Who owns Xbox?
List of Xbox games compatible with Xbox 360
Microsoft launched the "Xbox Originals" program in December 2007 where Xbox 360 owners could purchase select original Xbox titles digitally if they did not own a game disc and could be found inside their own section in the Xbox Live Marketplace. Beginning in June 2009 the branding was phased out and the games were moved to the "Games on Demand" section of the store while Microsoft stating that they have "finished it's portfolio" of Xbox Originals.
Xbox
The original device was the first video game console offered by an American company after the Atari Jaguar stopped sales in 1996. It reached over 24 million units sold as of May 2006. Microsoft's second console, the Xbox 360, was released in 2005 and has sold over 77.2 million consoles worldwide as of April 2013. The Xbox One has been released in 21 markets in total, with a Chinese release in September 2014. The head of Xbox is Phil Spencer, who succeeded former head Marc Whitten in late March 2014.
Phil Spencer (business executive)
Phil Spencer (born January 12, 1968) is an American business executive, who is the current executive vice-president of Gaming at Microsoft. He is currently the head of the Xbox brand and leads the global creative and engineering teams responsible for gaming at Microsoft.
Xbox Live Indie Games
As Microsoft transitioned from the Xbox 360 to the Xbox One, the Xbox Live Indie Games program was not brought over to the new platform. The XNA software was discontinued in 2013, and in September 2015, Microsoft emailed developers outlining the end-of-life of the Xbox Live Indie Games program. The Indie Games Marketplace was originally scheduled to be shuttered on September 29, 2017; users that had already purchased these games could continue to play and download the titles. However, due to player demand, Microsoft extended the shutdown date until October 7. Microsoft has stated they are interested in helping to bring more successful titles from the program into their Xbox Live Creators Program, part of their ID@Xbox indie game initiative, to help preserve these titles.
Xbox Entertainment Studios
On July 17, 2014, Microsoft confirmed that the studio would be closing. On October 29, 2014, both the vice president and the president of the company departed, and the company was officially closed.
Xbox 360
Microsoft announced the Xbox One, successor to the Xbox 360, at E3 on June 10, 2013. Although succeeded as Microsoft's main console by the Xbox One, support from publishers for the Xbox 360 is expected to continue until at least 2016. On April 20, 2016, Microsoft announced the end of production of new Xbox 360 hardware; the company will continue to provide hardware and software support for the platform, as selected Xbox 360 games can be played on Xbox One.
Perfect Dark Zero
Development of "Perfect Dark Zero" began on the Nintendo GameCube with a very small team of roughly ten people. At the time, Nintendo had a 49% stake in Rare, making the company a Nintendo second-party developer. According to lead designer Chris Tilston, "It was basically prototyping, finding out where we could go and how we could get there." When Rare was purchased by Microsoft in 2002, the project was transferred to the Xbox console and the game's multiplayer mode was redesigned for Xbox Live online play. Tilston revealed that at one point they got to 50 players online simultaneously, but the graphics "just couldn't handle it." Since the initial version of the game pushed the original Xbox hardware "pretty hard", the project was ultimately transferred to the Xbox successor, the Xbox 360. Tilston revealed that the original Xbox version was "about 12 months away" from completion when the shift occurred.
Launchworks
Launchworks, formerly Xbox Live Productions, is an American video game developer based in Redmond, Washington created internally by Microsoft Studios in 2008, in order to create "high quality digital content" for Xbox Live.
Xbox controller
Seamus Blackley was a Video game developer for  Xbox and helped design an early prototype controller. The first-generation Xbox controller, originally nicknamed the "Fatty" and later "The Duke", was originally the controller bundled with Xbox systems for all territories except Japan. According to Blackley, the Duke name came from Brett Schnepf, the project manager of hardware for Microsoft during the Xbox's development, whose son was named Duke.
History of Microsoft
Microsoft released Windows XP and Office XP in 2001, a version that aimed to encompass the features of both its business and home product lines. The release included an updated version of the Windows 2000 kernel, enhanced DOS emulation abilities, and many of the home-user features found in previous consumer versions. XP introduced a new graphical user interface, the first such change since Windows 95. The operating system was the first to require Microsoft Product Activation, an anti-piracy mechanism that requires users to activate the software with Microsoft within 30 days. Later, Microsoft would enter the multibillion-dollar game console market dominated by Sony and Nintendo, with the release of the Xbox. The Xbox finished behind the dominant PlayStation 2 selling 24 million units compared to 155 million overall; however they managed to outsell the GameCube which sold 21 million units. Microsoft launched their second console, the Xbox 360, in 2005 – which has turned out to be a lot more successful than their first console. It has sold 40 million units as of 2010 and it has outsold Sony's PlayStation 3 which has so far sold 35 million units. However, despite beating Sony with their last Xbox console, Microsoft so far has been outsold by the Wii which introduced gesture control and opened up a new market for video games. Microsoft later used their popular controller-free Kinect peripheral to increase the popularity of the Xbox. This was very successful. Kinect was the fastest selling consumer electronics product in history. It sold 8 million units from November 4, 2010 to January 3, 2011 (its first 60 days). It averaged 133,333 units per day, outselling the iPhone and iPad over equivalent post-launch periods.
Xbox Underground
Beginning in or about January 2011, Microsoft was the victim of incidents of unauthorized access to its computer networks, including GDNP's protected computer network, which resulted in the theft of log-in credentials, trade secrets and intellectual property relating to its Xbox gaming system. 
In or about September 2013, Alcala and Pokora brokered a physical theft, committed by A.S. and E.A., of multiple Xbox Development Kits (XDKs) from a secure building on Microsoft's Redmond, Washington campus. Using stolen access credentials to a Microsoft building, A.S. and E.A. entered the building and stole three non-public versions of the Xbox One console...
Steve Ballmer
Steven Anthony Ballmer (; born March 24, 1956) is an American businessman and investor who was the chief executive officer of Microsoft from January 13, 2000 to February 4, 2014, and is the current owner of the Los Angeles Clippers of the National Basketball Association (NBA). , his personal wealth is estimated at US$42.4 billion, ranking him the 18th richest person in the world.
Official Xbox Magazine
Official Xbox Magazine (or OXM for short) is a monthly video game magazine which started in November 2001 around the launch of the original Xbox. A preview issue was released at E3 2001, with another preview issue in November 2001. The magazine was bundled with a disc that included game demos, preview videos and trailers, and other content, such as game or Xbox updates and free gamerpics. The discs also provided the software for the Xbox 360 for backward compatibility of original Xbox games for those without broadband and Xbox Live access. As of January 2012, OXM no longer includes a demo disc. In mid-2014, the U.S. version was merged into the UK version on the website, which lasted only a few months until Future plc announced that it was closing its website along with all the other websites that Future has published, including "Edge" and "Computer and Video Games". In February 2015, "OXM" and all of Future's video game websites were redirected into GamesRadar. The magazine itself continues to be published in the UK, US and Australia.
