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140-713: Access Software, Inc. was an American video game developer based in Salt Lake City , Utah . Founded in November 1982 by Bruce Carver and Chris Jones , the company created the Beach Head , Links and Tex Murphy series, as well as Raid over Moscow . Access Software was acquired by Microsoft in April 1999, transitioning in name twice before being acquired by Take-Two Interactive in October 2004, receiving

280-658: A PIO / DMA identification failure. These units were not covered under the extended warranty. In 2002, Microsoft and Nvidia entered arbitration over a dispute on the pricing of Nvidia's chips for the Xbox. Nvidia's filing with the SEC indicated that Microsoft was seeking a $ 13 million discount on shipments for NVIDIA's fiscal year 2002. Microsoft alleged violations of the agreement the two companies entered, sought reduced chipset pricing, and sought to ensure that Nvidia fulfill Microsoft's chipset orders without limits on quantity. The matter

420-593: A database , Voice over IP , or add-in interface software; this is also known as middleware . Examples of this include SpeedTree and Havoc . Independents are software developers which are not owned by (or dependent on) a single publisher. Some of these developers self-publish their games, relying on the Internet and word of mouth for publicity. Without the large marketing budgets of mainstream publishers, their products may receive less recognition than those of larger publishers such as Sony, Microsoft or Nintendo. With

560-419: A hard disk drive , arguing that they were cheaply manufactured and could easily be updated every year. The 4 developers gained the support of Ed Fries , the head of Microsoft's gaming division, who believed the use of a hard drive, in particular, would give the console a technical edge among competitors despite its high manufacturing cost. The two opposing teams pitched their arguments to Gates on May 5, 1999, at

700-488: A built-in hard disk . The console also was built with direct support for broadband connectivity to the Internet via an integrated Ethernet port, and with the release of Xbox Live , a fee-based online gaming service, a year after the console's launch, Microsoft gained an early foothold in online gaming and made the Xbox a strong competitor in the sixth generation of consoles. The popularity of killer app blockbuster titles such as Bungie 's Halo 2 contributed to

840-452: A culture of "toxic geek masculinity" within the workplace. In addition, the conditions behind crunch time are far more discriminating towards women as this requires them to commit time exclusively to the company or to more personal activities like raising a family. These factors established conditions within some larger development studios where female developers have found themselves discriminated in workplace hiring and promotion, as well as

980-519: A deal to put Electronic Arts ' popular titles on Xbox Live to boost the popularity of their service. By 2005, despite notable first party releases in Conker: Live & Reloaded and Forza Motorsport , Microsoft began phasing out the Xbox in favor of their next console, the Xbox 360 . Games such as Kameo: Elements of Power and Perfect Dark Zero , which were originally to be developed for

1120-571: A first-party company. As a balance to not being able to release their game for other platforms, second-party developers are usually offered higher royalty rates than third-party developers. These studios may have exclusive publishing agreements (or other business relationships) with the platform holder, but maintain independence so that upon completion or termination of their contracts, they are able to continue developing games for other publishers if they choose to. For example, while HAL Laboratory initially began developing games on personal computers like

1260-410: A fixed period and generally work similar hours as full-time staff members, assisting across all areas of video game development, but as contractors, do not get any benefits such as paid time-off or health care from the employer; they also are typically not credited on games that they work on for this reason. The practice itself is legal and common in other engineering and technology areas, and generally it

1400-403: A game on schedule. The complexity of workflow, reliance on third-party deliverables, and the intangibles of artistic and aesthetic demands in video game creation create difficulty in predicting milestones. The use of crunch time is also seen to be exploitative of the younger male-dominated workforce in video games, who have not had the time to establish a family and who were eager to advance within

1540-406: A game's profits. Current examples of first-party studios include PlayStation Studios for Sony, and Xbox Game Studios for Microsoft Gaming . Second-party developer is a colloquial term often used by gaming enthusiasts and media to describe game studios that take development contracts from platform holders and develop games exclusive to that platform, i.e. a non-owned developer making games for

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1680-527: A gaming console, they could not provide the direct Windows interface to users. While Thompson and Bach had warned Gates and Steve Ballmer about these large-scale changes from the initial proposal in late 1999, the matter came to a head at a February 14, 2000, meeting, informally referred to as the Valentine's Day Massacre, in which Gates furiously vented about the new cost proposal and massive changes in this console from what had been previously presented, since

1820-582: A heavily stripped-down Windows variant that was not compatible with DirectX. As such, Gates sided with the DirectX concept and gave Berkes' team permission to create a new video game console. Despite this, WebTV would still play a part in the Xbox's initial launch. Rick Thompson and Robert J. Bach were responsible for overseeing the Xbox's design. The DirectX team began constructing prototype consoles, purchasing several Dell computers and using their internal parts. Initially, it envisioned that after designing

1960-446: A meeting attended by over twenty different people. WebTV's team, among whom were Nick Baker, Dave Riola, Steve Perlman, and Tim Bucher, and their sponsor, Craig Mundie, made the case that creating an appliance would be far cheaper, highlighting that most consoles were generally sold at around $ 300. They also wanted to use a custom-made graphics chip, which could be shared across several different home devices. Conversely, Fries, vouching for

2100-511: A million copies in the US. Although the console gained strong third-party support from its inception, many early Xbox games did not fully use its powerful hardware until a full year after its release. Xbox versions of cross-platform games sometimes came with a few additional features and/or graphical improvements to distinguish them from the PS2 and GameCube versions of the same game, thus negating one of

2240-437: A position in a medium to large video game company. An experienced game-development employee, depending on their expertise and experience, averaged roughly $ 73,000 in 2007. Indie game developers may only earn between $ 10,000 and $ 50,000 a year depending on how financially successful their titles are. In addition to being part of the software industry, game development is also within the entertainment industry; most sectors of

2380-694: A practice known as "cracking". Within a few months of its release the initial layer of security on the Xbox BIOS (which relied heavily on obfuscation ) was broken by MIT student Andrew Huang and the contents of the "hidden" boot ROM embedded on the MCPx chip were extracted using some custom built hardware. Once this information was available, the code was soon modified so that it would skip digital signature checks and media flags, allowing unsigned code, Xbox game backups, etc., to be run. Modding an Xbox in any manner will void its warranty, as it may require disassembly of

