Xbox is Microsoft's video game brand, encompassing consoles, game studios, and the Game Pass subscription service. Microsoft launches the original Xbox in November 2001 as its entry into the console market, backed by the breakout success of Halo: Combat Evolved. The Xbox 360, released in 2005, sells over 84 million units and popularizes online console gaming through Xbox Live, which pioneers unified friends lists, voice chat, and digital game distribution. The current Xbox Series X and Series S consoles launch in 2020, and the brand's strategy now centers on Xbox Game Pass, a subscription offering hundreds of games on console, PC, and via cloud streaming. Microsoft has assembled one of the industry's largest first-party portfolios: Xbox Game Studios includes 343 Industries (Halo), Turn 10 (Forza), Bethesda parent ZeniMax Media, acquired in 2021 for 7.5 billion dollars, and Activision Blizzard, acquired in 2023 for 68.7 billion dollars, the largest acquisition in gaming history, bringing Call of Duty, World of Warcraft, Diablo, and Candy Crush under the Xbox umbrella. The division is headquartered at Microsoft's campus in Redmond, Washington, and is led by Phil Spencer as CEO of Microsoft Gaming. Xbox increasingly publishes its games on rival platforms and positions itself as a multi-platform ecosystem, with the tagline that anything with a screen can be an Xbox.
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