Xbox Apps on Google Play

Xbox Game Pass is a subscription service from Microsoft for use with the Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, Windows 10 and Windows 11. The service enables players to report messages, Gamertags, photos, and any other toxic content on its platform. Games using the Xbox and Xbox Live brands have also been released for Microsoft Windows, Windows Phone, Android, and iOS devices. He further said that Microsoft plans to publicly discuss its next generation of hardware in late 2024.needs update The Xbox Series S is a digital-only unit with less graphic processing power, but can still render at a nominal 1440p resolution at 60 frames per second with support for 4K upscaling.

Kinect (stylized as KINECT) is a motion sensing input device by Microsoft for the Xbox 360 video game console and Windows PCs. To help transition consumers, Microsoft introduced its Smart Delivery system which most of its first-party games and several third-party games will use to offer free updates to Xbox One versions of games to the Xbox Series X/S version over the first few years of the consoles’ launch. The integrated Xbox Live service launched in November 2002 allowed players to play games online with a broadband connection.

Xbox Game Pass

Spencer identified that Microsoft Azure is a major component of their plans going forward, which powers its Xbox Cloud Gaming game streaming service. Microsoft, whose business had been primarily in supporting the personal computer (PC) business with its Windows operating system, software, and games, saw the PlayStation 2 as a threat to the personal computer. The third console, the Xbox One, was released in November 2013 and has sold 58 million units. Microsoft’s second console, the Xbox 360, was released in 2005 and has sold 86 million units as of October 2015. The outer surface of each earcup is a rotary control; the right earcup controls overall volume, and the left earcup controls game/chat mix level. The next revision of the controller (Model 1697) replaced with 2.5mm jack with a 3.5mm jack.

• The Xbox Adaptive Controller is a special controller designed for accessibility features for players.
• Prior headsets released with the Xbox and Xbox 360 were limited to voice chat only.
• The main interface for all four generations of Xbox has been the Xbox Dashboard, which allows users to manage games stored on the console, play media, and access system settings.
• The Xbox Series X and Series S are high-end and low-end versions comparable to the Xbox One X and Xbox One S models, respectively, with all games designed for this model family playable on both systems.

Spencer said “I don’t think it’s “hardware agnostic” as much as it’s ‘where you want to play'”, in describing how Microsoft was strategizing the Xbox branding for the future. Microsoft’s marketing team conducted consumer surveys of the name, using the name “Xbox” as a control believing this would be least desirable, but found that this had the highest preference from their tests, and was selected as the name of the console. Numerous names were suggested for this console, including “Direct X Box”, and the “Windows Entertainment Project”. Four engineers from Microsoft’s DirectX team—Kevin Bachus, Seamus Blackley, Ted Hase and DirectX team leader Otto Berkes, began to envision what a Microsoft console to compete against the PlayStation 2 would be like. In 2022, Microsoft expanded its gaming business and reorganized Xbox to become part of its newly formed Microsoft Gaming division. The Xbox branding was formerly, from 2012 to 2015, used as Microsoft’s digital media entertainment brand replacing Zune.

Kinect

• The module plugged into the controller’s top expansion slot, and the headset plugged into the module; the interface module was equipped with a dial to control volume and a button to mute the microphone.
• Based around a webcam-style add-on peripheral for the Xbox 360 console, it enables users to control and interact with the Xbox 360 without the need to touch a game controller, through a natural user interface using gestures and spoken commands.
• It first competed with Dreamcast’s online service but later primarily competed with PlayStation 2’s online service.

The “Guide” button is labelled with the Xbox logo, and is used to turn on the console/controller and to access the guide menu. In the center of the controller face are digital “Start”, “Back” and “Guide” buttons. The right face of the controller features four digital action buttons; a green “A” button, red “B” button, blue “X” button and yellow “Y” button. A standard Xbox 360 controller features eleven digital buttons, two analog triggers, two analog sticks and a digital D-pad.

When the Xbox Live online service was launched in 2002, the Xbox Communicator headset was included with the Live Starter Kit. Kinect competes with the Wii Remote Plus and PlayStation Move with PlayStation Eye motion controllers for the Wii and PlayStation 3 home consoles, respectively. Based around a webcam-style add-on peripheral for the Xbox 360 console, it enables users to control and interact with the Xbox 360 without the need to touch a game controller, through a natural user interface using gestures and spoken commands. The fourth generation Xbox Controller doesn’t change much from the Xbox One controller, but the new wireless Xbox Controller does add a capture and share button, a hybrid d-pad, and better gripping on the bumpers and triggers.

Future hardware

It was replaced by the Xbox 360 Wireless Headset with Bluetooth in 2011, which could be used with the console (using the Xbox wireless protocol) or a phone (using Bluetooth). An updated Xbox 360 Headset was released in 2010 with black cosmetics, bundled with the Xbox 360 S; for the revised wired headset, the mute/volume controls were moved to a position inline along the cable. Xbox 360 controllers featured a built-in monaural 2.5mm TRS jack also compatible with standard cellular phone headsets, allowing players to reuse the Xbox Communicator headset and chat on Xbox Live without a separate interface module.

When Sony Computer Entertainment first announced the PlayStation 2 in 1999, the company had positioned the console as a centerpiece for home entertainment, as it not only would play video games, but also could play audio CDs and video DVDs. Besides games for this new console family, both consoles are fully compatible with all Xbox One games and most hardware, as well as all backward compatible games that were playable on the Xbox One from the Xbox 360 and original Xbox console. The Xbox One competed with Sony’s PlayStation 4 and Nintendo’s Wii U and Switch as part of the eighth generation of video game consoles. 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.

