and a button to mute the microphone. The headset socket on the module was a standard 2.5mm TRS audio jack with monaural input and output, compatible with cellular phone headsets.

Xbox 360 controllers featured a built-in monaural 2.5mm TRS jack also compatible with standard cellular phone headsets, allowing players to reuse the Xbox Communicator headset and chat on Xbox Live without a separate interface module. The premium console bundle included a wired Xbox 360 Live Communicator headset with grey and white cosmetics matching the console, which also was available separately; the wired headset connected to the audio jack on the bottom of the controller through a wide plug that included mute and volume controls. An updated Xbox 360 Headset was released in 2010 with black cosmetics, bundled with the Xbox 360 S; for the revised wired headset, the mute/volume controls were moved to a position inline along the cable.

Microsoft also announced the Xbox 360 Wireless Headset, a first-party single-ear headset accessory designed for and released with the Xbox 360 console in November 2005. Special editions of the wireless headset were released with colors themed for Halo 3 (green/orange, September 2007), the Xbox 360 S (black, 2010), and Halo: Reach (silver, September 2010). It was replaced by the Xbox 360 Wireless Headset with Bluetooth in 2011, which could be used with the console (using the Xbox wireless protocol) or a phone (using Bluetooth).

The initial revision of the Xbox One Wireless Controller (Model 1537) also included a 2.5mm monaural jack compatible with standard cellular phone headsets. Microsoft bundled the Xbox One Chat Headset with each console starting from launch in 2013; the headset was permanently wired to an interface module that plugged into the controller's expansion port and provided microphone mute and volume controls. In addition, Microsoft released the Xbox One Stereo Headset in early March 2014, bundled with a Stereo Headset Adapter, which allowed players to listen to in-game audio blended with chat simultaneously. The Adapter connected to the controller's expansion port and headset jack, and the Headset connected to the Adapter through a 3.5mm plug. Prior headsets released with the Xbox and Xbox 360 were limited to voice chat only. A white-colored special edition was released in fall 2016. The next revision of the controller (Model 1697) replaced with 2.5mm jack with a 3.5mm jack.

A new Xbox Wireless Headset was introduced in February 2021, targeted for use on the Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, and Windows computers. The outer surface of each earcup is a rotary control; the right earcup controls overall volume, and the left earcup controls game/chat mix level. It is equipped with both proprietary Xbox Wireless and Bluetooth radios, and could be connected to both simultaneously. A corresponding Xbox Stereo Headset, which omits the wireless connections in favor of a standard 3.5mm plug and also omits the game/chat mix control dial, was introduced in August 2021 with a reduced price.

Marketing

In 2016, Microsoft announced that it would hold its own Xbox FanFest instead of a press conference at the Gamescom annual European video game convention. Microsoft held an Xbox FanFest in Sydney in September 2016.

Microsoft held a 20th anniversary celebration stream for the Xbox on November 15, 2021. During it, they announced that a documentary behind the history of the Xbox, titled Power On: The Story of Xbox. The documentary was released in six parts starting on December 13, 2021. The documentary won the Daytime Emmy Award for Outstanding Single Camera Editing.