Xbox 360 sales
On February 13, 2008, Microsoft announced that the Xbox 360 suffered shortages in the U.S. in January 2008, possibly continued into February. Prior to the release of the NPD Group's video game statistics for January 2008, the Xbox 360 was in second place behind the Wii in U.S. sales for most months since the Wii and PS3's release. On May 14, 2008, Microsoft announced that 10 million Xbox 360s had been sold and that it was the "first current generation gaming console" to surpass the 10 million figure in the US. In the US, the Xbox 360 was the leader in current-generation home console sales until June 2008, when it was surpassed by the Wii.
List of original programs distributed by Xbox Entertainment Studios
Xbox Entertainment Studios was an American entertainment studio based in Redmond, Washington created internally by Microsoft Studios in 2012, in order to create "interactive television content" for Xbox Live. All programming is provided exclusively via Xbox 360 and Xbox One.
XBMC4Xbox
According to Microsoft, it is a common misconception that the Xbox uses a modified Windows 2000 kernel, instead they claim that the Xbox operating system was built from scratch but implements a subset of Windows APIs. The idea that it does, indeed, run a modified copy of the Windows kernel still persists in the community, however what is known for sure is that the Xbox's kernel works like a BIOS and is Win32 based, but does not have all of the resources or capabilities of a full Windows NT based operating system, (for example: neither DirectShow, registry, nor DLL are natively supported on the Xbox), and because of the constraints on the hardware and environment of the Xbox, all software development of XBMC4Xbox for the Xbox is focused on reserving the limited resources that exist, the main hindrance of which is the amount of available RAM at any one time.As the successor to Xbox Media Player (XBMP), XboxMediaCenter (XBMC), was ported to other platforms and architectures, becoming XBMC or XBMC Media Center thus losing the Xbox connection. On May 27, 2010, to differentiate the now mainline multiplatform XBMC from the original Xbox, the team behind XBMC announced the splitting of the Xbox branch into a new project; "XBMC4Xbox" which will continue the development and support of XBMC for the old Xbox hardware platform as a separate project, with the original XBMC project no longer offering any support for the Xbox.
Evil Controllers
Evil Controllers is a Tempe, Arizona-based company operated by brothers Adam and Jonah Coe that modifies Xbox One, PlayStation 4, Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 controllers. Notable for their rapid fire, fast reload, evil sticks, and accessible gaming modifications, Evil Controllers sells a variety of different customization options. Evil Controllers has been featured on majoring gaming sites such as IGN, Kotaku and Game Informer for their Controller Creator that allows shoppers to make fully custom controllers. The Controller Creator features photorealistic images on every part selected to give buyers an exact idea of what their controller will look.
Xbox One system software
The Xbox One console runs on an operating system that includes the Windows 10 core, although initially it included the Windows 8 core at the Xbox One's release. The Xbox One system software contains a heavily modified Hyper-V hypervisor (known as NanoVisor) as its host OS and two partitions. One of the partitions, the "Exclusive" partition is a custom virtual machine (VM) for games; the other partition, the "Shared" partition is a custom VM for running multiple apps. The Shared Partition contained the Windows 8 Core at launch until November 2015, where via a system update known as the "New Xbox One Experience", it was upgraded to the Windows 10 Core. With Windows 10, Universal Windows Platform apps became available on Xbox One. According to the current head of Microsoft's Gaming division, Phil Spencer, "The importance of entertainment and games to the Windows ecosystem has become really prevalent to the company". The program that Microsoft launched allows developers to build a single app that can run on a wide variety of devices, including personal computers and Xbox One video game consoles. According to "Polygon", Microsoft is removing the distinction between Xbox One and Windows PC.
Xbox (console)
The Xbox was officially unveiled to the public by Gates and guest professional wrestler The Rock at CES 2001 in Las Vegas on January 3, 2001. Microsoft announced Xbox's release dates and prices at E3 2001 in May. Most Xbox launch titles were unveiled at E3, most notably "" and "Dead or Alive 3".
Xbox
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.
List of original programs distributed by Xbox Entertainment Studios
Microsoft closed Xbox Entertainment Studios at the end of 2014.
Xbox Games Store
Initial content partners included Paramount Pictures, CBS, TBS, MTV Networks, UFC, NBC, and Warner Bros. Home Entertainment. Other movie studios have since supported the service including Lionsgate Films and Walt Disney Pictures as announced at E3 2007. At CES 2008, MGM, ABC, the Disney Channel and Toon Disney announced their support for the service.
Xbox
Xbox Live is an online service with over 40 million users worldwide (as of January 10, 2012). It comprises an online virtual market, the Xbox Live Marketplace, 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.
Bungie
On June 19, 2000, on the ninth anniversary of Bungie's founding, Microsoft announced that it had acquired Bungie and that Bungie would become a part of the Microsoft Game Division. "Halo" would be developed as an exclusive first-person shooter title for the Xbox. The reasons for Bungie accepting Microsoft's offer were varied. Jones stated that "I don't remember the details exactly, it was all a blur. We'd been talking to people for years and years—before we even published "Marathon", Activision made a serious offer. But the chance to work on Xbox—the chance to work with a company that took the games seriously. Before that we worried that we'd get bought by someone who just wanted Mac ports or didn't have a clue". Martin O'Donnell, who had joined Bungie as an employee ten days before the merger was announced, remembers that the stability of the Xbox as a development platform was not the only benefit. Shortly before "Myth II"s release, it was discovered versions of the game could erase a player's hard drive; the glitch led to a massive recall of the games right before they shipped, which cost Bungie nearly one million dollars. O'Donnell stated in a Bungie podcast that this recall created some financial uncertainty, although accepting the offer was not something Bungie "had to do". Seropian and Jones had refused to accept Microsoft's offer until the entire studio agreed to the buyout.
Clayton Kauzlaric
Clayton Kauzlaric is a game designer mostly known for the Xbox adventure game, Voodoo Vince and his work on the Total Annihilation real time strategy games. Kauzlaric was a founding member of Cavedog Entertainment and the founder of Beep Industries, a first party developer for Microsoft's Xbox.
InXile Entertainment
In November 2018, Microsoft Studios announced they were in the final stages of acquiring InXile, as well as Obsidian Entertainment, another studio known for its RPG games. According to Fargo, they were approached in April 2018 by Noah Musler, one of Microsoft's business development executives that had former ties to the studio, who suggested the possibility of acquisition. Fargo believed the acquisition was beneficial for the studio, as at the time, they were in the "uncanny valley" between more independent game development and high-budget AAA games where there was a significant different in expectations on quality and pricing of the game. Microsoft's support would help them make games that are closer to AAA games and better compete in the current state of the industry.
Xbox
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.