2520-479: A pressure-sensitive directional pad, two analog triggers, a Back button, a Start button, two accessory slots and six 8-bit analog action buttons (A/Green, B/Red, X/Blue, Y/Yellow, and Black and White buttons). The standard Xbox controller (also nicknamed the "Fatty" and later, the "Duke" ) was originally the controller bundled with Xbox systems for all territories except Japan. The controller has been criticized for being bulky compared to other video game controllers; it

2660-593: A retail computer store in Salt Lake City's Midvale suburb; Witzel provided Carver with several improvement suggestions for the program. After Carver had implemented these changes, he began selling them under the name "Access Software" through Computers Plus. The name was chosen Carver and some of his friends had searched through a dictionary, considering "Action Software" and "Center Soft" before sticking with "Access Software". In November that year, Carver, together with Chris Jones , incorporated Access Software with

2800-649: A roundtable discussion with the International Game Developers Association (IGDA), the professional association for developers. Statements made by the IGDA's current executive director Jen MacLean relating to IGDA's activities had been seen by as anti-union, and Game Workers Unite desired to start a conversation to lay out the need for developers to unionize. In the wake of the sudden near-closure of Telltale Games in September 2018,

2940-512: A similar folded and stacked circuit board design used in Sony's DualShock 2 controller, but the company refused to manufacture such a design for Microsoft. This led to the controller being bulky and nearly three times the size of Sony's controller. This initial controller design was never launched in Japan. The console instead launched with a smaller, redesigned version named "Controller S" that did use

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3080-407: A single publisher; one canceled game may devastate a small developer. Because of this, many small development companies are short-lived. A common exit strategy for a successful video game developer is to sell the company to a publisher, becoming an in-house developer. In-house development teams tend to have more freedom in game design and content than third-party developers. One reason is that since

3220-466: A starting capital of US$ 25,000 . In its early days, Access Software operated out of Carver's basement. One of Access' key products were a series of sprite -based golfing games in the Links . In 1984, while there were other golf games on the market, most used a top-down approach, while Bruce Carver wanted to create a game that was shown from behind the golfer. With little artistic skill among their team,

3360-403: A strong STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) background for women at the secondary education level, but there are issues with tertiary education such as at colleges and universities, where game development programs tend to reflect the male-dominated demographics of the industry, a factor that may lead women with strong STEM backgrounds to choose other career goals. There

3500-465: A strong reception among critics. In 2002 and 2003, several high-profile releases helped the Xbox gain momentum and distinguish itself from the PS2. Microsoft purchased Rare , responsible for many Nintendo 64 hit games, to expand their first party portfolio. The Xbox Live online service was launched in late 2002 alongside pilot titles MotoGP , MechAssault and Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon . Several best-selling and critically acclaimed titles for

3640-470: A television advertisement for the Xbox in the United Kingdom after complaints that it was "offensive, shocking and in bad taste." It depicted a mother giving birth to a baby boy, fired like a projectile through a window, aging rapidly as he flies through the air. The advertisement ends with an old man crash-landing into his own grave and the slogan, "Life is short. Play more." The Xbox's successor,

3780-457: A theoretical 115 million vertices/second. It has a peak fillrate of 932 megapixels /second, capable of rendering a theoretical 29 million 32-pixel triangles/second. With bandwidth limitations, it has a realistic fillrate of 250–700 megapixels/second, with Z-buffering , fogging , alpha blending , and texture mapping , giving it a real-world performance of 7.8–21 million 32-pixel triangles/second. The Xbox controller features two analog sticks ,

3920-697: A unique case where nearly all parts of its labor force, including white-collar jobs such as video game development, may engage with labor unions under the Employment Protection Act often through collective bargaining agreements. Developer DICE had reached its union agreements in 2004. Paradox Interactive became one of the first major publishers to support unionization efforts in June 2020 with its own agreements to cover its Swedish employees within two labor unions Unionen and SACO . In Australia, video game developers could join other unions, but

4060-480: A version of Windows CE for its Dreamcast console to be used by game developers. Additionally, Gates had directly approached Sony CEO Nobuyuki Idei before the public announcement of the PS2 regarding letting Microsoft develop programming software for the console. However, the offer was declined by Idei in favor of having Sony create proprietary software. Microsoft had also attempted to meet with Hiroshi Yamauchi and Genyo Takeda of Nintendo to potentially acquire

4200-484: Is a 32-bit 733  MHz , custom Intel Pentium III Coppermine-based processor. It has a 133 MHz 64-bit GTL+ front-side bus (FSB) with a 1.06 GB/s bandwidth. The system has 64  MB unified DDR SDRAM , with a 6.4 GB/s bandwidth, of which 1.06 GB/s is used by the CPU and 5.34 GB/s is shared by the rest of the system. Its GPU is Nvidia 's 233 MHz NV2A . It is capable of geometry calculations for up to

4340-482: Is also a significant gap in racial minorities within the video game industry; a 2019 IGDA survey found only 2% of developers considered themselves to be of African descent and 7% Hispanic, while 81% were Caucasian; in contrast, 2018 estimates from the United States Census estimate the U.S. population to be 13% of African descent and 18% Hispanic. In a 2014 and 2015 survey of job positions and salaries,

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4480-449: Is expected that this is meant to lead into a full-time position, or otherwise the end of the contract. But more recently, its use in the video game industry has been compared to Microsoft 's past use of " permatemp ", contract workers that were continually renewed and treated for all purposes as employees but received no benefits. While Microsoft has waned from the practice, the video game industry has adapted it more frequently. Around 10% of

4620-533: Is generally illegal, companies often target their oldest workers first during layoffs or other periods of reduction. Older developers with experience may find themselves too qualified for the types of positions that other game development companies seek given the salaries and compensations offered. Some of the larger video game developers and publishers have also engaged contract workers through agencies to help add manpower in game development in part to alleviate crunch time from employees. Contractors are brought on for

4760-539: Is much larger and heavier than its contemporaries. This is largely due to a bulky tray-loading DVD-ROM drive and the standard-size 3.5-inch hard drive. The Xbox has also pioneered safety features, such as breakaway cables for the controllers to prevent the console from being pulled from the surface upon which it rests. Several internal hardware revisions have been made in an ongoing battle to discourage modding (hackers continually updated modchip designs in an attempt to defeat them), to cut manufacturing costs, and to make

4900-489: Is only available when the user is not watching a movie or playing a game. It uses many shades of green and black for the user interface to be consistent with the physical Xbox color scheme. When the Xbox was released in 2001, the Live service was not online, so the dashboard's Live sections and the network settings sub-menu were not present yet. Xbox Live was released in November 2002, but in order to access it, users had to buy

