Believe it or not, today marks exactly ten years since the release of the original Xbox One back on November 22nd, 2013! The console arrived for most regions on that date, followed by the likes of Japan and China in 2014.
Much has been said about the botched release of the Xbox One, and to call that time period a "disaster" isn't an exaggeration! Microsoft made some serious mistakes in the lead up to November 2013 including a mess of a reveal event in May, pricing the console much higher than the PS4, and announcing extremely controversial plans to make the Xbox One an always-online system with used game restrictions (that were eventually removed anyway).
All of this resulted in Xbox boss Don Mattrick leaving the company and being replaced by Phil Spencer in early 2014, and the Xbox One began to change significantly as a result. Over the coming years, there was much less of a focus on the entertainment aspects of the console - with Phil and his team choosing to hone in on games above all else - and we started to see some truly innovative features making their way onto the Xbox One including backwards compatibility, the arrival of Xbox Game Pass and much more.
Additionally, in 2016 and 2017, we got the Xbox One S and Xbox One X, both of which offered improvements over the original model - particularly in the form of the latter, which was marketed as the most powerful console in the world.
Flash forward to today, and we're looking at a console family that's now ten years old, and yet there are still countless Xbox fans enjoying what it has to offer. There was a time when Microsoft was apparently considering pulling the plug on Xbox altogether following that botched launch in 2013, but ten years later it's still going strong and we've got so much to thank it for. Without the struggles that the Xbox One faced at the start, we may never have been blessed with such brilliant creations as Xbox Game Pass that have transformed the industry altogether.
So, while it's easy to focus on the difficulties of the Xbox One's launch and how it ultimately put the ball in PlayStation's court for that era, it's impossible to deny that the console changed massively for the better over the next few years, with most of the generation serving as a unprecedented turnaround for Xbox that put the Series X and Series S in a tremendously strong position for their launches back in 2020. Things could have turned out very, very differently!
What are your favourite memories of the Xbox One? Tell us down in the comments section below.
Comments 43
The xbox one was a terrible machine with no exclusives hardly don't really see what there is celebrate ive had every xbox since launch and the one is the worst the 360 on the other hand was amazing I can't fault the series x though great machine
At least the xbox one console was reliable. The 360 launch was a bigger disaster in my opinion since it was almost certain to red ring at some point.
@Savage_Joe definitely
I'd say the 1st party lineup of the first 3 years of XB1 was a lot better than the 1st party lineup of the first 3 years of Series X|S.
I really wouldn't call what's happened much of a turnaround. Things are better sure, but Xbox is still plagued with issues steming from the Xbox One.
@Grumblevolcano YES... first year certainly at least! Many forget how good the XBO launch lineup was.
But it was a low point for Xbox regardless, they had taken their foot off the gas at the end of the 360 gen, shuttered studios, and then had the TV, TV, TV announcements, loss of trust with all-digital, a focus on Kinect, all on a machine that was more expensive and lower powered than the competition.
Thankfully the tide is turning, consumers need good competition.
@LX_FENIX Look at some of the things that came out of the Xbox One era though:
In 2013, there was no support for backwards compatibility whatsoever on the Xbox One. A few years later, we had HUNDREDS of BC titles.
In 2013, nobody had ever heard of Xbox Game Pass and we were still paying full-price for every first-party release. A few years later, the Game Pass model literally transformed the industry as we know it.
The Xbox One S and X were big steps forward as well from a design perspective (including some amazing enhancements for Xbox One X games that we're still benefiting from today).
That launch event in 2013 couldn't have gone any worse, and yet somehow the XB1 managed to recover - not to the point where it could beat the PS4 in sales, but I'd argue that its reputation improved massively over the years thanks to Phil and his team.
It was a disaster - Xbox should have been powering on from the 360 generation, proper competition for Sony that would have allowed us to have two strong companies fighting it out for our attention and us all getting the benefit of that.
The games were there - Ryse, Quantum Break and Forza Horizon 2 I remember being great - but the marketing / "always online" stuff and the TV / Kinect focus and the impact on price killed it.
Sony then proceeded to put its foot on Xbox's throat completely by starting to use its market share power to get exclusivity deals on the cheap and marketing deals that cemented it as "the place to play".
