Category:Xbox

Xbox is a sixth generation era video game console produced by Microsoft. It was first released on November 15, 2001 in North America, February 22, 2002 in Japan, and on March 14, 2002 in Europe. It is the predecessor to Microsoft's Xbox 360 console. The Xbox was Microsoft's first independent venture into the video game console arena, after having collaborated with Sega in porting Windows CE to the Sega Dreamcast console. Notable launch titles for the console included Halo: Combat Evolved, Amped: Freestyle Snowboarding, Dead or Alive 3, Project Gotham Racing, and Oddworld: Munch's Oddysee.

Gamerscore
Gamerscore (denoted as ) is a measure that corresponds to the number of "Achievement" points accumulated by an Xbox Live user. These Achievement points are awarded for the completion of game-specific challenges, such as beating a level or amassing a specified number of wins against other players in Xbox Live matches. Initially, retail Xbox 360 games offered up to spread over a variable number of Achievements, while each Xbox Live Arcade title contained 12 achievements totalling. These possible totals per game have been raised to and, respectively; see below. Achievements became a potent system seller for the console. .

GameSpot published an article on how to achieve 6,000 easy Achievement points due to the lax nature that some 360 titles had on Achievements, notably EA Sports and 2K Sports titles, that would require almost no effort from the gamer to get the maximum. The following year's sports titles (2K Sports' 2K7 and EA Sports' 07 titles) featured far more challenging Achievements.

Larry Hryb (aka Major Nelson) coined the term for individuals who played games explicitly for the purpose of unlocking achievements to add to their score: Gamerscore Whore. The Gamerscore system and the obsession with it has been the target of ridicule in parts of the gaming press, e.g. in an April Fools' Day edition of Game Informer.

In November 2006, a gamer reached the 100,000-point Gamerscore mark. As of October 31, 2007, David Dreger (aka Knuckles Dawson, an editor at Joystiq sister site Xbox 360 Fanboy) owns the legitimate record for consecutive days earning at least one Achievement point over the course of 681 straight days (one year, 316 days), which lasted from November 22, 2005 to October 4, 2007.

On February 1, 2007, Microsoft announced on their Gamerscore Blog some new policies that developers must follow related to Gamerscore and Achievements in future releases. All games must have 1,000 Gamerscore points in the base game - the title could ship with fewer than 1,000 points, but anything added later must be free. Game developers also now have the option of adding up to 250 points via downloadable content (for a total of 1,250 points) - this content can be either free or paid. Xbox Live Arcade titles may add up to 50 points via downloadable content (for a total of 250 points).

On May 26, 2007, Halo 2 was the first Games for Windows game to feature Achievements, which counted towards a player's Xbox Live Gamerscore.