Xbox 360 launch
The official unveiling of the Xbox 360 occurred on May 12, 2005, on MTV in a program called "MTV Presents: The Next Generation Xbox Revealed." The special was hosted by the actor Elijah Wood and featured a musical performance by the band The Killers. The Xbox 360 was also featured on the cover of "TIME" Magazine's May 23, 2005 issue with an article written by Lev Grossman. The cover shows Microsoft CEO Bill Gates holding up one of the units. In the article he says "It's perfect... The day Sony launches (PlayStation 3), and they walk right into "Halo 3"." "" Microsoft executive Robbie Bach later clarified this statement, saying "Philosophically the point Bill was trying to make is that we're not just going to ship and not have great stuff coming up." Gates himself later clarified that "Halo 3 will ship when Bungie is ready." Microsoft chose a November 2005 release date not because they wanted to be first to market but because they thought Sony would ship their PlayStation 3 at that point.
Fox Sports (Australia)
Fox Sports in Australia differs from other Fox Sports-branded channels in the United States and elsewhere around the world in that it is not owned by 21st Century Fox, but by News Corp—the publishing company that was spun out from the larger News Corporation in 2013. Although 21st Century Fox maintains ownership of the remainder of News Corporation's broadcasting assets, its Australian television assets were spun out with the new company as well. Both companies nonetheless remain under the control of the Murdoch family.
Video game industry
Valve Corporation operates Steam, the largest computer gaming platform, with an active user base (≈125 million) that rivals the combined user bases of the current console generation (≈150 million). While not specifically focused on games, the largest mobile gaming platforms are operated by Google (Google Play), and Apple Inc. (App Store), with the majority of mobile revenue coming from Asia. Microsoft operates Xbox, the only major game console hardware franchise not controlled by a Japanese company. Sony established Sony Interactive Entertainment in Silicon Valley to run PlayStation, the world's largest and longest-running video game console franchise.
Xbox Live
On May 13, 2014, Microsoft announced changes to the Xbox Live Gold membership that would allow subscribers to access available apps such as Netflix, Twitch, MLB.tv, etc. without a Gold membership on both Xbox One and Xbox 360 consoles, though various rental or subscription fees still apply. Microsoft would be offering pro-rated refunds for the service for requests up until August 31, 2014. The company also announced "Games with Gold" that would give subscribers free games on both Xbox 360 and Xbox One with one single membership, and "Deals with Gold" for exclusive discounts for Xbox One games at the Xbox store.
Xbox (console)
By 2005, despite notable first party releases in "" and "Forza Motorsport", Microsoft began phasing out the Xbox in favor of their next console, the Xbox 360. Games such as "" and "Perfect Dark Zero", which were originally to be developed for the Xbox, became Xbox 360 launch titles instead. The last game released on the Xbox was "Madden NFL 09", on August 12, 2008.
Fox Entertainment Group
The Fox Entertainment Group is an American entertainment company that operates through four segments, mainly filmed entertainment, and cable network programming. The company is the owner of 20th Century Fox, Fox Networks Group, and FX Networks. It is wholly owned and controlled by the American media conglomerate 21st Century Fox, which is chaired and partially owned by Rupert Murdoch. 21st Century Fox was formerly known as News Corporation, which acquired all the stock of Fox Entertainment Group in 2005. In 2013, News Corporation was renamed 21st Century Fox and its publishing assets were spun off into the newly formed News Corp as part of a corporate re-organization.
Xbox Underground
Microsoft's computer network was compromised repeatedly by the Xbox Underground between 2011 and 2013. According to a 65-page indictment, the hackers spent "hundreds of hours" searching through Microsoft's network copying log-in credentials, source code, technical specifications and other data. This culminated in the perpetrators carrying out a physical theft, by using stolen credentials to enter "a secure building" at Microsoft's Redmond headquarters and exiting with Xbox development kits. Group members say they were driven by a strong curiosity about Microsoft's then-unreleased Xbox One console and associated software.
Portland Trail Blazers
The team from 1988 until 2018 was owned by Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen; ownership of the Trail Blazers is currently via a series of holding companies which Allen owned. Vulcan Inc. is a private corporation in which currently Allen's sister Jody Allen as head of the Paul Allen's estate is the chairman and sole shareholder. A subsidiary of Vulcan, Vulcan Sports and Entertainment (VSE), manages Allen's sports-related properties, including the Trail Blazers, the Seattle Seahawks NFL team, the Seattle Sounders MLS team, and the Moda Center. In the fall of 2012, Peter McLoughlin was named CEO of Vulcan Sports and Entertainment.
News Corporation
On 28 June 2012, Rupert Murdoch announced that, after concerns from shareholders in response to the recent scandals and to "unlock even greater long-term shareholder value", News Corporation's assets would be split into two publicly traded companies, one oriented towards media, and the other towards publishing. News Corp's publishing operations were spun out into a new News Corporation with Robert James Thomson, editor of "The Wall Street Journal", as CEO. The present News Corporation, which retains most of its media properties (such as the Fox Entertainment Group and 20th Century Fox) and Murdoch as CEO, was renamed 21st Century Fox. Murdoch remains chairman for both companies.
Shareholders approved the split on 11 June 2013. On 19 June 2013, preliminary trading for the new News Corp on the Australian Securities Exchange commenced in preparation for the formal split that was finalized on 28 June 2013. Shareholders received one share of New News Corp for every four shares they owned of the old News Corp. The two new companies began trading on the NASDAQ on 1 July 2013. 21st Century Fox and most of its businesses were later acquired by The Walt Disney Company in December 2017; except its US broadcast, sports, and news assets which were spun off by the Fox company which would be retained under Murdoch ownership.News Corporation organises an annual management conference, discussing media issues related to geopolitics. Attendees include News Corporation executives, senior journalists, politicians and celebrities. Previous events were in Cancún, Mexico, and the Hayman Island off the coast of Australia. The events are private and secretive, there are no records available for the agenda or talks given at the conferences, and no uninvited journalists are permitted access.
Xbox Live
Xbox Live is an online multiplayer gaming and digital media delivery service created and operated by Microsoft. It was first made available to the Xbox system in November 2002. An updated version of the service became available for the Xbox 360 console at the system's launch in November 2005, and a further enhanced version was released in 2013 with the Xbox One.
The Matrix Online
The Matrix Online (abbreviated as MxO) was a massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) initially developed by Monolith Productions and later, a few months after launch, by Sony Online Entertainment. It was billed as a continuation of the storyline of "The Matrix" films, as The Wachowskis, the franchise's creators, gave their blessing to the notion of gamers "inherit[ing] the storyline". The game began closed beta-testing in June 2004 which was then opened for people who pre-ordered the game in November 2004. Warner Bros. and Sega released "MxO" on March 22, 2005 in the United States. It was released in Europe on April 15, 2005. In June 2005 it was announced that Warner Bros. sold the rights to the game to Sony Online Entertainment, and the game's development and operation was transitioned to the latter on August 15, 2005. Sony Online Entertainment shut down operation of the game on July 31, 2009.
Xbox (console)
The Xbox was almost always behind the PlayStation 2 in terms of sales, although in April 2004, the Xbox outsold the PS2 in the U.S. Despite lagging far behind the PlayStation 2's sales, the Xbox was overall a success (especially in North America), keeping a steady second place in the generation sales.
