Xbox 20th Anniversary: Was 2002 The Greatest Year In Platform History?

All week long here at LOGNET, we will be honoring the 20th anniversary of the Xbox platform. Each day you can look forward to a piece from the team highlighting a key moment in time for Xbox. Among the first articles comes a look into 2002 and the crazy first year Xbox had.

In the months following the release of the original Xbox, the console permeated through a perfect storm. Sega had begun to move their games off the Dreamcast. Combined with a number of publishers that were able to port games to the Xbox from PC and PlayStation 2. This was followed by a small handful of games that slipped from the Xbox launch month, creating a bloated few months for Xbox. Which then started this chain of successful releases through 2002. This perfect year, allowed the platform to be successful where others had failed.

Throughout the entire year, you will notice Konami, Sega, EA, and Microsoft are all releasing sports titles. This is in contrast to what we see today where there is one primary title per sport. Then you have the inclusion of action sports titles like SSX Tricky, UFC Tapout, and Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater. It has been close to 15 years since gamers have had choices like this. Once Sega and Microsoft started publishing, that really opened things up for sports games.

December 2001 + Q1 2022 Xbox Releases By Date

Between the sports titles, you have some AAA top 100 all-time great games. Games like Max Payne, Silent Hill 2, and, Onimusha, This unbelievable run of games is inflated by titles like Jet Set Radio Future, which was never supposed to release on the Xbox. JSRF was always planned as a Dreamcast release until the platform’s demise. The sequel to the Dreamcast hit Jet Grind Radio, would eventually become a flagship Xbox game that Microsoft would later bundle with the console and Sega GT 2002.

• The Simpsons Road Rage
• NHL 2002
• SSX Tricky
• Max Payne
• Batman Vengeance
• Star Wars: Obi-Wan
• Silent Hill 2
• Blood Wake
• NFL 2K2
• NBA Inside Drive 2002
• ESPN NFL PrimeTime 2002
• Onimusha
• Wreckless: The Yakuza Missions
• WWF Raw
• New Legends
• UFC Tapout
• All-Star Baseball 2003
• Jet Set Radio Future
• NBA 2K2
• Knockout Kings 2002
• Rallisport Challange
• Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 3
• Spy Hunter
• ESPN MLS ExtraTime 2002

Q2 2002 Xbox Releases By Date

The first summer the Xbox console had was full of traditional early 2000’s era licensed games. While games under the Spider-Man and Star Wars franchises are not as meaningful as they are today, it is only because they were more common 20 years ago. Then you have more sports games from Konami, Sega, EA, and Midway. Followed by one of the greatest Xbox games ever made. 

When The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind was released on the Xbox it was a turning point for the industry. Never before had an open-world RPG so deep been available on consoles. This would be today’s equivalent as if Skyrim, The Witcher 3, or Fallout 4, were console exclusive. Nintendo had their games, and PlayStation had cornered the JRPG market. Yet nothing like Morrowind existed on any other console. 

• Crash Bandicoot: The Wrath of Cortex
• Spider-Man
• ESPN NBA 2Night 2002
• MotoGP
• 2002 FIFA World Cup
• Burnout
• Star Wars: Jedi Starfighter
• World Series Baseball 2K2
• Hunter: The Reckoning
• Legends of Wrestling
• Test Drive
• The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind
• Soldier of Fortune II: Double Helix
• RedCard 20-03
• Tetris Worlds
• Bruce Lee: Quest of the Dragon

Q3 2002 Xbox Releases By Date

Traditionally, we have quiet months in the late summer when it comes to games. Many Americans travel and take summer vacations. Yes, there is always a Madden, and every once and a while a big game slips into the late summer. Yet nothing like Xbox had in 2002 with four NFL releases and two NCAA football releases on a single console. This would be the first and only time something like this would happen.

After an unbelievable month of football games, a similar theme from the spring returns. With Sega releases and a small handful of AAA all-time classics. Crazy Taxi 3 is accompanied by Turok: Evolution, Dead to Rights, and Hitman 2. Hitman still stands today as an important franchise and Turok: Evolution is the highest rated Turok release after the franchise left the Nintendo 64. Dead to Rights can still be played today as one of the Xbox Backward Compatible games.

