Not only is the Xbox 360 celebrating its 19th birthday today, but the Xbox One is celebrating its 11th birthday as well! The launch took place back on November 22nd of 2013, following a controversial few months for the Xbox brand.
Yes, we all know how much of a disaster the Xbox One was facing exactly 11 years ago. An awful reveal event coupled with unpopular messaging and a high price point meant that the console was essentially doomed from the start. The system itself was still pretty good when it launched in November, but the damage had already been done by then.
Because of that horrendous period of time, a lot of people tend to look at the Xbox One as a "failure". That's not our opinion though! The generation might have got off to a terrible start, but it was followed up with some excellent games (both first and third-party) along with a couple of great new models in the Xbox One S and Xbox One X.
And what about the features?! The Xbox One era was so drastically different from the beginning to the end, with Xbox introducing innovations such as Game Pass and backwards compatibility during its lifespan. When the console launched, you couldn't play any of your old purchases from previous generations. These days, over 700 classic Xbox titles are available on Xbox One, not to mention a bunch of Series X/S titles through the power of Cloud Gaming!
This isn't a history piece - we kinda did that last year when we discussed the "biggest turnaround in Xbox history" - but rather a chance to celebrate the good times of an era that's often portrayed negatively. We have a soft spot for the Xbox One generation here at Pure Xbox, and it provided us with some incredible memories that we'll cherish forever.
We're Curious, Are You Still Using Your Xbox One In 2024? (205 votes)
- Yes, I still use it as my main Xbox console!
- Yes, I still use it - but I also have a Series X|S
- Not really... aside from a handful of occasions
- No, I stopped when I got a Series X|S (or PS5, etc.)
- No, I just stopped being interested in it
- I never actually owned an Xbox One!
- Other 0.5%
What are your fondest memories of the Xbox One era? Let us know down in the comments section below.
Comments 34
The Xbox one x.
Gears of war, Forza Horizon, Halo and Tomb Raider exclusive, just to name a few.
The days of the E3 shows, Phil Spencer making a difference in the right direction.
I stand by that the One X was the last good Xbox console.
It was my main console after the PS4 Pro disappointed me and Jim Ryan's era began.
Xbox One is the only console I have right now and I use it pretty much everyday and I don’t plan on buying another console to upgrade as I’m happy enough to be honest.
Xbox One was like the time I went on a long hike from the top of a mountain down into a deep valley. At the very bottom I stopped and looked back longingly to the top of the mountain in the distance, remembering how great it was up there. The view was better, the air was cleaner, I was on top of the world. Down in the valley it was hot and humid, mosquitos were everywhere and it was a lousy experience. It makes you appreciate the good you had, when you may have taken it for granted at the time.
@Techno92LFC My condolences.
I was an Xbox one owner, as a 90's kid as soon as I saw that a new killer instinct game was coming I was sold.
I loved the Xbox one, despite all the negativity around it, it actually remains one of my favorite consoles to this day. I don't actually own an Xbox one anymore because I have a series x but I still play a lot of Xbox one games
I can't remember the exact timeline but towards the end of the generation Xbox suddenly pulled backwards compatibility, the Xbox one X and game pass on the gaming world and it looked like they were setting themselves for a true challenge to Sony.
The studio acquisitions were nice additions too and seemed to cover a broad church of interests.
It looked really exciting and I was so happy to have the majority of my library on Xbox.
Shame they just didn't make anything more of it.
I'm a big fan of the Xbox 1. I remember waiting in line at best buy to pick it up at midnight on launch. So many great games throughout it's life.
I will die on the hill that the kinect and all in one concept was sweet when i still had cable/satellite tv and a netflix subscription.
The best moment from the Xbox one era was just before don mattack ruined the Xbox brand forever at e3 at the announcement of the console such bliss before he gave us an underpowered (always online) console bundled with the amazing Kinect everyone just wanted to throw money at that was my favorite moment 🧎
In terms of exclusives Ori & the Blind Forest, Ori Will of the Wisps, Sunset Overdrive, Forza Horizon 4 & Quantum Break. Honestly not a lot else. Wasn't a big fan of the Halo and Gears entries on XBO, even the Dead Rising entries were some of the worst in the series.