Moda Center
The arena's current primary tenant is the Portland Trail Blazers of the NBA. Both the Trail Blazers and Moda Center are ultimately owned by the estate of Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen, which also owns the Seattle Seahawks of the National Football League. The head of the estate is his sister Jody Allen. The Trail Blazers have a lease agreement with Moda Center which runs through 2025, and an exclusive site agreement with the City of Portland requires the team to remain in Portland through 2023.
List of Xbox games compatible with Xbox 360
The Xbox 360 gaming console has received updates from Microsoft from its launch in 2005 until November 2007 that enable it to play select games from its predecessor, Xbox. The Xbox 360 launched with backward compatibility with the number of supported Xbox games varying depending on region. Microsoft continued to update the list of Xbox games that were compatible with Xbox 360 until November 2007 when the list was finalized. Microsoft later launched the "Xbox Originals" program on December 7, 2007 where select backward compatible Xbox games could be purchased digitally on Xbox 360 consoles with the program ending less than two years later in June 2009. The following is a list of all backward compatible games on Xbox 360 under this functionality.
Fox Corporation
Fox is the legal successor to 21st Century Fox (in turn a successor to News Corporation) dealing primarily in the television broadcast, news and sports industries. Its sister company under Rupert Murdoch's control, News Corp, holds Murdoch's print interests and other media assets in Australia (both owned by him and his family via a family trust with 39% interest in each). Murdoch is co-executive Chairman, while his son Lachlan Murdoch is Chairman and CEO, respectively.
Xbox (console) special limited editions
The Partner Edition is a translucent green Xbox with a jewel that is silk screened with the message "Thanks for Partnering with Xbox" and signature from Bill Gates. Unlike the Launch Team consoles, these did not have the "Special Edition" label on the front right of the console. This Xbox was given to hardware companies that produced components for the Xbox such as Nvidia and Intel. A translucent green Controller S was included with this model. These are considered to be rarer than the Launch Team console because of their distribution to companies rather than individual people makes them harder to come across in the world.
Ori and the Blind Forest
According to Moon Studios' Thomas Mahler, "Ori and the Blind Forest" became profitable for Microsoft within one week of the game's launch on Xbox One and PC; and Gennadiy Korol, co-founder of Moon Studios, said the game was profitable for the studio itself within "a couple of weeks." Mahler described Microsoft as being "super-happy" with "Ori" and hinted that the franchise may see a future installment. He also stated that the Xbox 360 version of the game was still in development and was expected to launch later in the spring (Q2) of 2015.
Xbox Linux
Currently only a few distributions of Xbox Linux will run on the version 1.6 Xbox (the third newest version, including 1.6b). Xboxes with modchips and the Cromwell bios installed can run more distributions than those with only a softmod. This is mainly due to issues with the video chip used in version 1.6 Xboxes that was developed exclusively by Microsoft and which has no source code available at this time. This can cause significant overscan on all four sides of the screen when a different kernel than the original is loaded.
Xbox Underground
Xbox Underground was an international hacker group responsible for gaining unauthorized access to the computer network of Microsoft and its development partners, including Activision, Epic Games, and Valve, in order to obtain sensitive information relating to Xbox One and Xbox Live.
Xbox 360 technical problems
On June 1, 2007, European Commissioner for Consumer Protection Meglena Kuneva, after talking with the producers of "Kassa" and other Dutch consumer organizations, announced that the European Commission would investigate the Xbox scratching problems, and would ask Microsoft for an Xbox replacement program for the whole of Europe. She expected Microsoft's answer within a week. Informal sources now say that Microsoft's response was to deny the problem exists, stating that "the users are to blame". But Kuneva did not react to that response, and 18 months later (4th quarter 2008) the EC's (Meglena Kuneva's) news site was still silent about Microsoft's response, or about the result of the "investigation".
History of video games
The Xbox One is a video game console from Microsoft. Billed as the successor to the Xbox 360, the Xbox One was officially announced at a press conference on May 21, 2013. Microsoft had intended to implement strict controls over game resale and DRM controls, but later reversed its decision due to public backlash. It is the third home console in Microsoft's Xbox series and launched on November 22, 2013 in North America, United Kingdom, Spain, Mexico, Italy, Ireland, Germany, France, Canada, Brazil, Austria, New Zealand and Australia. The release was delayed until sometime in 2014 in eight European countries (Belgium, Denmark, Finland, Netherlands, Norway, Russia, Sweden and Switzerland) due to various localization issues.
Don Mattrick
On May 21, 2013, Mattrick unveiled the new Xbox One, the successor to the Xbox 360, an all-in-one entertainment system. He later dismissed criticisms of the system's "always on" internet connection by saying "We have a product for people who aren't able to get some form of connectivity; it's called Xbox 360." Shortly thereafter, on June 19, 2013, Mattrick wrote an update on Xbox Wire to address feedback on Xbox One connectivity requirements and sharing limitations. Mattrick stated, "An internet connection will not be required to play offline Xbox One games" and "Trade-in, lend, resell, gift, and rent disc based games just like you do today". These changes may have come at the expense of most of the features that had been heavily promoted as unique and innovative by Microsoft, including Family Game Sharing, Digital loaning and sale of games, and disc-less game play. The changes have been noted as being "ostensibly...a direct reaction to the huge popular backlash against the Xbox One's policies that reverberated through E3."
Xbox One
While the initial unveiling of the Xbox One in May 2013 created criticism that led to significant changes in the digital rights management scheme it would use, other features of the console were highlighted by journalists. The editorial staff of "Game Informer" offered both praise and criticism for the console. Matt Helgeson described the console as Microsoft's intent to "control the living room". He called Xbox One's instant switching features "impressive", and that the console was "a step in the right direction" with regards to TV entertainment, especially the prospect of avoiding the usage of non-intuitive user interfaces often found on cable set-top boxes. Jeff Cork said that Microsoft had "some great ideas" for the console, but that it failed to properly communicate them.
Vulcan Inc.
Vulcan Inc. is a privately held company controlled by the estate of late Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen. Established in 1986, Vulcan Inc. is headquartered on Fifth Avenue in Seattle, Washington. Vulcan oversees Allen's business activities and philanthropic efforts including —the Seattle Seahawks, the Portland Trail Blazers, the Great Elephant Census, the Seattle Cinerama, and Stratolaunch Systems.
Xbox Live
On November 6, 2006, Microsoft announced the Xbox Video (formerly Xbox Video Marketplace), an exclusive video store accessible through the console. Launched in the United States on November 22, 2006, the first anniversary of the Xbox 360's launch, the service allows users in the United States to download high-definition and standard-definition television shows for purchase and movies for rental onto an Xbox 360 console for viewing. With the exception of short clips, content is not currently available for streaming, and must be downloaded. Movies are available for rental from the Video Marketplace. They expire in 14 days after download or at the end of the first 24 hours after the movie has begun playing, whichever comes first. Television episodes can be purchased to own, and are transferable to an unlimited number of consoles. Downloaded files use 5.1 surround audio and are encoded using VC-1 for video at 720p, with a bitrate of 6.8 Mbit/s. Television content is offered from MTV, VH1, Comedy Central, Turner Broadcasting and CBS; and movie content is Warner Bros., Paramount and Disney, along with other publishers.
