XBOX

XBOX is Microsoft’s gaming brand, launched with the original console in 2001, after a team working on DirectX set out to build a console on PC architecture. That first machine arrived with a built-in hard drive and an Ethernet port at a time when nine in ten households were still on dial-up.

Four generations later, up to the XBOX Series X and the all-digital Series S, the brand spans consoles, wireless and Elite controllers, the Game Pass library, cloud gaming and remote play to phones and tablets. Its games reach more than a billion players a year across franchises such as Halo, Forza, Minecraft, Gears of War and Call of Duty.