Celebrating 20 Years of Xbox

[LBD "Nytetrayn"]

We used to have an Xbox thread, in the old universe. But not in this new one we find ourselves in... until now!

Besides just liking to have a thread to talk about Xbox, I just wanted to share some stuff I've been up working late on for the holiday (over several days) that is relevant to the topic:

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1468719080874070018

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1468719328413503498

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1468719566134124544

Hope some of you find this informative or, if nothing else, enjoy some of the staged amateur photography.

 

[The Predaking]

I got my Xbox from a good buddy of mine. He got it when he was deployed in Iraq, and brought it home with him. He then decided that he shouldn't have it as it would effect his studying in college. So I bought it off of him, with an s type controller and Halo 1. I was hooked! I got KOTOR, and a ton of other games! I really had a blast with it at my first apartment in college, and I probably have more games for it than anything else that generation. My most rare game has to be Conker's bad furday.


See what I did there?

 

[Haze Arquebus]

I only ever had a 360, and it was mostly used as a Fallout and Skyrim machine, with a few odd other exceptions here and there. Definitely enjoyed it, surprised it didn't die with how hard I went in on New Vegas right after its launch. Wish I'd kept it, though.

 

[The Predaking]

I got an Xbox 360 as a Graduation gift from my girlfriend and friends at the time. They were hard to find, but they got me one! We played Halo 2 on it that first night with it connected to a old PC monitor. The first game I got for it was Call of Duty 2, as the in store demos were awesome! I picked up a few games for it, but the big one was Dead Rising. It was a load of fun! That summer after Gradation I was back at my folks house, where I would play KOTOR 2 on it until the sun came up. When I got a job and my own apartment, I got the internet and discovered two joys of the Xbox 360: Gears of War and Xbox Live. I loved that game, and had a blast playing multiplayer! In the spring of 2007, I got my first HDTV after I got my Six month raise from my job. It was a 42" 1080p Sharp Aquos LCD flat panel. It weighs 78 pounds(36 kilos)! My Xbox 360 looked amazing on that! At that point I started playing some Halo 3 with the guys at work. I also got the HD-DVD add on drive for the Xbox 360. I know that a lot of folks diss it, but at the time the movies were great and it didn't put any strain on your 360 disk drive to play movies like the PS3's did. Also, with the movies being region free, I was able to watch Mr Bean's Holiday on HD DVD in my living room the day it was opening in theaters here in the US. That was unheard of back in 2007! Of course my 360 got the RROD, and had to be sent back and replaced. Eventually I got a Xbox 360 Slim(The first revision not the last one that came out after the Xbox One had come out) and I played the heck out of that! The HDMI out gave a much better picture and at that time I had a 1080p Projector in my new house with 5.1 surround sound. Gaming on that was epic! COD multiplayer had a bit of extra lag to it, but otherwise, it was fun! I played the heck out of this console. I have around 80 games for it, and I got into customizing the controllers. I made an all pink one for my buddy so when he beat the COD bros he could let them know he did it with a pink controller! lol.

I got a used Xbox One off of ebay about 7 months after it launched. I was dating my now wife at this point and didn't have too much time to game, but still wanted to play. Eventually, I just stopped having time to play, but it sits there, underneath the tv now. It disk drive is messed up, and I should open it up to see if I can fix it. I plan on getting a Series X this coming year for my office/gameroom, and when I do that, I have a bunch of xbox One games that I still need to play through.

 

[LBD "Nytetrayn"]

I don't have time for a long post right now, so I'm just going to tell my Xbox story in pieces.

First time I remember seeing an Xbox in person was at the EB Games at Yorkdale, right after it launched-- possibly the day after.

My recollection here is a little murky. I think the kiosk might have been running an Oddworld game and was occupied, unless that was later.

I do remember that, unless I'm mistaken, the first game I played for it on the demo unit there was the one I was most interested in: WWF Raw.

I don't remember much about the gameplay, though apparently it's a pretty bad game. I mainly remember being impressed by the graphics, and also in awe at the size of that first controller. I'd like to see how that would feel in my hands today.

It was neat, but I was still dismissive then because "lol micro$oft" and all that at the time.

Funny how things change...

 

[Pale Rider]

I got my first Xbox for KOTOR. I already had a PS2 and a GameCube, but I quickly discovered that multiplatform titles tended to look and perform better on the Xbox so it ended up being my main console for them as well.