Pretty much everyone I know moved over to PlayStation - even I gave up in the end and got a PS4 - with only a few diehards of us staying as Xbox-first gamers.
Game Pass and other moves have started to help, but in truth the PS5 appears set to smash Xbox even harder than the PS4 did - so it's going to really take Microsoft at their most cutthroat over the next few years with some 10/10 games to boot to even begin to dent the popularity of PlayStation and Nintendo.
I say this as a gamer who loves my XSX, who refuses to buy the nickel-and-diming Sony's PS5 - but I can't ignore that no matter what Xbox does I see more and more family and friends get the PS5 even when replacing Xbox Ones they got cheap...
As much as I agree that MS have turned their Gaming business on its head - considering the state it was in after the Launch of the XB1 to where we are today - but some of that Change is also 'detrimental' to their Console sales.
Around 2016, MS decided to merge the 'Xbox' Gaming, a separate side project from Microsoft, into their main business. Xbox stopped being the just the Console and became Microsoft's gaming Brand. That means that Xbox Consoles no longer have 'Xbox' games exclusive to just the Console, even if they are not on Playstation/Nintendo Consoles. That means that gamers have far more 'choice' - already have a decent PC, no need to buy an Xbox - maybe a Steam Deck or Handheld PC is better suited for some gamers who maybe don't game often in front of a TV so again won't buy a Console...
Point is, that whilst Microsoft have turned things completely around in many ways, even likely to overtake Sony in terms of Gaming revenue and become one of the biggest Gaming companies in the world, they'll be people complaining that they have 'lost' because Sony/Nintendo sold more consoles and not closing the gap...
Well since Microsoft had the resources to actually be able to turn things around over the past decade it's not totally surprising but to this day they are still feeling the effects of it in that people are starting view them as a third party publisher that just so happens to have a console.
Xbox One nearly killed Xbox with its always online and bulls**t way of sharing games not to mention how underpowered it was compared the the PS4 it's the biggest reason why PlayStation sells more over Xbox right now
Xbox is still suffering a major hangover from the Xbox One and it's very concerning how far ahead the PS5 is at this point in the current gen.
Sony need to be kept on their toes to avoid the arrogance they had after the PS2 generation.
At least it wasn’t the Wii U!
Again, I agree with everything you say, @themightyant. I pre-ordered the One, and when it arrived, the Kinect remained in its box. In fact, I still have my One*, and the Kinect remains in the box to this day. When it came to the Kinect, I simply had no interest. Forcing people to pay for a Kinect when buying a One, rather than offering a slightly cheaper package sans the Kinect, was a supremely dumb decision and doubtless lost many, many sales. I wonder how many people bought a PS4 rather than be lumped with a Kinect they didn't want, and just how many people stuck with the PlayStation as a consequence. I bet the number is not insignificant.
*I also have:
The OG (I think I still have one, but I'm not absolutely certain)
A 360
A 360 Slim
A Limited Edition Gears of War 360
An original One
The Limited Edition Scorpio
A Limited Edition Gears of War One
A One X
And finally a Series X
Edit: I forgot about my Modern Warfare 3 Limited Edition 360 Console. I've still got that one too..! 😂
The only one actually in use is the Series X, but I just cannot bring myself to get rid of all the others...
@FraserG Don't get me wrong, Xbox has done a ton of good things since that launch. I loved my Xbox One and love my Series S! But Xbox is still being outsold almost 2-1, quality exclusives are still the exception, not the norm, and developers are still choosing to develop for everyone except Xbox.
I know console sales aren't everything anymore, but that's still the number everyone looks at. Double the players on PlayStation? Thats what consumers are going to buy, and that's what developers are going to develop for.
@LX_FENIX Yeah, that's a fair point. Xbox is definitely still feeling the effects of what happened in 2013... it really was that bad of a launch.
If you take that part away and just focus on the console though, I do think they did a great job in turning the Xbox One's fortunes around.
@BAMozzy Agree with all you said. Personal perspective is all important too. If ALL you do is play on console, then Xbox IS likely behind Sony and Nintendo, it's only the wider landscape where they are bigger. So that side is subjective.
