Developer: Microsoft Release: 2001 Notable Games: Halo: Combat Evolved, Project Gotham Racing, Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six 3 The Xbox was ugly, launched with a ridiculously clunky controller, and was released by a company not traditionally associated with the games industry. Considering it was also in competition with the legendarily tenacious PlayStation 2, and it looked for a while like the Xbox was to be one of gaming's biggest flops. Fortunately for Microsoft, the Xbox had a secret weapon. One of the launch titles for the console was a little game called Halo: Combat Evolved, often cited as the game that modernised the console shooter genre. The Xbox Live service also helped to revolutionise online console gaming, although this was something that truly came into its own with the Xbox's successor. The Xbox was a real gamer's console, planting many of the seeds that would later flourish in the following generation.