5040-494: Is still their primary activity they are generally described as "publishers" rather than "developers". Developers may be private as well. In the video game industry , a first-party developer is part of a company that manufactures a video game console and develops mainly for it. First-party developers may use the name of the company itself (such as Nintendo ), have a specific division name (such as Sony's Polyphony Digital ) or have been an independent studio before being acquired by

5180-474: Is usually conducted in a casual business environment, with t-shirts and sandals as common work attire. Many workers find this type of environment rewarding and pleasant professionally and personally. However, the industry also requires long working hours from its employees (sometimes to an extent seen as unsustainable). Employee burnout is not uncommon. An entry-level programmer can make, on average, over $ 66,000 annually only if they are successful in obtaining

5320-659: The AFL–CIO writing an open letter to video game developers encouraging them to unionize. In January 2020, Game Workers Unite and the Communications Workers of America established a new campaign to push for unionization of video game developers, the Campaign to Organize Digital Employees (CODE), in January 2020. Initial efforts for CODE were aimed to determine what approach to unionization would be best suited for

5460-456: The International Game Developers Association (IGDA), are conducting increasing discussions about the problem; they are concerned that working conditions in the industry cause a significant deterioration in employees' quality of life. Some video game developers and publishers have been accused of the excessive invocation of "crunch time". "Crunch time" is the point at which the team is thought to be failing to achieve milestones needed to launch

5600-708: The Links games for computers, they established a subsidiary, TruGolf, that created golf simulators , with Roger Carver overseeing this division. In April 1999, Access Software was acquired by Microsoft for an undisclosed sum. Microsoft sought to acquire Access to gain its Links series of golf games; Access had created Microsoft Golf as one of the first games to run within the Microsoft Windows operating system based on Links 386 Pro . According to Steve Witzel, Microsoft looked to acquire Access after USA Today reviewed both Microsoft Golf and Links and rated

5740-516: The MSX , they became one of the earliest second-party developers for Nintendo, developing exclusively for Nintendo's consoles starting with the Famicom, though they would self-publish their mobile games. A third-party developer may also publish games, or work for a video game publisher to develop a title. Both publisher and developer have considerable input in the game's design and content. However,

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5880-528: The Me Too movement and have tried to address the symptoms of these problems industry-wide, the video game industry has yet to have its Me Too-moment, even as late as 2021. There also tends to be pay-related discrimination against women in the industry. According to Gamasutra 's Game Developer Salary Survey 2014, women in the United States made 86 cents for every dollar men made. Game designing women had

6020-504: The Screen Actors Guild‐American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (SAG-AFTRA) union doing work for video games struck several major publishers, demanding better royalty payments and provisions related to the safety of their vocal performances, when their union's standard contract was up for renewal. The voice actor strike lasted for over 300 days into 2017 before a new deal was made between SAG-AFTRA and

6160-520: The Silicon Valley engineering team behind WebTV , which joined Microsoft after they purchased the rights to the device. Microsoft executive Craig Mundie wanted the project to be led by the WebTV team, who believed the console should be built from the ground-up as an appliance running off Windows CE; however, the DirectX team were adamant about the idea of repurposing PC hardware components, such as

6300-566: The Xbox One in 2013 and the Xbox Series X and Series S consoles in 2020. Before the Xbox, Microsoft had found success publishing video games for its Windows PCs, releasing popular titles such as Microsoft Flight Simulator and the massively successful Age of Empires after the creation of DirectX , the application programming interface (API) that allowed for direct access of the computer hardware and bypassing Windows. However,

6440-483: The Xbox series of video game consoles . It was released as Microsoft's first foray into the gaming console market on November 15, 2001, in North America, followed by Australia, Europe and Japan in 2002. It is classified as a sixth-generation console , competing with Sony 's PlayStation 2 , Sega 's Dreamcast and Nintendo 's GameCube . It was also the first major console produced by an American company since

6580-484: The video game industry . He told the Los Angeles Times : "Someone who was part of the co-creation of that world and those characters isn't getting a credit or a nickel for the work they put into it. Maybe we need unions in the video game industry to be able to protect creators." Xbox (console) The Xbox is a home video game console manufactured by Microsoft that is the first installment in

6720-637: The DVD-ROM drive more reliable (some of the early units' drives gave disc-reading errors due to the unreliable Thomson DVD-ROM drives used). Later-generation units that used the Thomson TGM-600 DVD-ROM drives and the Philips VAD6011 DVD-ROM drives were still vulnerable to failure that, respectively, either rendered the consoles unable to read newer discs or caused them to halt the console with an error code usually indicating

6860-486: The DirectX team, argued that using a PC hard drive would set Microsoft's console apart from competitors by allowing for the direct implementation of online access , an argument which Gates sided with. When Gates questioned if PC games could be effectively ported to the new console, Blackley explained that the machine would utilize DirectX hardware, meaning that they could be converted easily. Gates heavily favored this proposition over WebTV's, whose concept relied on Windows CE,

7000-676: The GameCube down to third place in terms of market share. By July 2004, the system had sold 15.5 million units worldwide—10.1 million in North America, 3.9 million in Europe, and 1.5 million in Asia-Pacific—and had a 33% market share in the US. Despite strong sales in North America, Microsoft struggled to make a profit from the Xbox due to its high manufacturing cost. With its initial retail price of $ 299, Microsoft lost about $ 125 for every system sold, which cost $ 425 to manufacture, meaning that

7140-411: The GameCube turned out to be more profitable than the Xbox. Ultimately, Microsoft lost an accumulative total of $ 4 billion from the Xbox, only managing to turn a profit at the end of 2004. While the Xbox represented an overall loss for Microsoft, Gates, Ballmer, and other executives still saw it as a positive result for the company as it brought them into the console marketplace against doubts raised by

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7280-446: The IGDA found that people of color were both underrepresented in senior management roles as well as underpaid in comparison to white developers. Further, because video game developers typically draw from personal experiences in building game characters, this diversity gap has led to few characters of racial minority to be featured as main characters within video games. Minority developers have also been harassed from external groups due to

7420-534: The Microsoft acquisition. Following the closure by Take-Two, many of the studio's developers went to TruGolf. Separately, Jones has established Big Finish Games to continue the Tex Murphy series. In 1982, Bruce Carver , an engineer for Salt Lake City -based company Redd Engineering, created a sprite -editing program called Spritemaster. He presented the product to Steve Witzel, who operated Computers Plus,

