XBOX
The XBOX was released in the US on November 15, 2001 at a retail price of $299.99 USD. It was one of the only consoles released by an american company since the Atari Jaguar ceased sales in the retail market. The name Xbox was short for the name DirectX Box which used Microsoft's own product DirectX technology. Success of the Xbox can be attributed to the launch of Xbox Live and the release of Microsoft's Halo 2 which allowed players to play games online against other players over servers with a broadband connection.