Microsoft
The Kinect, a motion-sensing input device made by Microsoft and designed as a video game controller, first introduced in November 2010, was upgraded for the 2013 release of the Xbox One video game console. Kinect's capabilities were revealed in May 2013: an ultra-wide 1080p camera, function in the dark due to an infrared sensor, higher-end processing power and new software, the ability to distinguish between fine movements (such as a thumb movements), and determining a user's heart rate by looking at their face. Microsoft filed a patent application in 2011 that suggests that the corporation may use the Kinect camera system to monitor the behavior of television viewers as part of a plan to make the viewing experience more interactive. On July 19, 2013, Microsoft stocks suffered its biggest one-day percentage sell-off since the year 2000, after its fourth-quarter report raised concerns among the investors on the poor showings of both Windows 8 and the Surface tablet. Microsoft suffered a loss of more than US$32 billion.
Microsoft Studios
Microsoft Studios is the video game publishing division of American technology company Microsoft, which is based in Redmond, Washington. The division was created in March 2000 as Microsoft Games and in 2001 assumed the name Microsoft Game Studios. In 2011, the division was renamed Microsoft Studios. Microsoft Studios is responsible for Microsoft's video game publishing operations, oversight of the company's video game development studios, including Rare and "Minecraft" creator Mojang, and maintenance of MSN Games.
THX
In 2016, THX was acquired by videogame hardware company Razer Inc., with Razer owning all of THX and its intellectual property.
Xbox
On June 13, 2016, Microsoft announced the Xbox One S, a slimmer version of the Xbox One, at E3 2016. Phil Spencer, head of Xbox, announced Project Scorpio at E3 2016 on June 13, 2016, an addition to the Xbox One family, saying it would release in Holiday 2017. At E3 2017, Microsoft revealed the final name of the console to be Xbox One X, and that it would start shipping worldwide on November 7, 2017 for a final retail price of $499.
Xbox (console)
The Xbox has sold 24 million units worldwide as of May 10, 2006, according to Microsoft. This is divided out to 16 million units sold in North America, six million units in Europe, and just two million units sold in Asia, Australia, and New Zealand.
Oddworld Inhabitants
Lanning has stated he will consider partnering with a publisher, "but 'it has to make sense' in terms of revenue share." He has since stated that his focus has moved away from Microsoft because they aren't "acknowledging people like us," and not listening to independent developers, or the audience demanding independent offerings. Despite calls from fans to relent to Microsoft's policy in order to make millions more dollars, Lanning is adamant "Oddworld wasn't built on selling out." Oddworld Inhabitants Community and PR Manager Dan Morse said, "we want there to be a clear message to Microsoft that as an indie company we would love to see our games on the Xbox One, but as masters of our own destiny."
Xbox One
Xbox One is a line of eighth generation home video game consoles developed by Microsoft. Announced in May 2013, it is the successor to Xbox 360 and the third console in the Xbox family. It was first released in North America, parts of Europe, Australia, and South America in November 2013, and in Japan, China, and other European countries in September 2014. It is the first Xbox game console to be released in China, specifically in the Shanghai Free-Trade Zone. Microsoft marketed the device as an "all-in-one entertainment system". The Xbox One line mainly competes against consoles such as Sony's PlayStation 4 and Nintendo's Wii U and Switch.
Virtual Console
Matt Casamassina of IGN reported that Rare titles absent of Nintendo-owned characters, such as "Banjo-Kazooie" and "Perfect Dark", would be unavailable for purchase due to Microsoft's acquisition of Rare; some of these titles have since been released for Xbox Live Arcade, as well as on the Xbox One through the "Rare Replay" compilation. SNK has announced intentions to release the "Samurai Shodown" series and a few other games to the Virtual Console which has brought the Neo Geo AES to the list of consoles available. Midway had also planned to bring the classic "Mortal Kombat" games to the Virtual Console, but later sold the franchise to Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment when it filed for bankruptcy in 2009. Warner Bros. has not stated whether it will release the Mortal Kombat games to the Virtual Console. However, it was stated by Ed Boon (co-creator of Mortal Kombat) on his Twitter account that the SNES Mortal Kombat games have "0.0" chance of happening.
Xbox (software)
The Xbox app (originally known as "Xbox 360 SmartGlass" and "Xbox One Smartglass") is a dashboard for Xbox Live accounts. On launch, it was positioned as a companion app for Xbox video game consoles, including Xbox 360 and Xbox One video game consoles, providing access to Xbox Live community functions, remote control, as well as second screen functionality with selected games, applications, and content. The Xbox app is available for Microsoft Windows, Android, and iOS.
Xbox 360
On November 6, 2006, Microsoft announced the Xbox Video Marketplace, an exclusive video store accessible through the console. Launched in the United States on November 22, 2006, the first anniversary of the Xbox 360's launch, the service allows users in the United States to download high-definition and standard-definition television shows and movies onto an Xbox 360 console for viewing. With the exception of short clips, content is not currently available for streaming, and must be downloaded. Movies are also available for rental. They expire in 14 days after download or at the end of the first 24 hours after the movie has begun playing, whichever comes first. Television episodes can be purchased to own, and are transferable to an unlimited number of consoles. Downloaded files use 5.1 surround audio and are encoded using VC-1 for video at 720p, with a bitrate of 6.8 Mbit/s. Television content is offered from MTV, VH1, Comedy Central, Turner Broadcasting, and CBS; and movie content is Warner Bros., Paramount, and Disney, along with other publishers.
Xbox 360
PartnerNet, the developers-only alternative Xbox Live network used by developers to beta test game content downloads and games developed for Xbox Live Arcade, runs on Xbox 360 debug kits, which are used both by developers and by the gaming press. In a podcast released on February 12, 2007, a developer breached the PartnerNet non-disclosure agreement (NDA) by commenting that he had found a playable version of "Alien Hominid" and an unplayable version of "Ikaruga" on PartnerNet. A few video game journalists, misconstruing the breach of the NDA as an invalidation of the NDA, immediately began reporting on other games being tested via PartnerNet, including a remake of "Jetpac". ("Alien Hominid" for the Xbox 360 was released on February 28 of that year, and "Ikaruga" was released over a year later on April 9, 2008. "Jetpac" was released for the Xbox 360 on March 28, 2007 as "Jetpac Refuelled".) There have also been numerous video and screenshot leaks of game footage on PartnerNet, as well as a complete version of "", which caused for the whole PartnerNet service to be shut down overnight on April 3, 2010. In the following days, Microsoft reminded developers and journalists that they were in breach of NDA by sharing information about PartnerNet content and asked websites to remove lists of games in development that were discovered on the service. Sega used feedback from fans about the leaked version of Sonic the Hedgehog 4: Episode I to refine it before they eventually released it. 
