Introduced in 2001, Microsoft’s Xbox gaming console was the software giant’s attempt at entering the gaming market. But did you know that the Xbox name could have been something totally different? How does DirectX Box or X-11 sound?
According to the original Xbox launch team member, Seamus Blackley, Microsoft was thinking about naming the console “Windows Entertainment Project” or WEP for short. Microsoft’s executives felt comfortable with this name. Microsoft even considered the name “Midway” which was meant to be a bridge between PC and console, as well as DirectX Box, which was a hat tip to the software giant’s Direct X gaming API.
Other possible names for the gaming console included MTG (Microsoft Total Gaming), MIND (Microsoft Interactive Network Device), MIC (Microsoft Interactive Center), and more. Eventually, Microsoft seems to have settled with Xbox, but the company wasn’t sure how to write it, internally debating on whether or not to call it X-Box, xBox, XboX, Xbox, or X-box.
“Phase four was a battle between us and the naming guys, when we decided we just wanted to risk it and go with Xbox,” Blackley adds. Microsoft even wanted to call the console X-11 or Eleven X. You can read the entire list of possible names here.
Which of the names do you think Microsoft should have went with? Or was the Xbox name just fine?
