Chapter 04 of 5
The Billion-Dollar Hardware Crisis
Xbox enters the fray and survives the deadly Red Ring of Death.
- Strategic Pivot
Microsoft Eyes the Living Room
Fearful that PCs would lose ground to Sony, Bill Gates greenlit the Xbox to dominate the home ecosystem.
- Hardware Leap
The 'DirectX' Box
The original Xbox was essentially a PC in disguise, using a Pentium III processor to deliver unprecedented power.
- The Killer App
Master Chief Enters
Halo: Combat Evolved proved that first-person shooters could work on consoles, becoming the Xbox's signature weapon.
17 more cards in this chapter
Could you answer this?
How much did Microsoft eventually set aside to fix the 'Red Ring of Death' crisis?
🎮 The Console Wars
- 01The Great Crash of '83How Atari's greed nearly killed the industry before it truly began.
- 02Genesis Does What Nintendon'tSega brings 16-bit attitude to challenge the NES monopoly.
- 03The Birth of the BetrayalSony's revenge after a botched Nintendo partnership changes everything.
- 04The Billion-Dollar Hardware CrisisXbox enters the fray and survives the deadly Red Ring of Death.
- 05Beyond the Plastic BoxMobile, Cloud, and the death of traditional hardware cycles.