Additionally, a pair of hackers played their modded Halo 3 games on PartnerNet in addition to using PartnerNet to scoop up unreleased and untested software. The duo passed their hacked Halo pics to their friends before they were eventually caught by Bungie engineers who left a message for the hackers on PartnerNet which read "Winners Don't Break Into PartnerNet.". Other games that were leaked in the PartnerNet fiasco include Shenmue and Shenmue 2.
Xbox 360
XNA Community is a feature whereby Xbox 360 owners can receive community-created games, made with Microsoft XNA Game Studio, from the XNA Creators Club. The games are written, published, and distributed through a community managed portal. XNA Community provides a channel for digital videogame delivery over Xbox Live that can be free of royalties, publishers and licenses. XNA game sales, however, did not meet original expectations. though Xbox Live Indie Games (XBLIG) has had some "hits."
Xbox
The Xbox Live Marketplace (XBLM) is a virtual market designed for Microsoft's Xbox 360 console that allows Xbox Live members to download purchased or promotional content. The service offers movie and game trailers, Video Store, game demos, Xbox Live Arcade games, Xbox Live Indie Games (Previously Community Games), Games on Demand (Xbox 360 and Xbox Originals), downloadable content such as map packs, gamer pictures, and Xbox 360 Dashboard themes.
Xbox (console)
The Xbox runs a custom operating system which is based on the Windows architecture kernel. It exposes APIs similar to APIs found in Microsoft Windows, such as Direct3D 8.1. The system software may have been partially based on the Windows NT kernel, but it has modified log files.
Xbox
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.
Robert J. Bach
Robert J. Bach (born December 31, 1961), commonly known as Robbie Bach, was the President of Entertainment & Devices Division at Microsoft. He led the division that was responsible for the Xbox, Xbox 360, Zune, Games for Windows, Windows Phone and the Microsoft TV platform. After 22 years at Microsoft, Robbie announced his retirement from Microsoft effective in the fall of 2010. Robbie now speaks to corporate, academic and civic groups across the country and in 2015 completed his first book, Xbox Revisited: A Game Plan for Corporate and Civic Renewal. 
Robbie Bach was born in Peoria, Illinois and is the son of a former Schlitz executive. He graduated from RJ Reynolds High School in Winston-Salem, North Carolina in 1980. Robbie was a Morehead Scholar at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill where he graduated with highest honors in economics and was also named an Academic All-American on the Tar Heel’s varsity tennis team. Robbie went to work for Morgan Stanley for two years before going onto became an Arjay Miller Scholar at Stanford University Graduate School of Business where he earned his MBA.
Fox Sports
Fox Sports is the brand name for a number of sports channels, broadcast divisions, programming, and other media around the world that are either controlled or partially owned by the family of Rupert Murdoch, or companies called Scream Factory and Shout! Factory. These assets are held mainly by Fox Corporation, with the exception of the operations in Australia, which are part of News Corp Australia. (21st Century Fox and News Corp are the two companies resulting from the breakup of the larger News Corporation in mid-2013; the Murdoch family retains voting control of both entities.)
Xbox One system software
The Xbox One system software, sometimes called the Xbox OS, is the operating system for the eighth-generation home video game console, Xbox One. It is a Windows-based operating system using the Hyper-V virtual machine monitor and contains separate operating systems for games and applications that can run on the console. It is located on the internal HDD for day-to-day usage, while also being duplicated on the internal NAND storage of the console for recovery purposes and factory reset functionality.
Microsoft Studios
Microsoft Studios announced that they would publish fifteen Xbox One exclusives within 12 months of launch, 8 of which would be new franchises. Phil Harrison, Corporate vice-president at Microsoft's Interactive Entertainment Business, announces Microsoft Studios is investing over billion into exclusive Xbox One games content, twice of that of its competitors.Julie Larson-Green is appointed head of the Xbox division, succeeding Don Mattrick, who leaves Microsoft Studios to join Zynga as Chief Executive Officer on July 1, 2013; and Jason Holtman, formerly Valve's Steam boss, joins Microsoft Studios as the head of PC Gaming Division and Strategy. In early December Microsoft Studios announces the creation of a small one called Microsoft Casual Games, is a division and video game developer of Microsoft Studios based in Redmond, Washington, United States. The developer has for the purpose of modernizing and redesigning classic games of the sistem Windows with new functions and features so that they can be accessible to all users of Windows 10 and Windows Phone. On December 6, Microsoft decided to close the Victoria Studio with explanation to focus on Vancouver based studio, Black Tusk. However Victoria didn't develop any games.
Xbox (console)
The Xbox is a home video game console and the first installment in the Xbox series of consoles manufactured by Microsoft. It was released on November 15, 2001 in North America, followed by Australia, Europe and Japan in 2002. It was Microsoft's first foray into the gaming console market. It is a sixth generation console, and competed with Sony's PlayStation 2 and Nintendo's GameCube. It was also the first console produced by an American company since the Atari Jaguar ceased production in 1996.
Cascade Investment
Cascade Investment, L.L.C. is an American holding and investment company headquartered in Kirkland, Washington, United States. It is controlled by Bill Gates, and managed by Michael Larson. More than half of Gates' fortune is held in assets outside his holding of Microsoft shares. Cascade is the successor company to Dominion Income Management, the former investment vehicle for Gates' holdings, which was managed by Andrew Evans.
Home video game console
Microsoft released its first games console, the Xbox in North America on November 15, 2001, in Japan on February 22, 2002, and in Europe and Australia on March 14, 2002. It was the first console to employ a hard drive right out of the box to save games, the first to include an Ethernet port for broadband internet, and the beginning of Microsoft's online Xbox LIVE service. Microsoft was able to attract many PC developers by using the NT kernel and DirectX from their Windows operating system. Though criticized for its bulky size and the awkwardness of its original controller, the Xbox eventually gained popularity, especially in the US, where it outsold the GameCube to secure second place, due in part to the success of the "Halo" franchise.
DirectX
In a console-specific version, DirectX was used as a basis for Microsoft's Xbox, Xbox 360 and Xbox One console API. The API was developed jointly between Microsoft and Nvidia, which developed the custom graphics hardware used by the original Xbox. The Xbox API was similar to DirectX version 8.1, but is non-updateable like other console technologies. The Xbox was code named DirectXbox, but this was shortened to Xbox for its commercial name.
Xbox Live Arcade
Xbox Live Arcade (XBLA) is a digital video game download service available through the Xbox Games Store, Microsoft's digital distribution network for the Xbox 360. It focuses on smaller downloadable games from both major publishers and independent game developers. Titles range from classic console and arcade video games, to new games designed from the ground up for the service. Games available through the XBLA service range from $5–20 in price, and as of October 2016, there have been 719 Xbox Live Arcade titles released for the Xbox 360. Prior to the Xbox 360, "Xbox Live Arcade" was the name for an online distribution network on the original Xbox, which was replaced by the Xbox Live Marketplace.