 

[LBD "Nytetrayn"]

This is from a couple of months ago, but seemed good to share here:

 

[Pocket]

As I mentioned at the time, I got an Xbox 360 at a rummage sale back in the spring. Right now it's still in pieces all over the room because I thought I could maybe address the grinding noise the disc drive makes, but I ran out of ideas once I got it open and couldn't find any obvious sources of friction. But also I don't really know what games are available that I'd want. Red Dead Redemption and Viva Piñata are the only ones I've been able to think of. Just about everything else worth playing that generation was either a PS3 or Wii exclusive or also on PC.

I've actually passed up multiple original Xboxes at thrift stores over the past few years for similar reasons; I'm not aware of it having any exclusives worth playing at all.

 

[CoffeeHorse]

Am I the only one who liked the original controller? I though it fit my hands fine.

 

[LBD "Nytetrayn"]

Am I the only one who liked the original controller? I though it fit my hands fine.

I'd like to give it another go.

As I mentioned at the time, I got an Xbox 360 at a rummage sale back in the spring. Right now it's still in pieces all over the room because I thought I could maybe address the grinding noise the disc drive makes, but I ran out of ideas once I got it open and couldn't find any obvious sources of friction. But also I don't really know what games are available that I'd want. Red Dead Redemption and Viva Piñata are the only ones I've been able to think of. Just about everything else worth playing that generation was either a PS3 or Wii exclusive or also on PC.

I've actually passed up multiple original Xboxes at thrift stores over the past few years for similar reasons; I'm not aware of it having any exclusives worth playing at all.

There are definitely games worth playing on both. Hoping to do something with that idea soon.

 

[Pale Rider]

I recently did some housecleaning on my 360 to remove all the games that I no longer needed it for and I was surprised how many remained.

I hope Microsoft changes their mind about the backward compatibility program. There are still a lot of old games that are stranded on old hardware.

 

[LBD "Nytetrayn"]

I agree so much on that.

Having Bionic Commando Rearmed 2 and Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed there but not their predecessors has been killing me for years.

And while not a BC issue, I really wish they would port Halo: Spartan Strike over already.

 

[Pale Rider]

I can't believe Soulcalibur IV and V haven't been either remastered and re-released or made backward compatible. Same with Fall of Cybertron. Those were some big games on the 360 and it's a shame we can't play them on new consoles.

 

[Undead Scottsman]

The problem with Xbox backwards compatibility is that Microsoft isn't doing this out of altruism; while they're perfectly fine with you being able to play your existing purchases, any work they put into backcompat has to also be able to be purchased digitially, as such they need to work out the rights with each of these titles. In some cases, these companies don't even exist anymore, making it impossible to track down who owns the rights (if they even belong to a company that's in the business of selling games), in other cases its games made with licenses (like the Cybertron or Riddick games) where they'd have to work the licensing out with a third party on top of the publisher. Additionally, remasters are a big thing these days, and a company like Activision would rather you pay $60 for the Fall of Cybertron remaster than use your existing War for Cybertron or Fall of Cybertron discs. And at the end of the day, some companies just don't care enough to participate in the program.

Beyond that, there's just some titles that aren't ever going to be compatible. Kinect titles, titles that use the OG Xbox's analog buttons, and a few titles that are just programmed differently enough that they defy emulation. Xbox has said they've reached the end of where backwards compatibility can take them within these limitation, and while I'm sure they could probably eke out a few more here and there, the broader program is probably going to get refocused to implementing enhancements to older titles (4k resolution, HDR, better framerates etc. etc.)

 

[Pocket]

I imagine the Series X is powerful enough that it could just straight-up emulate the 360. Whatever they did to get eight 1.8GHz cores to do the work of three 3.2GHz ones is still witchcraft to me, and it's no surprise it required effectively modding the games, but the Series X's CPU is clocked at 3.8. If they needed to, they could dedicate three cores to just translating instructions from PowerPC to x86 and three more to execution. I don't know how many games with physical releases are still stranded, and obviously their hands are probably tied as far as digital ones (it still amazes me how open-ended Steam's agreement with third parties is and how few publishers have rejected it; if Microsoft thought they didn't have enough clout for that, then they were selling themselves short), so it might just not be worth the effort when the One's backward compatibility code already runs on the Series X with the added benefit of upscaling.

 

[LBD "Nytetrayn"]

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1477204076383277058

 

[LBD "Nytetrayn"]

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1482496128981549067

 

[LBD "Nytetrayn"]

Eh, I haven't done much to keep this thread up, have I?

