Xbox network in the context of Microsoft Gaming

Xbox is a video gaming brand that consists of four main home video game console lines, as well as applications (video games), the streaming service Xbox Cloud Gaming, and online services such as the Xbox network and Xbox Game Pass. The brand is owned by Microsoft Gaming, a division of Microsoft.

The brand was first introduced in the United States in November 2001, with the launch of the original Xbox console. The Xbox branding was formerly, from 2012 to 2015, used as Microsoft's digital media entertainment brand replacing Zune. In 2022, Microsoft expanded its gaming business and reorganized Xbox to become part of its newly formed Microsoft Gaming division. Under Microsoft Gaming, Xbox's first-party publishers are Xbox Game Studios, ZeniMax Media (Bethesda Softworks), and Activision Blizzard (Activision, Blizzard Entertainment, and King), who own numerous studios and successful franchises.

Xbox Live Arcade (or XBLA) was a video game digital distribution service that was available for the Xbox and Xbox 360 consoles. It focused on smaller downloadable games from both major publishers and independent game developers. Titles on the service ranged from previously released arcade and console games to brand new games designed for the service, and were priced from a range of 5 to 20 US dollars. While originally requiring a disc to gain access to the service on the original Xbox, the Arcade was integrated into the Xbox 360 along with the rest of the Xbox Live Marketplace (later renamed Xbox Games Store) with the launch of the new console.

As of October 2016, there had been 709 Xbox Live Arcade titles released for the Xbox 360, with 27 being released for the original Xbox. The release of the Xbox One did not carry the Arcade branding over, and following the closure of the Xbox Live services for the original Xbox in 2010 and the Xbox Games Store in 2024, the Xbox Live Arcade branding is effectively defunct.