Owned-and-operated television stations in the United States
In 1987, Fox purchased its Boston affiliate, WFXT (channel 25). The network's then-parent company News Corporation (whose entertainment properties largely became part of the restructured 21st Century Fox through its July 2013 spin-off of its publishing division) also owned "The Boston Herald", requiring Fox to obtain a temporary cross-ownership waiver for the station. When the waiver to retain ownership of both the newspaper and television station expired, WFXT was sold to the Boston Celtics of the National Basketball Association (NBA). The Celtics could not survive as a broadcaster, and Fox purchased WFXT a second time in 1995 after the "Herald" was sold.
Xbox Live Indie Games
Xbox Live Indie Games (abbreviated as XBLIG, and previously called Xbox Live Community Games abbreviated as XBLCG) are video games created by individual developers or small teams of developers released on Microsoft's Xbox Live Marketplace for the Xbox 360. The games were developed using Microsoft XNA, and developed by one or more independent developers that are registered with App Hub. Unlike Xbox Live Arcade titles, these were generally only tested within the local creator community, had much lower costs of production, and generally were less expensive to purchase. The service was released to widespread use alongside the New Xbox Experience, and , over 3,300 games have been released on the service, many receiving media attention. All Indie Games currently require the user to be logged into their Xbox Live account to initiate the start-up of each game. Indie Games were not available in Australia, due to the requirement for all games to be rated by the Australian Classification Board, and the prohibitive expenses involved.
The Xbox Live Indie Games program did not continue with the release of the Xbox One, and the marketplace for these games was shuttered in October 7, 2017.
TeamXbox
TeamXbox was founded in 2000 by Brent "Shockwave" Soboleski and Steve "Bart" Barton. In 2001, Sol Najimi, of MSXbox, agreed to merge the MSXbox forums with the "TeamXbox" news site creating one of the largest Xbox focused fan sites. Media conglomerate IGN Entertainment, Inc. purchased "TeamXbox" in 2003, which in turn was purchased by News Corporation in 2005. Regular updates ceased in August 2012 when the site transitioned into an archive of its previous content.
Oddworld Inhabitants
According to Lanning, Sony had the advantage in the independent market at E3 because Microsoft failed to "secure the diverse, free-flow of content from the indie sector" when they announced the Xbox One. He says Microsoft's shutout of this market shows a lack of business foresight, because he believes the next blockbuster hits "are going to be what happened in the indie community" today. This is because current blockbusters have $100 million budgets provided by their publishers, and thus, those publishers will only allow proven methods of success when it comes to game design to guarantee that their money is not wasted on a risk that could fail, whereas independents can take those risks because they're not gambling with a publisher's money. So Sony's encouraging of indie developers and their self-published titles means innovative titles will come out of [the PlayStation] "where people have the freedom and the insanity to try crazy new stuff," while Microsoft was just looking at the developers and the games that would increase their profits.
Xbox 360
The Xbox 360's successor, the Xbox One, was released on November 22, 2013. On April 20, 2016, Microsoft announced that it would end the production of new Xbox 360 hardware, although the company will continue to support the platform.
Microsoft
Microsoft Corporation (MS) is an American multinational technology company with headquarters in Redmond, Washington. It develops, manufactures, licenses, supports and sells computer software, consumer electronics, personal computers, and related services. Its best known software products are the Microsoft Windows line of operating systems, the Microsoft Office suite, and the Internet Explorer and Edge web browsers. Its flagship hardware products are the Xbox video game consoles and the Microsoft Surface lineup of touchscreen personal computers. As of 2016, it is the world's largest software maker by revenue, and one of the world's most valuable companies. The word "Microsoft" is a portmanteau of "microcomputer" and "software". Microsoft is ranked No. 30 in the 2018 Fortune 500 rankings of the largest United States corporations by total revenue.
Gun Machine
Ellis has confirmed that rights for "Gun Machine" have been purchased by the 20th Century Fox TV and Chernin Entertainment, with the intent of turning it into a television series. He also confirmed that he would serve as executive producer for the potential series along with Dario Scardapane, Peter Chernin and Katherine Pope. In April 2014, Microsoft announced that Xbox Entertainment Studios acquired the television rights as part of its Xbox Originals exclusive television programming initiative. Ellis will executive produce along with Brett Conrad, who has signed on to write the pilot.
Microsoft litigation
The Microwindows project was renamed to Nano-X Window System in January 2005, due to legal threats from Microsoft regarding the Windows trademark.Microsoft has been accused of deceiving consumers by concealing the high failure rate of its Xbox 360 game console. A woman from California sued Microsoft on October 2008 in Superior Court in Sacramento County, stating that the company violated multiple state consumer-protection and unfair-competition laws. The woman alleged that the company continued to sell the Xbox 360 even though it knew that the console's hardware was likely to fail.
Xbox 360 technical problems
Microsoft Netherlands now accepts these complaints from users (while within the warranty period), and offers to replace the Xbox 360 free of charge. Whether Microsoft Netherlands will also replace scratched discs is still unclear. After the official broadcast, (in a continuation of the show which can be viewed on-line, about 28 minutes into the show) a customer is shown calling the Microsoft help-desk, who is told Microsoft will replace his Xbox 360 but is denied a promise to replace his scratched games. There are reports from some other regions that Microsoft will replace scratched discs if published by Microsoft.
Xbox (console)
In 1998, four engineers from Microsoft's DirectX team, Kevin Bachus, Seamus Blackley, Ted Hase and DirectX team leader Otto Berkes, disassembled some Dell laptop computers to construct a prototype Microsoft Windows-based video game console. The team hoped to create a console using a standardized set of hardware to compete with Sony's upcoming PlayStation 2, which was luring game developers away from the Windows platform. The team approached Ed Fries, the leader of Microsoft's game publishing business at the time, and pitched their "DirectX Box" console based on the DirectX graphics technology developed by Berkes's team. Fries decided to support the team's idea of creating a Windows DirectX based console.
Fox Business Network
Fox Business Network (also known as Fox Business) is an American pay television business news channel that is owned by the Fox News Group division of Fox Corporation. The network discusses business and financial news. Day-to-day operations are run by Kevin Magee, executive vice president of Fox News; Neil Cavuto manages content and business news coverage. As of February 2015, Fox Business Network is available to approximately 74,224,000 pay television households (63.8% of households with television) in the United States.
21st Century Fox
21st Century Fox is the legal successor to News Corporation dealing primarily in the film and television industries. It is currently the United States' fourth-largest media conglomerate after The Walt Disney Company, Comcast and AT&T. The other companies, the "new" News Corporation, holds Murdoch's print interests and other media assets in Australia and Fox Corporation (both owned by him and his family via a family trust with 39% interest in each). Murdoch is co-executive chairman, while his sons Lachlan Murdoch and James Murdoch are co-executive chairman and CEO, respectively.