But they are on a good path now, I expect the most important games side of the equation to improve further and further over the next few years
I stuck with the Xbox one mostly because i didn’t love the dual shock 4 for most games. I used my PS4 for exclusives only and stuck with the lower res games on XBO. The Xbox One X fixed that and that was nice. But i am here to say as much as i love my Series X and understand game development is hard and takes a long time to get AAA games out. I am starting to get annoyed at MS for not having killer titles out and trying to win back lost 360 gamers. 2022 was worse than any of the Xbox one years. 2024 and beyond has to pick it up in a major way or the Series consoles might not even surpass the Xbox one. There’s a thing i heard the other day saying Xbox is trying to buy enough studios so Sony has to allow GP on PS. Cause during the court ruling MS made it clear they want GP on PS and Sony refused it. Sadly that sounds like the start of a plan B and a plan B without the console.
@themightyant Well it certainly can't be worse. Most of the 360 games - inc Gears of War trilogy and Forza Horizon, as well as games like Mass Effect, BioShock etc were not made by a Microsoft Studio.
By the time the XB1 launched - Bungie had left and MS acquired the rights to Gears - created Studios to handle those IP's but only had a 'few' Studio's themselves - 343, Coalition, Lionhead and Rare. They acquired Mojang in 2014 (but all their games are multi-platform anyway) and closed Lionhead. Then merged into MS and acquired Playground, Undead Labs, the Coalition, Ninja Theory as well as created the Initiative. Then added Obsidian, InXile and Double Fine later that year in 2018. They added Zenimax group in March 2021 and in October 2023, added ABK - most, if not all games made by ABK Studio's are also likely to be Multi-platform for the foreseeable future too.
So even if MS are 'extremely' successful, chances are people will not count CoD, Minecraft, Diablo etc as 'reasons' to buy an Xbox console and as I said, may not actually 'want/need' a Console to play the Xbox Exclusives they want - so I can't see Xbox ever closing the Gap unless Sony/Nintendo really screw up.
If I have a PC or someway to play ANY Xbox release, then I'm more likely to buy a Playstation 6 to play games day/date I can't play without a Playstation. Even if its not the 'best' way to play, it still allows me to experience these games when/where I want to play. I really don't think MS will sell more Consoles and I don't think that matters. For Sony/Nintendo, it does because that is the ONLY way into their ecosystem so there is more emphasis on Exclusives only on that hardware but MS has other ways into their ecosystem that the Console is just 1 option - like their Surface line Laptops aren't the only way to get you into their Windows ecosystem...
@Fiendish-Beaver why so many different versions of the same consoles?
Titanfall was AWESOME and one of the main games i remember from the early years of the Xbox One. Now, with game pass and both an xbox series X and S i have plenty to keep me fed and in 2024 I'll have even more.
Excited for the future.
@Fiendish-Beaver Nice collection of systems.
I have;
Xbox OG - modded so that all games US+EU for the system are stored on the HDD
Xbox 360 e
Xbox One X
Xbox Series S
Xbox Series X
I always avoided Kinect like the plague and can't help but wonder how different last gen would have been with a £399 Xbox One and no Kinect. I know a lot of people who switched from 360 to PS4 because of the price difference and Kinect.
@__jamiie the kinect was absolutely awful
@Mephisto2869 And yet I think it still holds the record for most successful console accessory in history when it was an add-on for the 360. I could be wrong.
Either way, it should have stayed as an optional accessory.
The Kinect was a fun add-on that encouraged exercise like Wii Fit when it first came out for the 360 - a late stage accessory that was very much of its time and gave new ways to play.
I remember silly fun with housemates on Adventures and absolutely dying more than cardio at the gym when playing some dance game that I got free with it!
But it should have died with the 360, or yes come later as a much improved optional add-on for the One...
Still wild to me how much backwards compatibility turned people's view of Xbox back into a positive, and that they scrapped the program after Game Pass popped off. Is Microsoft allergic to having more than 1 good thing going for them?
I'm a sucker for Limited Edition consoles, @eire-shabba. Plus I have very little sense, and even less money... 🤣
That's a good collection too, @__jamiie. What does the 'e' mean after 360?
@Fiendish-Beaver Works for me buddy
The crazy thing is technically the Series generation is doing worse than the Xbox One generation. I have no idea how because the One was a damn awful idea in so many ways, while the Series X specifically is excellent.
