Xbox Microsoft Console Video Game System
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 video game consoles, 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.[18][19]
