Xbox
The original Xbox 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 name Xbox was derived from a contraction of "DirectX Box", a reference to Microsoft's graphics API, DirectX.
Xbox 360 launch
Due to the Xbox 360 being one of the first consoles to have been officially launched in the country, it initially found tough sales. However, its sales figures have reportedly been on the rise since the launch of the PlayStation 3 in the country. Though company executives have been reluctant to divulge the numbers and sales figures, industry insiders estimate that the console manages to move about 3000 units per month, thus accounting for 12.5% of the monthly gaming hardware sales in India.