<P> Xbox is a video gaming brand created and owned by Microsoft . It represents a series of video game consoles developed by Microsoft, with three consoles released in the sixth, seventh and eighth generations respectively . The brand also represents applications (games), streaming services, and an online service by the name of Xbox Live . The brand was first introduced in the United States in November 2001, with the launch of the original Xbox console . </P> <P> That original device was the first video game console offered by an American company after the Atari Jaguar stopped sales in 1996 . It reached over 24 million units sold as of May 2006 . Microsoft's second console, the Xbox 360, was released in 2005 and has sold over 77.2 million consoles worldwide as of April 2013 . The successor to the Xbox 360 and Microsoft's most recent console, the Xbox One, was revealed in May 2013 . The Xbox One has been released in 21 markets in total, with a Chinese release in September 2014 . The head of Xbox is Phil Spencer, who succeeded former head Marc Whitten in late March 2014 . </P> <P> The original Xbox was released on November 15, 2001, in North America, February 22, 2002, in Japan, and March 14, 2002, in Australia and Europe . It was Microsoft's first foray into the gaming console market . As part of the sixth - generation of gaming, the Xbox competed with Sony's PlayStation 2, Sega's Dreamcast (which stopped American sales before the Xbox went on sale), and Nintendo's GameCube . The Xbox was the first console offered by an American company after the Atari Jaguar stopped sales in 1996 . The name Xbox was derived from a contraction of DirectX Box, a reference to Microsoft's graphics API, DirectX . </P> <P> The integrated Xbox Live service launched in November 2002 allowed players to play games online with or without a broadband connection . It first competed with Dreamcast's online service but later primarily competed with PlayStation 2's online service . Although these two are free while Xbox Live required a subscription, as well as broadband - only connection which was not completely adopted yet, Xbox Live was a success due to better servers, features such as a buddy list, and milestone titles like Halo 2 released in November 2004, which is the best - selling Xbox video game and was by far the most popular online game for years . </P>

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