@Fiendish-Beaver It was the last model they made after the 360 'S' I think. It was made to look very similar to the Xbox One as I think they were announced at the same time. The two tone finish and everything.
https://xbox.fandom.com/wiki/Xbox_360_E
I had the original, then Elite, then traded for the 360 S. I sold my S to a friend and paid the difference for the 'E'. I wanted the latest model manufactured so that it would last as long as possible and backwards compatibility was nowhere to be seen at the time.
@StonyKL I'm absolutely baffled too. The Series X is an incredible machine with an ecosystem and controller that beats PlayStation.
The only thing I notice a LOT is PS5 advertising EVERYWHERE in the UK yet very little Xbox anywhere.
@Widey85 yeah I agree with you there. I too have gone XboX this gen after being PS4 last gen. But I'm a gamer as I assume are you and everyone on here. As gamers we know the ecosystems and tactics of both companies. And as gamers we kinda get a feel for where this gen is going.
Problem is, Sony are masters of marketing. They aren't particularly concerned on keeping or looking after their players much after they've bought into the system. And most non-gamers, or new to console gamers will choose the shiny new white console with its nice sparkly adverts. So yeah, PS will outsell XboX this season of that I have no doubt, but let's see in Q1 2024 how many of those stay with PS or migrate to the XboX ecosystem.
@jedinite @__jamiie Yep the PS5 marketing machine is massive - I'm glad I've started to see some Xbox marketing since the ABK deal went through, but with many casual / non-gamers it feels like PlayStation is the default name for "games console" and for younger players the PS5 has an almost Apple-like cult around it now...
Hopefully the marketing machine for Xbox will start to kick into gear, particularly when they've taken over the CoD marketing and have Indiana Jones and other known IPs coming out...
The Xbox One was interesting it had 50 mill sales so it wasn't that bad of sales. It wasn't dropped like the Dreamcast, wasn't as unsuccessful as the Saturn/Wii U/Vita of cult followings mostly cared for it.
I have used my Wii U more times then the Xbox One and had a Wii U since 2018, Xbox One since 2013/2014. Says a lot of how I don't care for/barely used the Xbox One right? I have in more recent years but still infrequently. I used it less when it was relevant and more when it isn't relevant. I may own more Xbox One then Wii U games but only by a small handful more not by much.
The 2013 conference was..... Almost like saying you heard about what we did to PC games physical options, well you'll love this too. Also using 360 sure but it was going to be discontinued yes but I mean that's like an Aladdin Deck Enhancer kind of logic but without the scam of re-releasing the same games and unlicensed games just continued support and that's it and the 'no offline' 24 hr check.
So what about people on holidays or otherwise, nope keep your console on, keep close to it, take it with you, do this and that, you will listen to us and like our dumb reasoning for things to make us money or make your console get frustrated at you, enjoy selling your data and more..... sure third party publishers you greedy companies that killed PC physical and go oh too many disk GTA 5 on 7 disks, oh we have awkward DRM EA of not re-selling the game you own it and it will be tied to your account/the disk is useless how fitting to annoy customers (sort of like how got Terraria physical, well good luck not having it only usable by the original owner, DRM PC sucks), an online only Assassin's Creed 2 connection you say Ubisoft how dumb it started around then and that PS3/360 didn't start it but online passes did or PS+/Live Gold and more.
How welcoming. The only thing I like about the 2013 Xbox One period is the tech features that died by 2017. Dual screen/multi app use and more nah that's gone now for social features. Sigh.
Kinect was fine and while never played the 360 Kinect for comparison the tracking was good. Continuing it was not bad as for it's non-gaming uses it made sense. For gaming yeah I can see why, even though Sony has had a camera for their consoles since PS2 and still does with PS5 for webcam let alone game support EyeToy, before and with Move, PS4 Camera works with Just Dance like Kinect did even besides a few other situations and well Playlink phone support exists for some party games not only PSVR.
The 2013 UI I love the features of. I love the Wii U and going 'oh Microsoft killed Smartglass and other elements' sucks now that they removed them by now, around 2017 I think I saw. So disappointed some cool features were lost to BS social features, don't care at all for social features. But I'm not most of humanity wanting the features we got then the more tech interesting ones.