Later I also liked backwards compatibility and Game Pass but XBO was thin on exclusive content compared to the competition.
Sadly the Xbox One era memory for me was bow it made me go back to Playstation after they botched their E3 presentation. I loved the 360 but when the Xbox One was shown off with Kinect, was original planned with the always online and games you couldn't share plus being $100 more, I went and got a PS4.
Years later I got an Xbox One when my friend sold me his when he upgraded to the One X and it impressed me how they tried to come back with stuff like Gamepass and Backwards compatibility but by then most of the third party games I played on PS4 already and there weren't many exclusives that I wanted to play so I mainly used it to resist my 360 library.
The one game that would have got me to buy an Xbox One early on Scalebound (who remembers that?) they ended up canceling.
None I didn’t have one.
Yea, Xbox One was a bit of a disappointment for me after the 360. I also went over to PlayStation 4. Series X brought me back but honestly it feels like the highs of the 360 era are well over.
Held out until 2018 and got a One S with two controllers and three games as a gift. It is a cracking system and I enjoyed loads of games: Resident Evil 2&3 remakes, Far Cry 5, Ori games, Dishonoured 2 and Death of the Outsider, Doom and Doom Eternal, the Wolfenstein series. I got a Series X two years ago, which to all intents and purposes is just a more capable version of the system. It’s a pity that the One S is just gathering dust on a shelf now. If I hadn’t upgraded I reckon it’d still be getting used alongside my Switch.
RYSE Son of Rome still blew my mind of how good the graphics were for that console.
All I can ever think of is this:
Seriously though the good era was when the One X launched and Xbox seemed to be coming back swinging. Sadly that lasted, what, 2.5 years? It was a great 2.5 years though.
@Balaam_ Is the Series era like the 3rd world bus terminal in the desert you have to go through after you got out of the valley, then?
Scalebound getting cancelled
Halo the MCC & backwards compatibility , that’s pretty much it. the ps4 carried 8th gen for me
i hate the Xbone for what it did to xbox . it’s actually the first & only console i hate 😂
Using my "xbox one s" at all times...
Do not have any remorse... Solid console worth more than what I paid for it...
My memories were of not owning any Xbox till the Series X.
The launch games which were underrated (Ryse/Dead Rising 3) and that 2015 backwards compatibility announcement with Rare Replay. Chills!
Ahh yes the console that made me switch back to Playstation for the first time since the PS2…so I would have to say my fondest memory was…when it was over
I was still using my Xbox One until about...7-8 months ago? Street Fighter 6 and Tekken 8, they were like, we're not even bothering with the Xbox One, it's only on Series X. That's when I started to get the message that it's time to scan that card and get a Series 😂
Jurassic World Evolution 2, Alien is Dark Descent, Armored Core 6, Age of Wonders: Planetfall, etc? Those are my Series X games transfered over and upgraded from Xbox One.
Tekken 8, Iron Harvest, Classified France '44, Company of Heroes 3, Sonic X Shadow came after the Series X.
Xbox One...wasn't quite the "revolution" to my gaming habits that 360 was. 360 was, " get over that corpse that is Sega, that the Sony monopoly operation left behind, and you're a strategy gamer now." 😂.
360 had a giant influx of, what was at that time strictly a PC genre. Halo Wars, Command & Conquer, Universe at War, Supreme Commander, Red Alert, on and on. Microsoft at the time probably just thought it as a content dump 😂. But it introduced console players to awesome game genre that they had limited access to at that time.
Xbox One kicked it off with Halo Wars 2, Gears Tactics...it was basically the system where I continued my transformation into 90% Strategy. It was also the birth of Gamepass.
Personally, I think Series X is gonna wind up being more fondly remembered than Xbox One! Granted it's been slow in ramping up 😂...but Series X is looking to have a furious finish!
