Microsoft credited the original Xbox with someone else’s invention. Sony beat its competitor by four years

Microsoft is celebrating the 25th anniversary of Xbox. A celebratory message from brand head Asha Sharma turned into an embarrassment: she credited the company’s first console with an innovation that Sony had introduced four years earlier.

The Xbox was released on November 15, 2001, and played an important role in the evolution of the gaming industry. Microsoft entered a market dominated by Sony and Nintendo, offering a console with a built-in hard drive and an Ethernet port. These solutions helped pave the way for the launch of Xbox Live and the growth of online gaming. That is why an attempt to attribute someone else’s achievement to the company looks strange.

In a post dedicated to the brand’s history, Sharma stated that the original Xbox pioneered dual analog stick controllers. The problem is that Sony released such a gamepad for the original PlayStation back in 1997, four years before the launch of Microsoft’s console.

Granted, the DualShock was not initially included as standard with the PS1. That changed with the release of the PS2 in 2000. By the time the Xbox arrived, gamers were already well aware of the advantages of dual analog sticks.

Perhaps Sharma meant analog triggers, but that does not save the situation either. The Sega Dreamcast controller received pressure-sensitive triggers back in 1999. Microsoft was not a pioneer in this case either.

At the same time, the original Xbox had plenty of merits of its own, and its controller left a mark on the history of the industry. The whole situation looks especially amusing against the backdrop of the brand’s 25th anniversary celebration: Microsoft has plenty to be proud of, and there is absolutely no need to take credit for competitors’ ideas.