7560-409: The Microsoft engineers opted to switch to an Intel CPU, a fact that had not yet been communicated to AMD prior to the reveal. Among the names considered for the new console were a number of acronyms, including "Windows Entertainment Project" (WEP), "Microsoft Total Gaming" (MTG), "Microsoft Interactive Network Device" (MIND), and "Microsoft Interactive Center" (MIC). Also among the names considered

7700-473: The Western market; particularly, it sold poorly in Japan due to its large console size and an overabundance of games marketed towards American audiences instead of Japanese-developed titles. Production of the system was discontinued starting in 2005. The Xbox was the first in an ongoing brand of video game consoles developed by Microsoft, with a successor, the Xbox 360 , launching in November 2005, followed by

7840-520: The Xbox 360, was officially announced on May 12, 2005 on MTV . It was the first next generation system to be announced. It was released in North America on November 22, 2005. Nvidia ceased production of the Xbox's GPU in August 2005, which marked the end of brand-new Xbox production. The last game for the Xbox in Japan was The King of Fighters Neowave released in March 2006, the last Xbox game in Europe

7980-555: The Xbox Live starter kit containing a headset and a subscription. While the Xbox was still being supported by Microsoft, the Xbox Dashboard was updated via Live several times to reduce cheating and add features. The Xbox launched in North America on November 15, 2001. Popular launch games included Halo: Combat Evolved , Project Gotham Racing , and Dead or Alive 3 . All three of these games would go on to sell over

8120-496: The Xbox appeared to marginalize Windows. However, after being reminded that this was a product to compete against Sony, Gates and Ballmer gave the project the go-ahead along with the necessary marketing budget. Another contentious point of design was the addition of Ethernet connectivity rather than simple support for dial-up networking . At this point, most consumer homes had access to Internet connectivity, but social networks had yet to be established which would later demonstrate

8260-559: The Xbox in an interview in late 1999, stating that he wanted the system "to be the platform of choice for the best and most creative game developers in the world". It was later announced officially by Gates in a keynote presentation at the Game Developers Conference in San Jose on March 10, 2000, showing off an early prototype build of the system and a series of demos showcasing its hardware. The presentation and

8400-545: The Xbox outsold the PS2 in the U.S. in April 2004. By its manufacturing discontinuation in 2005, the Xbox had sold a total of 24 million units worldwide, 16 million of which had been sold in North America. These numbers fell short of Microsoft's predicted 50 million units, and failed to match the PlayStation 2's lifetime sales of 106 million units at the time, although it did surpass the GameCube and Dreamcast 's lifetime sales of 21 million and 10.6 units, respectively, though

8540-464: The Xbox soon followed, such as Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell , and Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic . Take-Two Interactive 's exclusivity deal with Sony was amended to allow Grand Theft Auto III and its sequels to be published for the Xbox. Many other publishers got into the trend of releasing the Xbox version alongside the PS2 version, instead of delaying it for months. 2004 saw

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8680-418: The Xbox was built around standard personal computer components, using variations of Microsoft Windows and DirectX as its operating system to support games and media playback, and featuring a 733 MHz Intel Pentium III CPU and a 233 MHz Nvidia GeForce 3 -based NV2A GPU , the latter two making the Xbox technically more powerful compared to its rivals. The Xbox was the first console to feature

8820-430: The Xbox was high, with Toys 'R' Us and Amazon reporting that online preorders had sold out within just 30 minutes. Microsoft stated that it planned to ship 1–1.5 million units to retailers by the end of the year, followed by weekly shipments of 100,000 units. The launch was one of the most successful in video game history, with unit sales surpassing 1 million after just 3 weeks and rising further to 1.5 million by

8960-425: The Xbox's hard drive. These discs were distributed at retail over seven volumes from 2002 to 2005. The discs are credited as an early iteration of the downloadable content model, with content including additional levels, roster updates for sports games and expanded game types. On November 15, 2002, Microsoft launched its Xbox Live service, allowing subscribers to play online Xbox games with other subscribers around

9100-686: The Xbox's main selling points. Sony countered the Xbox for a short time by temporarily securing PlayStation 2 exclusives for highly anticipated games such as the Grand Theft Auto series and the Metal Gear Solid series as well as Nintendo for the Resident Evil series. Notable third-party support came from Sega , who announced an 11-game exclusivity deal at Tokyo Game Show . Sega released exclusives such as Panzer Dragoon Orta and Jet Set Radio Future , which met with

9240-437: The Xbox, became Xbox 360 launch titles instead. The last game released on the Xbox was Madden NFL 09 , on August 12, 2008. The Xbox Exhibition disc collection was a game demo compilation series from Microsoft Game Studios used to advertise and preview upcoming Xbox games, featuring several playable game demos, game trailers, video content from G4 TV , music videos, and music from indie artists that were downloadable to

9380-401: The ability to play Xbox games through Xbox LIVE has been discontinued since April 15, 2010. It is still possible to play Xbox games with System Link functionality online via both the original console and the Xbox 360 with tunneling software such as XLink Kai . It was announced at E3 2017 that the Xbox One would be gaining support for a limited number of the Xbox's game library . The Xbox

9520-535: The acquisition of Activision Blizzard , stated it supported these unionization efforts. After this acquisition, the employees of Bethesda Game Studios , part of Zenimax under Microsoft, unionized under the Communications Workers of America (CWA) in July 2024. Over 500 employees within Blizzard Entertainment 's World of Warcraft division also unionized with CWA that same month. Sweden presents

9660-572: The advent of digital distribution of inexpensive games on game consoles, it is now possible for indie game developers to forge agreements with console manufacturers for broad distribution of their games. Other indie game developers create game software for a number of video-game publishers on several gaming platforms. In recent years this model has been in decline; larger publishers, such as Electronic Arts and Activision, increasingly turn to internal studios (usually former independent developers acquired for their development needs). Video game development

9800-431: The closest equity, making 96 cents for every dollar men made in the same job, while audio professional women had the largest gap, making 68% of what men in the same position made. Increasing the representation of women in the video game industry required breaking a feedback loop of the apparent lack of female representation in the production of video games and in the content of video games. Efforts have been made to provide

9940-466: The company had not entered the home console market of video games, which was dominated at the time by Sony 's PlayStation . Sony was working on its next video game console, the PlayStation 2 (PS2), announced officially to the public on March 2, 1999, and intended for the system to act as a gateway for all types of home entertainment. Sony presented a vision where the console would ultimately replace

