It is an important day in Xbox history, as it was on this day in the year 2001 that Microsoft officially announced the original Xbox by way of a cringeworthy reveal at CES 2001.
For anyone unaware, Microsoft recruited Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson to come on stage and announce the console to the world. At the time, The Rock–known best as a wrestling star– was just gearing up to appear in his first film, 2001’s The Mummy. He was wasn’t exactly the household name he is today, but he was a big enough star to get the call to help reveal the Xbox.
The Rock appeared on stage with then-Microsoft CEO Bill Gates to show off the console and its oversized Duke controller. The Rock also delivered a message to the world about the Xbox.
“The Xbox is everything The Rock is. Cutting-edge, powerful, exhilarating, and like The Rock, it will be the most electrifying thing coming out this year,” he said. “What The Rock is to sports entertainment to the WWF, the Xbox will be to the video game industry: a breakthrough and certainly an original. The Rock doesn’t impress easily–you know that, Bill. But I’m pretty damn impressed with what we’re seeing here today.”
The original Xbox ended up losing as much as $7 billion for Microsoft, according to former executive Robbie Bach, but Microsoft continued to invest in the platform that is now extremely popular. Bungie’s Halo was a launch title for the original Xbox, and it proved to be a big success and now stands as one of Microsoft’s crown jewels.
The original Xbox would be followed by the Xbox 360 in 2005, the Xbox One in 2013, and the Xbox Series X|S platform in 2020. Microsoft is now working on the next Xbox hardware.