The Xbox One to me I barely used, it sat there 90% of the generation even among the time I still and still do now use my PS3 more than my PS4 and the PS4 is my least favourite PS console ever (2016+ most boring period of gaming ever, I bought a Wii U/VIta/3DS/Switch couldn't be more happier not caring about the PS4 IPs and whatever third parties came up even now third party only shopping for it)/PS5 I've used twice for Ratchet and that's it hated it, hated the direction of the game, no interest in a PS5.
I hated Sunset Overdrive then loved it. Gravel was fun. OnRush was fine of a MotorStorm like game with different game modes but multiplatform. I've enjoyed my time with the Xbox One and some third party games or some exclusives I've actually played while others tried on and off when in the mood to use the console.
Got the Xbox One X, got the Xbox One with Kinect still. The latter sits there now the Xbox One X sits in the TV stand and sometimes gets used but mostly for well..... like PS3 as a media device. For my Blu-rays/DVDs.
Also Sony needed to learn earlier how to make the turn on option quiet. I hate using my PS3/4 sometimes as the POST is so loud. I use my Xbox One because it's silent due to that setting you can change, PS5 you had to wait until that, thanks Sony, sigh XD or PS2/Wii aren't as bad of turning on and little loud.
Ryse Son of Rome was fine..... not much, tried it again and it's ok. It just reminded me why I hate cinematic games from Sony so much still but on the Xbox One side. Gears had no issues going it's direction bit Ryse was just so bland in gameplay and the visuals were fine but man it was just a boring hack n slash like GOW2018 was but I beat 2018, I got a few chapters into Ryse and just went eh I may jump in and out. It's kind of the Order 1886 of the Xbox One Ryse, it's a fine game for it's cinematic flare but it's not the most engaging game out there on the platform. Crytek tried but it just wasn't that exciting.
I enjoyed ReCore but finished years later. I didn't like Forza Motorsport 5 I thought it's championship approach was stupid and like Gran Turismo 1 which I also didn't like (2+ were and still are better entries) but even then I've come around to it more are 7 was fine and 6 was........... so bad I only own it to complete the series not because I enjoy it never hated a racing game so much let alone GT7.
Rare Replay, Quantum Break and more are fine games but I'll get around to playing more of QB eventually, I bought Crackdown 3 cheap a few weeks ago to just play it out of curiosity/its and open world I can probably get behind like Sunset Overdrive, Gravity Rush or Infamous probably well hoping at least I hate open worlds but only enjoyed those few to completion.
State of Decay haven't played.
The Xbox One to me is a third party machine. That's not a bad thing but it's also my 2nd third party machine of consoles I care to use. I played some on it with fun. I played music apps on it and will use the Xbox One for that any day over Spotify on PS4 as the only major option yeah no Microsoft's store offers more and ones I want to use so yes please there. I could use my phone but I'd still like to use the console for things solely still.
While the 360 and PS3 are more neck and neck of usage (360 less but it's also the games I have for it and what I end up with copies of and the disk drive belt annoys me more that's the reason I use it less, than the console/games I have for it being the reason they are great).
Super frustrating because if the Xbox One that existed as of ~2016 was what launched in 2013, it might have beat the PS4, with backwards compatibility making Xbox seem more pro consumer than Playstation, especially to all the 360 owners.
Celebrating 10 years of mediocrity. 🤦♂️
lol the day xbox almost died , the day xbox got scarred for life.
absolutely hated the xbox one
@BacklogBrad yea, but aside from rrod it ran circles around the xbox one throughout its entire lifespan, so...
you went from something awesome 360 to something less, xbox one but the xbox one was less boring than xbox series x
Xbox One should have been an easy slamdunk for MS but Mattrick decided he wanted to get fancy and missed.
@nomither6 that's a pretty big "aside from" in my opinion.
Spend the first half of the generation sending units back because they bricked and the 2nd half sifting through kinect games.
Both generations were carried by 3rd party support. 360 had the exclusivity of a lot of them which helped.
360 should have easily buried the ps3 and set them up as the market leader. The mistakes made in 360 era was where the downfall actually started.
Celebrate the console launch that took Microsoft from being neck-and-neck with Sony at the top of the industry to permanently being third-place in the home console space? lol
Leave A Comment
Hold on there, you need to login to post a comment...