Why Microsoft Lost $4 Billion on the First Xbox - The Giant Console Nobody Wanted It to Make

Why Microsoft Lost $4 Billion on the First Xbox: The Giant Console Nobody Wanted It to Make On November 15, 2001, Microsoft launched the original Xbox for $299. By most estimates it lost about $4 billion on it. The console was basically a PC in a black box: a 733 MHz Pentium III, an Nvidia graphics chip, an 8 GB hard drive and an Ethernet port. Its controller was so big that Microsoft replaced it within a year. It sold about 24 million units against roughly 155 million PlayStation 2s and barely sold in Japan. But it launched Halo, put a hard drive in a home console and made Xbox Live a thing. For the Xbox's 25th anniversary, this is the story of the four engineers behind it, Bill Gates at midnight in Times Square, the Duke, and why the box that lost billions is now the thing Microsoft celebrates. I was twelve when my cousin brought one home. Sources: Power On: The Story of Xbox (2021), Microsoft press release (November 14, 2001), Adweek, GamesBeat "The making of the Xbox", Wikipedia "Xbox (console)", collectorsedition.org (Steel Battalion). Archive footage, commercials and gameplay are shown for commentary and credited on screen. Chapters: 0:00 -$4 billion 0:34 Ray's Xbox 0:59 Why Microsoft? 1:28 The DirectX Box 2:05 A PC in a black box 2:40 The Duke 3:06 Launch night and Halo 4:11 What it could do 4:53 The money 5:24 Xbox Live 5:49 25 years later 6:15 Your turn Did you have an original Xbox? Duke or the smaller one, and what was your first game? #Xbox #Halo #Xbox25