10080-433: The company put the name "Xbox" on the list of possible names simply to prove how unpopular the Xbox name would be with consumers. However, "Xbox" proved to be the more popular name on the list and was thus selected as the official name of the product. When the physical design of the controller began, circuit boards for the controller had already been manufactured. Microsoft had asked Sony's supplier, Mitsumi Electric , for

10220-600: The company to pursue new interests, eventually founding Carver Homes, a construction company, in 2004. He died from cancer on December 28, 2005. Around 2004, Microsoft opted to leave the sports-game development market due to the impact of the Electronic Arts Sports (EA Sports) label, using their strength to produce sports-related games for the Xbox console. Microsoft had laid off about 76 employees with Microsoft Game Studios, and around August and September, sold Indie Games to Take-Two Interactive , who renamed

10360-563: The company would have to rely on software sales in order to make any money. According to Robbie Bach, "Probably six months after we shipped, you could see the price curve and do the math and know that we were going to lose billions of dollars." These losses were further exacerbated in April 2002, when Microsoft lowered the retail price of the Xbox even further to $ 199 in order to further driving hardware sales. Microsoft also struggled to compete with Sony's more popular PlayStation 2 console, which generally saw far higher sales numbers, although

10500-573: The company, but Nintendo declined to go further. In 1998, four engineers from Microsoft's DirectX team—Kevin Bachus, Seamus Blackley , Ted Hase and DirectX team leader Otto Berkes —began discussing ideas for a new console which would run off Microsoft's DirectX technology. Nat Brown, the Windows Software Architect at Microsoft, would also become a regular contributor to the project after meeting Hase in November 1998. The project

10640-416: The console manufacturer (such as Rare or Naughty Dog ). Whether by purchasing an independent studio or by founding a new team, the acquisition of a first-party developer involves a huge financial investment on the part of the console manufacturer, which is wasted if the developer fails to produce a hit game on time. However, using first-party developers saves the cost of having to make royalty payments on

10780-432: The console while also granting it a larger processing power than that of most other home consoles. According to Blackley, using PC technology as the foundation for a video game console would eliminate the technological barriers of most home consoles, allowing game creators to expand further on their own creativity without having to worry about hardware limitations. The 4 DirectX team members encountered disagreements with

10920-457: The console, Microsoft would have worked with a third-party computer manufacturer to mass-produce the units. However, the early work showed that this would need to be something that Microsoft would have to produce themselves, making the prospect a far more costly operation; the name "Coffin Box" became associated with the project as there were fears the project would end careers at Microsoft. Further, as

11060-569: The console, and Sony's PlayStation 2 was just going on sale in Japan. Gates was in talks with Sega's late chairman Isao Okawa about the possibility of Xbox compatibility with Dreamcast games, but negotiations fell apart over whether the Dreamcast's SegaNet online service should be implemented. Microsoft also looked to acquire Electronic Arts, Nintendo , Square Enix , and Midway without success. The company did achieve success in convincing developers at Bethesda Game Studios and Tecmo about

11200-610: The console. Having a modified Xbox may also disallow it from accessing Xbox Live, if detected by Microsoft, as it contravenes the Xbox Live Terms of Use , but most modchips can be disabled, allowing the Xbox to boot in a "stock" configuration. Beyond gaming, a modded Xbox can be used as a media center with XBMC4Xbox . There are also distributions of Linux developed specifically for the Xbox, including those based on Gentoo , Debian , Damn Small Linux and Dyne:bolic . Some operating systems ported to Xbox include Linux in

11340-508: The console. This established the use of licensing fees as a model for third-party development that persists into the present. The licensing fee approach was further enforced by Nintendo when it decided to allow other third-party developers to make games for the Famicom console, setting a 30% licensing fee that covered game cartridge manufacturing costs and development fees. The 30% licensing fee for third-party developers has also persisted to

11480-483: The country since its February launch. For the week ending July 18, 2004, the Xbox sold just 272 units, even fewer than the PSOne had sold in the same week. The Xbox did, however, outsell the GameCube for the week ending May 26, 2002. Ultimately, the Xbox had only sold 474,992 units in its lifetime. Factors believed to have contributed to the console's poor market presence included its large physical size, which contrasted

11620-505: The country's emphasis on more compact designs, and a lack of Japanese-developed games to aid consumer interest. Xbox modding is the practice of circumventing the built-in hardware and software security mechanisms of the Xbox video game console. The popularity of the Xbox, as well as (in the United States) its comparatively short 90-day warranty, inspired efforts to circumvent the built-in hardware and software security mechanisms,

11760-488: The desktop computer in the home. Microsoft CEO Bill Gates saw the upcoming PS2 as a threat to Microsoft's line of Windows PCs, worrying that the all-encompassing system could eliminate consumer interests in PCs and drive them out of the market. With video games rapidly growing into a massive industry, Gates decided that Microsoft needed to venture into the console gaming market to compete with Sony. Previously, Sega had developed

11900-444: The developer if the game is not meeting expectations. When each milestone is completed (and accepted), the publisher pays the developer an advance on royalties . Successful developers may maintain several teams working on different games for different publishers. Generally, however, third-party developers tend to be small, close-knit teams. Third-party game development is a volatile sector, since small developers may depend on income from

12040-417: The developers are the publisher's employees, their interests align with those of the publisher; the publisher may spend less effort ensuring that the developer's decisions do not enrich the developer at the publisher's expense. Activision in 1979 became the first third-party video game developer. When four Atari, Inc. programmers left the company following its sale to Warner Communications , partially over

12180-531: The developers set up a small studio in the basement, projecting frame-by-frame VHS footage of Roger Carver's golf swing onto a clear sheet, tracing his outline onto the sheets as to then convert them into sprites within the Commodore 64 system. This became the basis of Leader Board , the first game considered part of the Links series, and would establish the behind-the-golfer view for most other golf simulation games that followed. As Access continued to develop

12320-766: The division, notably Bungie in June 2000, shortly after their announcement of Halo: Combat Evolved . With Microsoft's acquisition, Halo switched from being a release for personal computers to being an Xbox exclusive release and as a launch time to help drive sales of the console. The Xbox was officially unveiled to the public by Gates and guest professional wrestler Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson at CES 2001 in Las Vegas on January 3, 2001. Microsoft announced Xbox's release dates and prices at E3 2001 in May. Most Xbox launch titles were unveiled at E3, most notably Halo and Dead or Alive 3 . The unit's release in November 2001