Following on from above, the next time I really remember getting involved with Xbox was when I was working at Blockbuster. Good times.

Money was tight at the time, so all we owned from that generation was the GameCube my parents got us the Christmas after we got married. Working at Blockbuster proved to be a boon to our gaming interests at the time.

I ended up keeping a PlayStation 2 and Xbox perpetually rented out. Well, I say perpetually... I think I might have had to alternate, I'm not quite sure. The Xbox spent a fair bit of time in our home, though...

The main game I'd play on it? Burnout 3. Man, that game was such a great stress reliever after work. I wish I could still play it today.

I also spent a fair bit of time with the Dead Or Alive trilogy. Crazy Taxi 3 and Cabella come to mind as well, at least at the store's demo kiosk, which I was more or less in charge of for a time... I'd have to look to see if I can remember any others I'd rent or put in frequently.

It was some good times, but eventually I left the job there. Wish I'd been able to maybe purchase that Xbox (I think it was possible with the "no more late fees" thing, but we couldn't afford that). I think that was the last time I really got to do anything with an OG Xbox.

Hopefully I can get another one sometime, but right now, I'm more interested in what came after.

 

[Steevy Maximus]

Today is probably going down as "Black Monday" at Xbox.

https://www.gamespot.com/articles/xbox-layoffs-studio-closures-and-spin-offs-everything-announced-today/

Following weeks of rumors, Microsoft announced sweeping changes to the Xbox business today. Following calls from new Xbox head honcho Asha Sharma to "restart" the business, Microsoft is following up a massive 9,000 job cut last year with 1600 today, with additional throughout the year, ultimately totaling some 3200 lost jobs. In addition, Xbox will be pulling back to double down on major franchises as it lets go of multiple studios:
-Funding was pulled from several collaborative projects, like IO Interactive's Project Fantasy, resulting in lay offs at IO. 1666 Amsterdam and a project from John Romero also saw funding pulled.
-Double Fine(Kiln, Psychonauts) and Compulsion Games (South of Midnight, We Happy Few) have been spun off back to independent studios, retaining rights to all IP and games.
-Ninja Theory (Senua) and Undead Labs (State of Decay) have been sold to new owner(s), to be revealed later this summer.
-Arkane (Dishonored) is in process of being spun off or sold, but may take longer due to French labor laws. It's not clear how this will impact Marvel's Blade. After a teaser showing in 2023, has been radio silent. Rumors are the game has run overbudget and plagued by development delays.
-Cuts are occurring across the board at the remaining studios with Zenimax/Bethesda and Blizzard being pushed to work on higher priority projects with more significant IP.

Games previously revealed (short of Blade) at this summer's Xbox Showcase are still planned for release (Fable, Gears of War E-Day, Halo Campaign Evolved, Clockwork Revolution, etc).


Experts and analysts have already been pushing back on these moves. Some are even pointing to Xbox as being "the sacrificial lamb" to cover for massive mismanagement in other areas of the business, particularly in AI. Xbox, under prior management, was rumored to have been foisted an "unreasonable" margin goal, especially after the massive buying spree Microsoft too in the late 2010's and early 2020s in an attempt to bolster its business following the fumbling of the Xbox One.

 

[Steevy Maximus]

Perhaps showing that Microsoft are still massive idiots, reports are hitting that two of Microsoft's most productive studios saw significant cuts:

Obsidian, developers of Grounded and the Outer Worlds, lost 25% of its staff across all departments. While lacking a singular "super hit", Obsidian has been very productive since acquisition by Microsoft. Since 2018, they've cranked out Grounded 1 and 2, Outer Worlds 1 and 2 (plus DLC), Pentiment and Avowed.

Most disturbingly, it has been reported that HALF of id Software has been cut, almost exclusively on the technical side. Speculation is that id may become a support studio for MachineGames. This is the most BAFFLING decision they could make. The DOOM revival (with the expansion to Dark Ages launching TODAY) has been critically and commercially VERY successful. Doom went to being a legacy brand to coming back to the forefront of the FPS genre, with the 2016 game being a MASSIVE influence on FPS games for the past decade.
This literally makes NO sense to me.

DOOM Developer Id Software Loses 50% of Its Staff in Layoffs

Another day, another report about gaming layoffs, this time confirming Id Software has been hit by the July 2026 XBOX layoffs.

insider-gaming.com