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Forums - Microsoft - I finally understood why it's called the Xbox

GamechaserBE on 19 August 2015
bouzane said:
I always thought that Microsoft was simply aping the PlayStation brand. Seriously, look at the Dual Shock controller and you'll see an X, a square (box), a circle (360) and a triangle (trinity / delta - which really should have been the name for the One)

Really surprised that people don't know all of this.. Anyway Xbox and Sega had a behind the scenes team work (also lead to Peter moore before working at sega joining MS) and that's why so many Sega games like Shenmue/Jet set Radio/Toejam earl 3 etc were only on xbox.  Also to some designs like the buttons on the controller...




Shall maybe add this:

Sega was one of the first major third-party publishers to back the Xbox, announcing an eleven game deal for the system during the 2001 Tokyo Game Show and becoming one of the biggest Japanese publishers to support the system. Many former Dreamcast games or sequels to popular franchises, including Jet Set Radio Future, Panzer Dragoon Orta, Sega GT 2002 (and Sega GT Online), Gunvalkyrie, Crazy Taxi 3: High Roller, The House of the Dead III and ToeJam & Earl III: Mission to Earth were made exclusive to the Xbox console (although some have been re-released on other platforms since).

Many factors suggest the Xbox was Sega's preferred console during the first two or three years of the system's lifecycle. Sega Chihiro arcade hardware is derived from the Xbox, and much of Sega's early Xbox games are arguably more demanding in nature than their PlayStation 2 output (with a closer resemblence to that of the Sega Dreamcast's western library than the family-friendly selection of games given to the GameCube and the Japanese-centric games given to the PlayStation 2). By the middle of the decade, however, the playing field was leveled, with a stronger focus on multi-platform games over giving each system its own set of exclusive titles.

Much of the Xbox's design is influenced from the Sega Dreamcast, not just from a controller design perspective, but from the lessons Microsoft learned from the Windows CE operating system included in the Dreamcast's specifications. At one point the Xbox was even planned to be able to run Dreamcast games, with Isao Okawa, then-president of Sega, having several meetings with Microsoft founder Bill Gates over the subject. The deal inevitably fell through due to online issues - Dreamcast online support conflicting with Microsoft's plans for the Xbox Live service. The relationship between Sega and Microsoft remained very close at the time, with Sega of America's Peter Moore migrating to Microsoft in the years that followed.



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XanderXT on 19 August 2015
pokoko said:
XanderXT said:

Drat, my secret is out!

It was right in front of us this whole time and we never realized.  

How did you deduct my secret?



QUAKECore89 on 19 August 2015
GamechaserBE said:
bouzane said:
I always thought that Microsoft was simply aping the PlayStation brand. Seriously, look at the Dual Shock controller and you'll see an X, a square (box), a circle (360) and a triangle (trinity / delta - which really should have been the name for the One)

Really surprised that people don't know all of this.. Anyway Xbox and Sega had a behind the scenes team work (also lead to Peter moore before working at sega joining MS) and that's why so many Sega games like Shenmue/Jet set Radio/Toejam earl 3 etc were only on xbox.  Also to some designs like the buttons on the controller...




Shall maybe add this:

Sega was one of the first major third-party publishers to back the Xbox, announcing an eleven game deal for the system during the 2001 Tokyo Game Show and becoming one of the biggest Japanese publishers to support the system. Many former Dreamcast games or sequels to popular franchises, including Jet Set Radio Future, Panzer Dragoon Orta, Sega GT 2002 (and Sega GT Online), Gunvalkyrie, Crazy Taxi 3: High Roller, The House of the Dead III and ToeJam & Earl III: Mission to Earth were made exclusive to the Xbox console (although some have been re-released on other platforms since).

Many factors suggest the Xbox was Sega's preferred console during the first two or three years of the system's lifecycle. Sega Chihiro arcade hardware is derived from the Xbox, and much of Sega's early Xbox games are arguably more demanding in nature than their PlayStation 2 output (with a closer resemblence to that of the Sega Dreamcast's western library than the family-friendly selection of games given to the GameCube and the Japanese-centric games given to the PlayStation 2). By the middle of the decade, however, the playing field was leveled, with a stronger focus on multi-platform games over giving each system its own set of exclusive titles.

Much of the Xbox's design is influenced from the Sega Dreamcast, not just from a controller design perspective, but from the lessons Microsoft learned from the Windows CE operating system included in the Dreamcast's specifications. At one point the Xbox was even planned to be able to run Dreamcast games, with Isao Okawa, then-president of Sega, having several meetings with Microsoft founder Bill Gates over the subject. The deal inevitably fell through due to online issues - Dreamcast online support conflicting with Microsoft's plans for the Xbox Live service. The relationship between Sega and Microsoft remained very close at the time, with Sega of America's Peter Moore migrating to Microsoft in the years that followed.

Sega's legacy.



celador on 19 August 2015

It's pretty well known why, so I'm hoping there is some kind of joke coming up.



Porcupine_I on 19 August 2015

I was always under the impression that is had something to do with the German "X-beliebig"



“It appeared that there had even been demonstrations to thank Big Brother for raising the chocolate ration to twenty grams a week. And only yesterday, he reflected, it had been announced that the ration was to be reduced to twenty grams a week. Was it possible that they could swallow that, after only twenty-four hours? Yes, they swallowed it.”

- George Orwell, ‘1984’

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the_dark_lewd on 19 August 2015

Because it used to be a box. But now it isn't.



ps3-sales! on 19 August 2015

OP is mistaken.

X is short for *Next* while box is short for *brunch*

*NextBrunch*

While deciding to get in the video game business Microsoft was also deciding when they should have their next meal before Breakfast and Lunch. The name stuck.



Currently own:

 

  • Ps4

 

Currently playing: Witcher 3, Walking Dead S1/2, GTA5, Dying Light, Tomb Raider Remaster, MGS Ground Zeros

BlkPaladin on 19 August 2015
padib said:

Look at it closely.


Heh unfortantly that wasn't the logo they used for windows back then, I think the first to use it was XP, 98 looks a little bit like it but still retained the black frame from the boxy logo of 3.1.



Goddbless on 19 August 2015
Carl2291 said:
DirectXbox

Was shortened to Xbox for marketing reasons, and was the most popular name when it came to polls iirc.


Yup!



Love the product, not the company. They love your money, not you.

-TheRealMafoo

TruckOSaurus on 19 August 2015
BlkPaladin said:
padib said:

Look at it closely.


Heh unfortantly that wasn't the logo they used for windows back then, I think the first to use it was XP, 98 looks a little bit like it but still retained the black frame from the boxy logo of 3.1.

The Xbox and Windows XP were both launched in 2001 so it would fit.



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