12460-461: The end of 2001. The system also attained one of the highest-ever attachment rates at launch, with over 3 games selling per unit according to the NPD Group . Strong sales were tied in large part to the highly anticipated launch title, Halo: Combat Evolved , which had surpassed sales of 1 million units by April 2002 and attained a 50% attach rate for the console. In 2003, the console had knocked

12600-467: The entertainment industry (such as films and television ) require long working hours and dedication from their employees, such as willingness to relocate and/or required to develop games that do not appeal to their personal taste. The creative rewards of work in the entertainment business attracts labor to the industry, creating a competitive labor market that demands a high level of commitment and performance from employees. Industry communities, such as

12740-430: The era was used for the Xbox remote, and therefore users wishing to use a universal remote were instructed to utilize RCA DVD remote codes. The Xbox was the first console to feature Dolby Interactive Content-Encoding Technology, which enables real-time Dolby Digital encoding. Previous game consoles could only use Dolby Digital 5.1 during non-interactive "cut scene" playback. The Xbox is based on commodity PC hardware and

12880-572: The first video game-specific union, Game Workers Unite Australia, was formed in December 2021 under Professionals Australia to become active in 2022. In Canada, in a historic move, video game workers in Edmonton unanimously voted to unionize for the first time in June 2022. In January 2023, after not being credited in The Last of Us HBO adaptation, Bruce Straley called for unionization of

13020-533: The formation of Microsoft Game Studios (then called Microsoft Games) in 2000, Microsoft rebranded Access Software as Salt Lake Games Studio. Initially working on products to for the personal computer, Salt Lake City Studio transitioned to Xbox versions of Links as well as the Amped snowboarding and Top Spin tennis sports games, following the console's introduction in 2002. In 2003, Microsoft rebranded Salt Like Games Studio as Indie Games. That year, Carver left

13160-404: The gaming industry, while a 2017 IGDA survey found that the female demographic in game development had risen to about 20%. Taking into account that a 2017 ESA survey found 41% of video game players were female, this represented a significant gender gap in game development. The male-dominated industry, most who have grown up playing video games and are part of the video game culture , can create

13300-842: The golf simulations. Additionally, Jones and Conners established Big Finish Games in 2007, where they planned to continue more narrative games, including expanding the Tex Murphy series. Video game developer A developer may specialize in specific game engines or specific video game consoles , or may develop for several systems (including personal computers and mobile devices ). Some focus on porting games from one system to another, or translating games from one language to another. Less commonly, some do software development work in addition to games. Most video game publishers maintain development studios (such as Electronic Arts 's EA Canada , Square Enix 's studios, Activision 's Radical Entertainment , Nintendo EPD and Sony's Polyphony Digital and Naughty Dog ). However, since publishing

13440-465: The hard drive when in the Xbox dashboard's memory manager or saved during a game. Most Xbox game saves can be copied to the memory unit and moved to another console, but some Xbox saves are digitally signed. It is also possible to save an Xbox Live account on a memory unit, to simplify its use on more than one Xbox. The ports at the top of the controllers could also be used for other accessories, primarily headsets for voice chat via Xbox Live. The Xbox CPU

13580-479: The hard drive, and these songs were used for the custom soundtracks in some games. Unlike the PlayStation 2, which could play movie DVDs without the need for a remote control (although an optional remote was available), the Xbox required an external IR adapter to be plugged into a controller port in order to play movie DVDs. If DVD playback is attempted without the IR sensor plugged in, an error screen will pop up informing

13720-457: The industry by working long hours. Because crunch time tends to come from a combination of corporate practices as well as peer influence, the term "crunch culture" is often used to discuss video game development settings where crunch time may be seen as the norm rather than the exception. The use of crunch time as a workplace standard gained attention first in 2004, when Erin Hoffman exposed

13860-558: The industry, and led to Microsoft's further development of other consoles in the Xbox family. Prior to its Japanese launch in February 2002, many analysts estimated that the Xbox would have trouble competing with the PS2 and the GameCube, its local counterparts in the region, noting its comparatively high price tag, lack of exclusives, and larger size which would not fit as well in Japan's smaller living spaces. Microsoft hoped to ship six million Japanese Xbox consoles by June 2002; however,

14000-431: The lack of respect that the new management gave to programmers, they used their knowledge of how Atari VCS game cartridges were programmed to create their own games for the system, founding Activision in 1979 to sell these. Atari took legal action to try to block the sale of these games, but the companies ultimately settled, with Activision agreeing to pay a portion of their sales as a license fee to Atari for developing for

14140-489: The latter much higher; Microsoft thought it would be easier to buy Access than try to compete. Microsoft desired to produce a high-end line of golf games based on Links with Access, while offering Microsoft Golf as lower-budget titles. With the acquisition, Access's principal offices remained in Salt Lake City. Access divested itself of the TruGolf division and made the company its own entity with Microsoft's purchase. Upon

14280-523: The more compact circuit board design. As the development team began to tighten down the design of the Xbox, they got help from Flextronics not only in revising the design but in mass production, creating a factory in Guadalajara , Mexico, for this purpose. Early production units had a high failure rate of around 25%, which Flextronics repaired. Later iterations of the hardware design worked to eliminate these failures. Gates first publicly mentioned

14420-559: The movement again called out for the industry to unionize. The movement argued that Telltale had not given any warning to its 250 employees let go, having hired additional staff as recently as a week prior, and left them without pensions or health-care options; it was further argued that the studio considered this a closure rather than layoffs, as to get around failure to notify required by the Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act of 1988 preceding layoffs. The situation

14560-400: The name Indie Built . In January 2005, Access Software became part of Take-Two's 2K label. Following a poor financial performance at Take-Two, Indie Built was closed down in May 2006. TruGolf, a company that develops indoor golf simulators , was formerly a subsidiary of Access Software based on the display technology they had made for the Links games and spun out to its own company during

14700-448: The nature of the video game culture. The industry also is recognized to have an ageism issue, discriminating against the hiring and retention of older developers. A 2016 IGDA survey found only 3% of developers were over 50 years old, while at least two-thirds were between 20 and 34; these numbers show a far lower average age compared to the U.S. national average of about 41.9 that same year. While discrimination by age in hiring practices

14840-461: The new system were well-received, impressing developers with both the hard drive and the Ethernet port and appealing to them with the notion of easy-to-use development tools. Microsoft began looking at a series of acquisitions and partnerships to secure content for the console at this time. In early 2000, Sega's Dreamcast sales were diminishing, in part due to Electronic Arts ' decision to bypass