Don Mattrick
Following his retirement from Electronic Arts in February 2007, Mattrick was asked by Robbie Bach to serve as an external advisor to the Entertainment and Devices Division. In July 2007, Mattrick then officially joined Microsoft as a Senior Vice President overseeing the Xbox 360 and PC gaming businesses. In the six years since Mattrick has overseen the division, the Xbox 360 installed base has grown from 10 million to more than 76 million worldwide, while the Xbox LIVE membership has increased from 6 million to over 48 million.
Video game console emulator
Due to differences in hardware, the Xbox 360 is not natively backwards compatible with original Xbox games. However, Microsoft achieved backwards compatibility with popular titles through an emulator. On June 15, 2015, Microsoft announced the Xbox One would be backwards compatible with Xbox 360 through Emulation. In June 2017, they announced Xbox original titles would also be available for backwards compatibility through emulation, but because the Xbox original runs on the x86 architecture, CPU emulation is unnecessary, greatly improving performance. The PlayStation 3 uses software emulation to play original PlayStation titles, and the PlayStation Store sells games that run through an emulator within the machine. In the original Japanese and North American 60GB models, original PS2 hardware is present to run titles; however all PAL models, and later models released in Japan and North America removed some PS2 hardware components, replacing it with software emulation working alongside the video hardware to achieve partial hardware/software emulation. In later releases, backwards compatibility with PS2 titles was completely removed along with the PS2 graphics chip, and eventually Sony released PS2 titles with software emulation on the PlayStation Store.
Oddworld Inhabitants
But the decision to move to Microsoft was as much about his company surviving as it was about the Xbox being the only console to withstand the technological advancements of "Munch's Oddysee". Rumours that they were paid to jump to Microsoft were false. With Oddworld's publishers, GT Interactive, about to be sold, Lanning heard from other developers that its buyer, Infogrames, was cutting the budgets of its titles to three million dollars, and for his new game to be projected as costing ten million dollars with a studio operating between 500 and 700 thousand dollars a month, Lanning realised, "this is just not going to work... and that’s just common practice in capitalism". The game couldn't be made under that condition, so they needed to find a new publisher, which was when Microsoft expressed interest in publishing their games, but under the condition that they release "Munch" exclusively for the Xbox. It was a time where money was as important as ever, because unlike the current generation of gaming, developers were not given the tools to build games for the Xbox and PS2; they had to build their own tools first, at great expense, and wanting "Munch"'s story to be better, while maintaining the soul of "Abe's Oddysee" and the quality of the Oddworld brand as their mascot had to compete with globally recognised icons like Duke Nukem and Lara Croft, Lanning's company was left with no other option but to choose the console that could withstand its new technologies and afford to lend them the money required to keep it alive in the industry, even if it meant the fans on other platforms would not have access to the game. On 23 October 2000, Microsoft announced the signing of a deal with Infogrames, securing exclusive rights to publishing and distributing the next four Oddworld Inhabitants titles, beginning with "Munch's Oddysee" the following year. Lanning expressed his regret at leaving the PC platform, but Microsoft refused to agree to a PC version of the game, and "unless you're going to pay for [games] yourself... you have to work with partners" who place constraints on products.
Xbox
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. As of June 30, 2013, 78.2 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.
Xbox (console)
Despite a strong promotion in Japan, the country saw very poor sales (450,000 as of November 2011). Some analysts already believed that the Xbox would have trouble competing with Sony and Nintendo before its Japanese launch, claiming that the Xbox would be competing against its local counterparts and that the console does not fit well with Japanese society (e.g., console size), as well as the lack of Japanese-appealing launch titles, such as role-playing games. For the week ending April 14, 2002, the Xbox was by far outsold by its Sony and Nintendo rivals, as well as the WonderSwan and even the PSone. In November 2002, the Xbox chief in Japan stepped down, leading to further consultations about Xbox's future, which had by then sold just 278,860 units in the country since its February launch. For the week ending July 18, 2004, the Xbox sold just 272 units, which was so poor that even the PSone outsold it by four. The Xbox did, however, outsell the GameCube for the week ending May 26, 2002. Despite Microsoft's struggles, some Japanese-appealing games were released exclusively for the Xbox, such as "Dead or Alive 3" or "Ninja Gaiden", which hugely contributed to the sales of Xbox in Japan. Its successor Xbox 360 sold 1.6 million units as of February 2014.
Xbox Games Store
Xbox Games Store (formerly Xbox Live Marketplace) is a digital distribution platform used by Microsoft's Xbox One and Xbox 360 video game consoles. The service allows users to download or purchase video games (including both Xbox Live Arcade games and full Xbox One and Xbox 360 titles), add-ons for existing games, game demos along with other miscellaneous content such as gamer pictures and Dashboard themes.
OurColony
The end of OurColony came with the release of a video showing J. Allard of Microsoft showing off the Xbox 360 console. At the end of the video, all participating colonies were listed on a final scroll in the credits, with top-scoring colonies first. The site is not owned by Microsoft any longer.
Xbox 360
The Xbox 360 is a home video game console developed by Microsoft. As the successor to the original Xbox, it is the second console in the Xbox series. It competed with Sony's PlayStation 3 and Nintendo's Wii as part of the seventh generation of video game consoles. It was officially unveiled on MTV on May 12, 2005, with detailed launch and game information announced later that month at the 2005 Electronic Entertainment Expo.
Locomotive Games
Xbox
Xbox Media Player
Xbox Media Player, (or XBMP for short), now obsolete, was the predecessor to XBMC and XBMC4Xbox, a feature-rich free and open source media player for the Xbox (console). With an audio/video-player-core based on MPlayer, it allowed owners of a modified Xbox to display pictures and movie files, as well as play music files from the Xbox DVD-ROM drive, built-in harddisk drive, LAN (SMB) or the Internet.
Xbox One
In August 2018, Microsoft announced that it would, for a limited time, offer a financing program known as Xbox All Access through Microsoft Store in the United States. The program will allow users to purchase an Xbox One S or X console, bundled with subscriptions to both Xbox Live Gold and Xbox Game Pass, financed over a two-year contract. The customer retains ownership of the console after the two years, and if they break contract prior to that, they must pay the difference on the remaining console cost. The pricing is set to be cheaper overall than purchasing the individual elements alone.
Xbox
At their E3 presentation on June 14, 2010, Microsoft announced a redesigned Xbox 360 that would ship on the same day. The redesigned console is slimmer than the previous Xbox 360 model and features 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 special port designed for the Kinect peripheral. Older models of the Xbox 360 have since been discontinued. The first new console to be released features a 250 GB hard drive, while a later less expensive SKU features 4 GB internal storage.
The Xbox One was released on November 22, 2013, in North America, as the successor of the Xbox 360. The Xbox One competes with Sony's PlayStation 4 and Nintendo's Wii U and Switch as part of the eighth generation of video game consoles.
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.