Playing Overwatch 1, Sea of Thieves and Forza Horizon 3 online, with my kids. Wonderful memories. Even if one kid only wanted to get drunk and shot out of cannons.
@nomither6 id include Forza bit yeah xbox one was the beginning of the end and we're in the death throws now sadly.
Truth be told, I had hit a gaming hiatus when the Xbox One had launched. The end of the 360/PS3 era was honestly sort of disastrous, in my opinion. My spending went waaaaayyy down in 2012 and didn’t much recover the next couple years. 2013 was an ok year, but 2014 I hardly played anything, same with 2015. I had a friend of mine who had just married into money and he actually gifted me an Xbox One at launch, which was probably the highlight for me for the generation, but then I couldn’t play it… since my apartment didn’t have internet and it required an internet connection just to start. It’s standard practice now, but just a little over ten years ago now, it wasn’t the same, I suppose.
Now, that said, in 2016, I received Ori and the Blind Forest as a gift for my birthday. My wife and I moved to our first house a little bit before that, and honestly that ushered in my gaming renaissance. It brought me back to gaming, perhaps stronger than I was before, and that capitulated the next year with the launch of the Switch. I bought a PS4 in 2018, marking the first time I owned “the Big Three.” I did transition to playing PlayStation and Switch more than the old Xbone over the course of 2018, but Ori and Xbox brought me back to gaming, so I can say Ori and the Blind Forest was my highlight of that generation. It frankly blew me away.
Oh, and kudos to Cuphead’s launch too. My son had a complicated birth and had to stay in the hospital for two weeks. My job at the time allowed me paid time off (my boss was a true hero of a man, shame he got canned a few months later for working a side hustle since he “got it,” you know?) until everything was ok, and honestly my life was hospital, Cuphead, TV, sleep, repeat for a bit, and the challenge was sort of something of a solace in those times. One of the most cathartic games I’ve played and it’s such a strange blur of a memory now.
For me it was always the fantastic industry leading backwards compatibility and how great of an upgrade console the One X was for it's time, especially given the way it introduced enhancements for older games. That and I always greatly preferred the Xbox One controller over the PS4 controller.
The some of the best things about the X1 was when they dropped Kinect from the X1 bundle, playing Fable Legends the game got cancelled but it did look interesting. Finally adding backwards compatibility for x360 titles. Getting my hands on a X1X which was so much more powerful then the original VCR x1. Finally with getting a series S, I no longer needed my X1X. Do kind of miss having a physical disc drive but at nearly half the cost of a series X I can manage.
I got the Xbox One day one and never took the Kinect out of the box. I still have both! My abiding memory from that generation was the disastrous presentation that effectively sealed the fate of the Xbox brand.
I also managed to get a Project Scorpio Xbox One, which I still have, and I bought the Gears of War 4 Collector's Xbox One S, which I also still have.
Those 4 Xbox One consoles that I bought, go nicely with the original Xbox 360 that I got day one, and the 3 Collector's 360 Consoles that I bought (Halo, Call of Duty Modern Warfare, and Gears of War 3), all of which, I still have.
Indeed, this is the first generation where I have only actually owned one console. I was tempted by the Halo Collectors Series X, but just couldn't justify the outlay when my Series X wasn't that old...
Easily my least favorite Xbox console but I do have some fond memories. I got the system in August 2014, a $400 bundle that included a digital code for Madden. I got it to play Forza Horizon 2 and Sunset Overdrive and both games lived up to the hype. I also picked up Killer Instinct and Dead Rising 3 that year and had a blast with those. In 2015 it was Gears of War: Ultimate Edition, Tomb Raider and Forza Motorsport 6 and then in 2016, I really enjoyed Gears of War 4 and Recore. It slowed down after that but those 3 years were a decent stretch.
Best thing to happen that gen, however, was backwards compatibility, which was made even better with the arrival of Xbox Series X. It's a shame MS discontinued the program.
Handful of occasions & yes it's my current, the Xbox the One X. Family have a PS5s launch/Slim & launch Series X I have no interest.