14980-461: The news, there have typically been followup discussions towards the potential to form a union. A survey performed by the International Game Developers Association in 2014 found that more than half of the 2,200 developers surveyed favored unionization. A similar survey of over 4,000 game developers run by the Game Developers Conference in early 2019 found that 47% of respondents felt the video game industry should unionize. In 2016, voice actors in

15120-437: The number had ballooned to twenty million current subscribers. On February 5, 2010, it was reported that Xbox Live support for the original Xbox games would be discontinued as of April 14, 2010. Services were discontinued on schedule, but a group of users later known as the "Noble 14" continued to play for almost a month afterwards by simply leaving their consoles on connected to Halo 2 . Prior to launching, anticipation for

15260-446: The popularity of online console gaming, and in particular first-person shooters . The Xbox had a record-breaking launch in North America, selling 1.5 million units before the end of 2001, aided by the popularity of one of the system's launch titles, Halo: Combat Evolved , which sold a million units by April 2002. The system went on to sell a worldwide total of 24 million units, including 16 million in North America; however, Microsoft

15400-472: The power of the Xbox over the PS2, lining up The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind and Dead or Alive 3 as Xbox console-exclusives. Around this same time, Microsoft announced it was rebranding its Games Group, which had been focused on developing games for Windows, to the Microsoft Games division to make titles for both Windows and the Xbox. Microsoft began acquiring a number of studios to add to

15540-694: The present, being a de facto rate used for most digital storefronts for third-party developers to offer their games on the platform. In recent years, larger publishers have acquired several third-party developers. While these development teams are now technically "in-house", they often continue to operate in an autonomous manner (with their own culture and work practices). For example, Activision acquired Raven (1997); Neversoft (1999), which merged with Infinity Ward in 2014; Z-Axis (2001); Treyarch (2001); Luxoflux (2002); Shaba (2002); Infinity Ward (2003) and Vicarious Visions (2005). All these developers continue operating much as they did before acquisition,

15680-414: The primary differences being exclusivity and financial details. Publishers tend to be more forgiving of their own development teams going over budget (or missing deadlines) than third-party developers. A developer may not be the primary entity creating a piece of software, usually providing an external software tool which helps organize (or use) information for the primary software product. Such tools may be

15820-429: The publisher's wishes generally override those of the developer. Work for hire studios solely execute the publishers vision. The business arrangement between the developer and publisher is governed by a contract, which specifies a list of milestones intended to be delivered over a period of time. By updating its milestones, the publisher verifies that work is progressing quickly enough to meet its deadline and can direct

15960-415: The publishers. While this had some effects on a few games within the industry, it brought to the forefront the question of whether video game developers should unionize. A grassroots movement, Game Workers Unite , was established around 2017 to discuss and debate issues related to unionization of game developers. The group came to the forefront during the March 2018 Game Developers Conference by holding

16100-456: The release of highly rated exclusives Fable and Ninja Gaiden : both games would become big hits for the Xbox. Later that year, Halo 2 was released and became the highest-grossing release in entertainment history, making over $ 125 million in its first day and became the best-selling Xbox game worldwide. Halo 2 became Xbox Live's third killer app after MechAssault & Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six 3 . That year Microsoft made

16240-489: The release of the Atari Jaguar in 1993. The console was announced in March 2000. With the release of the PlayStation 2, which featured the ability to playback CD-ROMs and DVDs in addition to playing games, Microsoft became concerned that game consoles would threaten the personal computer as an entertainment device for living rooms. Whereas most games consoles to that point were built from custom hardware components,

16380-527: The studio to Indie Built. Take-Two had been keen on challenging the dominance of EA Sports, and its acquisition of Indie Built was among US$ 80 million it had spent through 2005 acquiring developers. In early 2005, Take-Two Interactive established the publishing label 2K , which would henceforth manage their development studios for sports games, including Indie Built. While part of Take-Two, Indie Built created sequels for Amped and Top Spin , but these titles were not strong successes. Take-Two's 2006 fiscal year

16520-497: The system had only sold a total of 190,000 units in the region by April of that year, two months after the system's launch in February. For the week ending April 14, 2002, the Xbox sold only 1,800 units, considerably less than the PS2 and GameCube, and failed to see a single title reach the top 50 best-selling video games in Japan. In November 2002, the Xbox chief in Japan stepped down, leading to further consultations about Xbox's future, which by that point had only sold 278,860 units in

16660-545: The target of sexual harassment. This can be coupled from similar harassment from external groups, such as during the 2014 Gamergate controversy . Major investigations into allegations of sexual harassment and misconduct that went unchecked by management, as well as discrimination by employers, have been brought up against Riot Games , Ubisoft and Activision Blizzard in the late 2010s and early 2020s, alongside smaller studios and individual developers. However, while other entertainment industries have had similar exposure through

16800-484: The toxic nature of the video game culture. This racial diversity issue has similar ties to the gender one, and similar methods to result both have been suggested, such as improving grade school education, developing games that appeal beyond the white, male gamer stereotype, and identifying toxic behavior in both video game workplaces and online communities that perpetuate discrimination against gender and race. In regards to LGBT and other gender or sexual orientations,

16940-487: The use of crunch time at Electronic Arts , a situation known as the "EA Spouses" case. A similar "Rockstar Spouses" case gained further attention in 2010 over working conditions at Rockstar San Diego . Since then, there has generally been negative perception of crunch time from most of the industry as well as from its consumers and other media. Game development had generally been a predominately male workforce. In 1989, according to Variety , women constituted only 3% of

17080-543: The user of the need for the Xbox DVD Playback Kit. The said kit included the IR sensor and a remote control (unlike the PS2, the Xbox controller could not control DVD playback). Said remote was manufactured by Thomson (which also manufactured optical drives for the console) and went on sale in late 2002, which meant a modified version of the remote design used by the RCA , GE and ProScan consumer electronics of

17220-412: The viability of this decision. The Xbox leads argued that with the planned Xbox Live functionality, the Ethernet port would help friends be able to play after they have graduated from schools and colleges and moved across the country. Throughout the console's prototyping, Microsoft was working with AMD for the CPU on the system. According to Blackley, just prior to the system's reveal in January 2001,

17360-508: The video game industry typically shares the same demographics as with the larger population based on a 2005 IGDA survey. Those in the LGBT community do not find workplace issues with their identity, though work to improve the representation of LGBT themes within video games in the same manner as with racial minorities. However, LGBT developers have also come under the same type of harassment from external groups like women and racial minorities due to