• Mike Tyson Heavyweight Boxing
• NCAA Football 2003
• Crazy Taxi 3: High Roller
• Enclave
• NFL Fever 2003
• Madden NFL 2003
• Matt Hoffman’s Pro BMX 2
• NFL 2K3
• NFL Blitz 2003
• Street Hoops
• NCAA College Football 2K3
• Dead to Rights
• Sega Soccer Slam
• Turok: Evolution
• Sega GT 2002
• Balde 2
• The Thing
• NHL Hits 20-03
• Myst III: Exile
• The Terminator: Dawn of Fate
• NASCAR 2003
• The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring
• Robotech: Battlecry
• Conflict: Desert Storm
• Hitman 2: Silent Assassin

Q4 Through November 2002 Xbox Releases By Date

Xbox had a tremendous holiday to close out the first year of the console’s lifecycle. Popular platformer Blinx: The Time Sweeper failed to become Xbox’s Sonic or Mario, yet remains a cult favorite and did receive a sequel. Unlike Sneakers, another Xbox first-party mascot platformer that came out in the fall of 2002. With the two first-party platformers came a wave of all-time great games. 

Metal Gear Solid 2: Substance and Shenmue II coming to Xbox are two of the biggest releases in Xbox history and they came out within a few days of each other. At the time Metal Gear Solid was one of the most important PlayStation games. Then Shenmue was considered to be the game that would save Sega. Xbox had purchased timed exclusivity for Metal Gear Solid 2: Substance. Then Shenmue II would be released exclusively on Xbox one year after Sega announced they would transition to game publishing. 

As Metal Gear Solid 2: Substance and Shenmue 2 would headline the fall release, other third-party titles would make that 2002 fall even better. BloodRayne, Timesplitters 2, Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon, Tom Clancy’s Splinter Cell, Mortal Kombat Deadly Alliance, and Fatal Frame are all exceptional titles as well as they are critically acclaimed. 

Just like the NFL, the NBA and NHL followed up with more games than ever on the Xbox in 2002. There were four NBA games, to accompany the two that had already been released within the past few months. NHL 2K3 was the first NHL 2K game to be released outside of the Dreamcast, and it featured Xbox Live compatibility. 

• Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit 2
• Blinx: The Time Sweeper
• NBA Live 2003
• Whacked!
• NBA 2K3
• NHL 2003
• BloodRayne
• X-Men: Next Dimension
• Timesplitters 2
• Baldur’s Gate: Dark Alliance
• Deathrow
• Sneakers
• Toe Jam and Earl III: Mission to Earth
• Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 4
• The House of the Dead III
• Tiger Woods PGA Tour 2003
• NBA Starting Five
• Shenmue II
• NBA Inside Drive 2003
• Metal Gear Solid 2: Substance
• BMX XXX
• Medal of Honor: Frontline
• Serious Sam
• Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon
• FIFA Football 2003
• Unreal Championship
• Mechassault
• Tom Clancy’s Splinter Cell 
• 007 Nightfire
• Mortal Kombat Deadly Alliance
• NHL 2K3
• Superman: Man of Steel
• Star Wars Jedi Knight II: Jedi Outcast
• Steel Battalion
• Fatal Frame

Xbox Live Launch November 15th, 2002 Compatible Games

On November 15th, 2002, Microsoft officially took the Xbox online. After a successful summer beta, a small handful of games would be playable online. In 2002, Xbox Live included voice chat, friends lists, leaderboards, and game invites. 

With that, it was not just the games that made Xbox’s 2002 one of the best ever. While only a few million American homes had the broadband internet required to connect to Xbox Live, it was a revolution in home console gaming. Of course, the PS2, Dreamcast, and Gamecube all had online games. Yet, Xbox Live was the first platform where you could play all of your games in one place seamlessly, with your friends.

Following the launch of Xbox Live, NFL Fever and Mechassault would become two of the more important franchises on the original Xbox platform. Plus with the addition of Xbox Live, Xbox became the best place to play games like Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon and NBA 2K.

• Mechassault
• MotoGP
• NBA 2K3
• NFL Fever 2003
• NHL 2K3
• Tetris Worlds
• Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon
• Unreal Championship
• Whacked!