Barely use. VCR is a 2020 OS offline system for testing & One X is for Blu-rays/YT/games/Soundcloud on & off basically. But not as infrequent as during 8th gen. XD
So occasionally more then I'd usually leave larger gaps of never using it because family have the others. Series X maybe has had more use by family then Xbox One VCR/One X, doesn't feel like it. For me I never touch Series X as no need to. I could get Syberia remake as Series X copy in EB but otherwise, no interest.
PS5 played Ratchet RA, hated it (RA/2016 worst in series, potential is weak & I have better ideas for it) & Space Marine 2 was what I expected but good enough. No interest in 9th gen weak game design, so 8th gen & under for me & 20+ games of old gen backlog/collector pickups beaten.
Xbox One even besides the launch DRM/other aspects cough PC issues prior leading up to it. FM5 was eh, Ryse was ok but eh, the games were fair though. Turn arounds were fair. Consoles were fair per model/changes even if the Kinect part well didn't use much & the touch button is annoying on launch model as is PS4 as well, & 360 Slim now that own one of those.
Back compat, the 2013 OS when it had the Windows 8 features were good. Used Kinect once for gesture tutorial or COD AW MP once for mic. Used it once for Kinect Rivals as well when got that few years ago now. XD Got 360 Kinect & used it a few times for testing as never owned one but always did Xbox One Kinect.
Sunset Overdrive I hated then became one of my favourite open worlds once I gave it a 2nd go, ReCore was good yes I'm one of those likes those types of games that are underappreciated yes I like Balan Wonderworld as well.
FM5 was terrible or to me felt like Gran Turismo 1 & I still somewhat think that due to how it's content is handled then after 6 & 7 I bought during 9th gen physical for whatever I could find in EB/2nd hand stores or just enough time had passed, I changed my mind even if I hate 6 when I bought it in the last few years & still because of how it remixed/what it added didn't change my mind on the progression being so eh.
The Impulse Triggers were & still are a good feature. Very underappreciated feature.
Otherwise not a lot, I barely used the system, the games are 'fair' but not my favourite era, prefer OG/360 more,
I still barely use it. The CD app is great. Soundcloud is good enough to use on it then Sony with no CD support or only Spotify. Xbox offering more apps/Windows store is a good & bad thing there.
The YT app responding to the right stick is nice, it's no Switch right stick on the OS support but it's still something PS4 YT app doesn't do nor touchpad when the DVD/blu-ray menu is good for touchpad but still good on Xbox like 360's.
Never liked the PS2/PSP/PS3 menu but PS4/360/Xbox One I do like.
OS wise hmm I'd say either 2013 as still that fair Metro design like 360. Or the customisation one Xbox/MS cut so the one before the garbage/worst one we have now. XD That or the 3rd one Xbox One had maybe was fair? I find the 2nd maybe was ok I forget & the 4th/or Series consoles 1st was a bit eh. Or was that the 2nd one. I forget as the minor changes or the eh design in areas to navigate, or look visually are just eh I can't.
Part 2:
Though when I do I don't mind it but I still prefer to use a PS/Nintendo system unless it's a OG/360 game I really want to play that is. On those systems too.
I don't care for gamepass but I see benefit in it.
Dead Rising 3 I got to late, same with Quantum Break, Crackdown 3, FM 6 & 7, never played Killer Instinct or certain others, not my thing.
I'd say I own a fair amount of the exclusive 1st party, no Bleeding Edge or Sea of Theives, no Indie exclusives, no Ubisoft Kinect classic Fighters Uncaged sequel for Xbox One launch. No Twisted Pixel's launch title. Got Lucky's Tale and it's ok.
Ryse was ok but also why I don't like GOW2018, Hellblade is better but still won't play it. Just not the camera/controls I want to experience let alone GOW2018 being so eh tasks. I could stand Tomb Raider 2013 but others in that format nah just couldn't the segmented regions, tombs and tasks/collectibles type that aren't open world but have aspects like them just in smaller spaces.
It's an ok gen but I barely used it & I still barely use it now.
Other than Metro on PSVR2 not much I could say to care about on either PS5 or Series X really.
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