17500-678: The video game industry. Whereas some video game employees believe they should follow the craft-based model used by SAG-AFTRA which would unionize based on job function, others feel an industry-wide union, regardless of job position, would be better. Starting in 2021, several smaller game studios in the United States began efforts to unionize. These mostly involved teams doing quality assurance rather than developers. These studios included three QA studios under Blizzard Entertainment : Raven Software , Blizzard Albany , and Proletariat; and Zenimax Media 's QA team. Microsoft , which had previously acquired Zenimax and announced plans to acquire Blizzard via

17640-504: The workforce in video games is estimated to be from contract labor. Similar to other tech industries, video game developers are typically not unionized . This is a result of the industry being driven more by creativity and innovation rather than production, the lack of distinction between management and employees in the white-collar area, and the pace at which the industry moves that makes union actions difficult to plan out. However, when situations related to crunch time become prevalent in

17780-512: The world and download new content directly to the system's hard drive . The online service works only with a broadband Internet connection. In its first week of operation, Xbox Live received 100,000 subscriptions, and further grew to 250,000 subscribers within two months of the service's launch. In July 2004, Microsoft announced that Xbox Live had reached one million subscribers; in July 2005, membership reached two million, and by July 2007 there were more than three million subscribers. By May 2009,

17920-548: Was Xiaolin Showdown released in June 2007, and the last game in North America was Madden NFL 09 released in August 2008. Support for out-of-warranty Xbox consoles was discontinued on March 2, 2009. Support for Xbox Live on the console ended on April 15, 2010. The Xbox 360 supports a limited number of the Xbox's game library if the player has an official Xbox 360 Hard Drive. Xbox games were added up until November 2007. Xbox game saves cannot be transferred to Xbox 360, and

18060-421: Was leaked in 2020. The user interface for the Xbox is called the Xbox Dashboard. It features a media player that can be used to play music CDs, rip CDs to the Xbox's built-in hard drive and play music that has been ripped to the hard drive; it also lets users manage game saves, music, and downloaded content from Xbox Live, and lets Xbox Live users sign in, customize, and manage their account. The dashboard

18200-598: Was "DirectX Box", referring to the system's reliance on Direct X. At one point, Hase jokingly came up with the names "XXX-Box" and "DirectXXX-Box" as a nod to the system's higher volume of adult content compared to Sony or Nintendo 's consoles. "DirectX Box" was quickly shortened to "Xbox" through an e-mail conversation, and was ultimately favored by the development team, though a number of spelling variants were tossed around, such as xBox, XboX, and X-box. Microsoft's marketing department did not like this name, suggesting "11-X" or "Eleven-X" as alternatives. During focus testing ,

18340-668: Was argued to be "exploitive", as Telltale had been known to force its employees to frequently work under "crunch time" to deliver its games. By the end of 2018, a United Kingdom trade union, Game Workers Unite UK, an affiliate of the Game Workers Unite movement, had been legally established. Following Activision Blizzard 's financial report for the previous quarter in February 2019, the company said that they would be laying off around 775 employees (about 8% of their workforce) despite having record profits for that quarter. Further calls for unionization came from this news, including

18480-686: Was awarded "Blunder of the Year" by Game Informer in 2001, a Guinness World Record for the biggest controller in Guinness World Records Gamer's Edition 2008, and was ranked the second-worst video game controller ever (behind the Atari Jaguar controller) by IGN editor Craig Harris. The "Controller S" (codenamed "Akebono"), a smaller, lighter Xbox controller, was originally the standard Xbox controller only in Japan, designed for users with smaller hands. The "Controller S"

18620-578: Was codenamed "Midway," in reference to the Battle of Midway during World War II in which Japan was decisively defeated by American forces, as a representation of Microsoft's desire to surpass Sony in the console market. The DirectX team held their first development meeting on March 30, 1999, in which they discussed issues such as getting a PC to boot at a quicker pace than usual. The console would run off Windows 2000 using DirectX 8.1 , which would allow PC developers to easily transition into making games for

18760-591: Was held on the prior night as part of the grand opening of the flagship store of Toys 'R' Us at Times Square in New York City, in which 1,000 systems were shipped to the store to kick off sales. Bill Gates was present at the event, personally selling the first Xbox console and greeting people in line and playing games with them at the numerous display units present. In 2002, the Independent Television Commission (ITC) banned

18900-416: Was later released in other territories by popular demand and by 2002 replaced the standard controller in the Xbox's retail package, with the larger original controller remaining available as an accessory. The Xbox runs a custom operating system which is based on a heavily modified version of Windows 2000 . It exports APIs similar to those found in Microsoft Windows , such as Direct3D . Its source code

19040-622: Was partially hampered by the impact of the September 11 attacks on travel, as Microsoft could not travel to the Guadalajara facility to help test units. They were able to arrange to ship the units locally instead of testing at Microsoft facilities to have them ready for launch. The system was officially launched at midnight on November 15, 2001, three days before the subsequent launch of the Nintendo GameCube . A special event

19180-511: Was poor as the company was dealing with both Security and Exchange Commission investigations related to its past reporting, and harsh criticism for the Hot Coffee mod as part of Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas . Indie Built was closed in May 2006 by Take-Two as part of a re-alignment of their business strategy to overcome the weak fiscal year. Following Indie Built's closure, most of the employees transitioned to TruGolf, helping to improve

19320-418: Was privately settled on February 6, 2003. The Xbox includes a standard AV cable which provides composite video and monaural or stereo audio to TVs equipped with RCA inputs. European Xboxes also included an RCA jack to SCART converter block and the standard AV cable. An 8 MB removable solid-state memory card can be plugged into the controllers, onto which game saves can either be copied from

19460-599: Was the first video game console to feature a built-in hard disk drive , used primarily for storing game saves and content downloaded from Xbox Live. This eliminated the need for separate memory cards (although some older consoles, such as the Amiga CD32 , used internal flash memory, and others, such as the TurboGrafx-CD , Sega CD , and Sega Saturn , had featured built-in battery backup memory prior to 2001). An Xbox user could rip music from standard audio CDs to

19600-477: Was unable to make a steady profit off the console, which had a manufacturing price far more expensive than its retail price, despite its popularity, losing over $ 4 billion during its market life. The system outsold the GameCube and the Sega Dreamcast , but was vastly outsold by the PlayStation 2, which had sold over 155 million units by the system's end of production. It also underperformed outside of

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