16 Mind-Blowing Facts You Didn't Know About Xbox

Oh, you mean the Microsoft Total Gaming machine, with Sonic?

By Scott Tailford /

It had a bit of a rocky start, the old household-dominating Xbox brand - although considering how much it's now flagging in comparison to the seemingly unstoppable PS4, it appears history is repeating itself.

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Launching in 2001 and backed by a company that had also just come off a string of godawful PC operating systems, Microsoft's foray into the console market felt like it came out of nowhere - especially when the titanic force of Sega were closing their doors and Sony were steaming ahead with the all-conquering PS2.

Still, they trundled forward with one very shiny gem in their crown named Halo: Combat Evolved, and despite many things from oversized controllers to revolutionary (and untested) design functionality like *gasp* A HARD DRIVE?! managed to carve out a reputable spot in the race to own your living room.

Come the 360 and it was Microsoft's time to shine. People seemingly saw the better graphics and processing-kick the original console demonstrated in abundance, and with Sony dropping the ball on both their overpriced PS3 and the fact they couldn't fulfil any leftover demands at the time; it was easy pickings for Microsoft to welcome bedraggled gamers with open arms.

Right now the competition between the newest of their machines and Sony's "For the gamers"-fronted PR behemoth is providing some fantastic stuff on the consumer end in terms of discounted deals and monthly freebies, but they didn't get to this top spot dogfight very easily - in fact, there's a number of places where it all could've turned out completely different.

16. Sonic Almost Fronted The Entire Xbox Launch

Apparently, following Sega's disastrous reception of the Dreamcast and their change from hardware manufacturers to software-only programmers, Microsoft were set to acquire Sonic and have him front their foray into the industry back in 2001.

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The whole thing went south because Bill Gates didn't have enough faith that Sega were still big enough tackle the Sony of the early 00's, so they decided to do it themselves.

Gaming history would've been quite the reworked beast if an entire generation of kids thought of Sonic as a Xbox mascot - chances are his green-skinned brethren Manic would've been brought to the fore too.

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