On this day 23 years ago, Microsoft released the XBOX gaming console November 15, 2001. Bill Gates, the CEO of Microsoft, decided to get into the video game market because he feared that gaming consoles would later compete with computers. At the time Sony and Nintendo were killing it and were very well known in the video game world.

Sony was pitching their ideas for Playstation 2 but it wasn’t going to just be for video games. They included DVD’s, music and a lot of other media. So to compete, Microsoft made their gaming system use PC technology which used an internal hard drive. Misrosoft got the game developer Bungie to play their first, first-person shooting game (Halo: Combat Evolved). 

To build everything they wanted, the price was excruciating and even more than the sales price. Therefore, they knew when it came to the sales, games are where the real money would come in. Lucky for Microsoft their launch was a hit and even was a best sold item. Along with the XBOX, the game Halo sold really well, even being called the most celebrated game. Microsoft is said to have lost $4 billion on the XBOX, but with all of its successors they have sold over a hundred million in units.

Source:

https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/microsoft-releases-xbox-gaming-console