Additional information on the Xbox One Kinect was released on June 6, 2013, including information on how to turn off the “always on” feature. Microsoft released Kinect software development kit for Windows 7 on June 16, 2011. The project is aimed at broadening the Xbox 360’s audience beyond its typical gamer base. The controller is not limited to just Xbox and Windows platforms but also is compatible with the PlayStation and Nintendo Switch. Besides being physically larger than typical controllers, it includes additional ports to allow other devices to be connected and mapped to other controller functions.

Xbox Series X/S Controller

Amid industry rumors that Microsoft was abandoning hardware in favor of game development that emerged around Google October 2025, Xbox president Sarah Bond confirmed they had already started development work for the next console. The fourth line of Xbox consoles, the Xbox Series X and Series S, were released in November 2020. A corresponding Xbox Stereo Headset, which omits the wireless connections in favor of a standard 3.5mm plug and also omits the game/chat mix control dial, was introduced in August 2021 with a reduced price. Prior headsets released with the Xbox and Xbox 360 were limited to voice chat only. The Adapter connected to the controller’s expansion port and headset jack, and the Headset connected to the Adapter through a 3.5mm plug. In addition, Microsoft released the Xbox One Stereo Headset in early March 2014, bundled with a Stereo Headset Adapter, which allowed players to listen to in-game audio blended with chat simultaneously.

Microsoft Xbox Series X 1 TB

Microsoft has been recently working to leverage the branding of “Xbox” beyond the console hardware but as a general video game brand, reflected in the renaming of Microsoft Studios to Xbox Game Studios in 2019. This approach would make it easy for developers on Windows to build games for their new system, differentiating itself from the custom hardware solutions of most consoles. In 2016, Microsoft announced that it would hold its own Xbox FanFest instead of a press conference at the Gamescom annual European video game convention. Microsoft also announced the Xbox 360 Wireless Headset, a first-party single-ear headset accessory designed for and released with the Xbox 360 console in November 2005.

Microsoft announced in June 2025 that it was partnering with AMD to produce the next generation of Xbox hardware, which could take on a range of device types including consoles and computers. They designed a system that would use many hardware components in common with PCs, effectively running a version of Windows and DirectX to power the games on the console. The original device was the first video game console offered by an American company after the Atari Jaguar stopped sales in 1996. Microsoft bundled the Xbox One Chat Headset with each console starting from launch in 2013; the headset was permanently wired to an interface module that plugged into the controller’s expansion port and provided microphone mute and volume hotforex broker controls. The module plugged into the controller’s top expansion slot, and the headset plugged into the module; the interface module was equipped with a dial to control volume and a button to mute the microphone.

Third generation: Xbox One

The initial revision of the Xbox One Wireless Controller (Model 1537) also included a 2.5mm monaural jack compatible with standard cellular phone headsets. The headset socket on the module was a standard 2.5mm TRS audio jack with monaural input and output, compatible with cellular phone headsets. Furthermore, controversies surround Microsoft’s intentional tying of the sensor with the Xbox One console despite the initial requirements for the sensor being plugged in at all times having been revised since its initial announcement.

Services

The brand was first introduced in the United States in November 2001, with the launch of the original Xbox console. Explore 50+ Semrush tools and reports to find the best solution to your digital marketing challenges I know boyfriendtv, but their search engine and video categorization is just a mess.

Both consoles features support for new graphics rendering systems including real-time ray-tracing, and the new Xbox Velocity Architecture that works with the internal SSD drive to maximize the rate of texture streaming to the graphics processor, among other features. The Xbox Series X and Series S are high-end and low-end versions comparable to the Xbox One X and Xbox One S models, respectively, with all games designed for this model family playable on both systems. Like the Xbox One, the consoles use an AMD 64-bit x86-64 CPU and GPU with up to 16 GB of memory. On June 13, 2016, Microsoft announced the Xbox One S at E3 2016, which featured a smaller form factor, as well as support for 4K video (including streaming and Ultra HD Blu-ray) and HDR. It first competed with Dreamcast’s online service but later primarily competed with PlayStation 2’s online service. Spencer also cited mobile gaming as a potential area, and where Microsoft was trying to position itself with its services should this become the more preferred form for gaming.

The Xbox Game Pass grants users access to a catalog of games from a range of publishers for a single monthly subscription price. Xbox Game Pass Cloud Gaming (codenamed xCloud during development) is the Microsoft’s Xbox cloud gaming streaming service. It can connect with the console and allows more interactive entertainment, allowing mobile devices to potentially serve as second screens and remote controller. It was announced by Microsoft during E and released on October 26, 2012, coinciding with the release of Windows 8. Xbox network (formerly known as Xbox Live) is an online service with over 65 million users worldwide (as of July 2019). The Xbox Series X/S supports backward compatibility with all Xbox One titles (except for Kinect-required games), as well as all the Xbox 360 and original Xbox titles that were made available for Xbox One.

The Xbox One console has a revised controller with forty improvements over the 360’s controller. The left and right “shoulders” each feature a digital shoulder button, or “bumper”, and an analog trigger. Both analog sticks can also be “clicked in” to activate a digital button beneath. The Xbox controller features two analog sticks, a pressure-sensitive directional pad, two analog triggers, a Back button, a Start button, two accessory slots and six 8-bit analog action buttons (A/Green, B/Red, X/Blue, Y/Yellow, and Black and White buttons).