Click here for parts one and two; enjoy.
It was called the Xbox, and this is the story about the day it died.
Okay, maybe not the exact day. Before it did go, it had a lot left to give. Let us start with a little game called Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic, from famed developer Bioware. Yep, that PC developer.
May the Force be with you — Bill Gates to Master Yoda
The Xbox was still riding high from great sales in both Europe and North America – the less said about the sales in Japan the better. Xbox Live was on shelves, and this little thing called downloadable content was mentioned on the internet. Hold on, you mean expansion packs for my console game? Like Grand Theft Auto: London on the PlayStation, or like Shadow of Amn for Baulder’s Gate II? The answer would be closer to Shadow of Amn. The gaming populous rejoiced.
Famed developer of PC games such as Baulder’s Gate I and II were making a console game based on the Star Wars franchise and it was to have DLC. What could go wrong, we asked ourselves. All the best Star Wars games in the past decade had been on PC, and Bioware were the masters of the modern-day RPG. Bring it on, let us see what masterpiece was to be created using Microsoft’s gaming behemoth.
DLC started out so innocent, most developers giving it away for free. Then Halo 2 hit, boy did we get a bang for buck! You get what you pay for.
E3 2003 had come and gone, and the world had seen trailers for both Halo 2 and Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic. We still had to wait until 2004 for Halo 2, but KOTOR was right around the corner; July to be precise. I, as both a lover of Star Wars and the RPG genre, was extremely stoked. Earlier that year I had purchased my green limited edition Xbox–now all I needed was a new triple AAA title to play on it.
This article is not to review games, so I will spare you my fangasm about KOTOR. I will say this though; KOTOR went on to become Game of the Year in 2003, sporting one of the most engaging stories in gaming memory, a plot moment to rival “Luke, I am your father”, and then spawned both a sequel and an MMO game, along with several books and comics. Not bad, Bioware, not bad. Oh, and the DLC wasn’t too bad.
EA Sports passes it into the (X)box, Microsoft scores!
2004 arrived, and it was time for Halo 2; but not before EA got their football in the door. I remember hearing the news about EA signing the deal with Microsoft to include online multiplayer for their EA Sports titles, and I was bowled over by the news. I could now have my best of 5 games on FIFA versus my best friend from the comfort of my home… better yet, I didn’t have to worry about him looking at my controller during penalty kicks!
This news was a huge blow for PlayStation. They had tried to get the early version of their PlayStation Network up and running, but it wasn’t going so well. The need for an external adapter, poor ISP support and generally bad system architecture meant it was a losing battle for parent company Sony.
EA gave the online multiplayer thumbs up to titles such as Madden, FIFA, NHL and their NBA Live series. These games all saw huge support from the gaming populace; the constant power play had begun shifting. Xbox was starting to see an increased percentage of sales on titles with online features, Xbox Live was paying off once again.
The wait was over–Halo 2 had arrived. Wort wort wort.
It had been three years since we had last seen the Masterchief – the Halo ring was destroyed, the Flood had been defeated, and the Covenant knew we meant business. The bad news was that Chief had been left stranded in a Longsword spacecraft… would we get to see his return to Earth? My only nitpick with Halo 2 is that we skip right to Chief back on Earth. If you wish to know how it happens, you will have to read the novel Halo: First Strike. It is a fantastic read, as is the whole Halo series, even Cole Protocol.
Not only did Halo 2 bring us more of the story, it gave us breathtaking graphics, a brilliant soundtrack, and the best online FPS game on any console. The last thing Halo 2 gave us was DLC, lots of it! So much that it ended up with its own DLC bundle. DLC started out so innocent, most developers giving it away for free. Then Halo 2 hit, boy did we get a bang for buck! You get what you pay for.
Halo 2 would later come over to PC, giving people like myself – Halo completionists – another chance to play, this time with achievements.
And now we take out final bow, kissing those we loved, loving those we kissed.
As the world rolled into 2005 we knew several things for certain, Halo would be back, Xbox Live was going from strength to strength, and Sony was planning to launch its generation seven machine – The PS3. I felt that the original Xbox had plenty of life inside its shell – games were releasing until August 2008 – but Microsoft wanted to go on the offensive this time around.
Ladies and gentlemen, I give you the Xbox 360.
Now there is a lot more to the history of the original Xbox, and that has been covered in greater detail by better writers than I. This is a small glimpse at my history of Xbox, I hope you all enjoyed it. I enjoyed writing it. I will look at bringing my history of the Xbox 360 to the pages of Gameskinny. Soon. For now please let me know your favourite original Xbox memories!
Xbox, turn off.
