Call of Duty
Starting life as a WW2 first person shooter, the Call of Duty games steadily evolved into the most familiar, popular and profitable of franchises as it moved from World War 2 into Modern Warfare.
The games single player mode was effective and popular but it really came into its own on the Xbox as a multiplayer experience. Like the also popular Battlefield and PC classic Counter Strike, first person shooters proved to be the perfect form for multiplayer action and the Xbox Live experience boosted longevity.
Forza Motorsport
Racing games have been popular since the coin-op days, and every console worth its salt needs to show its quality on the asphalt. Competing with the brilliant likes of Project Gotham Racing, Microsoft's Forza is perhaps the racing title that is most intrinsically linked with the Xbox.
Beautifully modelled cars, finely tuned racing and some really nice social elements have made Forza a big part of the Xbox story, and the wheel keeps turning as Forza 5 rolls up to the Xbox One start line.
Fable
Peter Molyneux is a gaming icon and his time at Lionhead brought a classic fantasy series in Fable. Molyneux's typical brilliant ideas, some of which proved to be a bit "out there", proliferated and the titles remain a firm favourite.
Plus there's something very right about your deliberately evil character getting more and more devilish looking.
Guitar Hero
Don't underestimate the power of peripheral-based music games in the Xbox story. Rock Band and Guitar Hero were prime examples of how console gaming didn't all need to be about cars, guns and platforms.
Rhythm games have become a real fixture in console gaming, but bringing a guitar controller to the mix was a stroke of genius as the Xbox proved to millions that it wasn't just joypads that could make local multiplayer exciting.
Assassin's Creed
It's risky creating a new IP - expensive and without any guarantee of success, and yet Ubisoft's creation of the Assassin's Creed titles has paid enormous dividends, and the Xbox has been a big beneficiary of that.
Huge playable maps that just beg to be parkoured around, breathless kills and the first amazing swan dive from a tall tower all stood out through the series and its history-jumping storyline.
BioShock
The brilliant original BioShock was not without its flaws, but it did something that very few games ever carry off - providing genuine narrative twists and turns that got gamers talking. As well as *that* scene with a golf club and the genuinely creepy storyline, this underwater world was one of the most detailed and thrilling gaming worlds ever designed, and the recent successor BioShock Infinite built on those foundations.
These games proved beyond doubt that the Xbox was capable of providing gritty, mature gaming gems with heart and soul, and that a strong story was vital in creating a truly engrossing environment.
FIFA
Football is big business and EA SPORTS now legendary series has become the go to title for those wanting to see what happens when you plonk Lionel Messi in the same team as Cristiano Ronaldo or whether you are so much better than your online opponent that you can score with your goalkeeper.
With a new version every year the series has been in constant evolution, and the next gen promises to give us another big hoik towards making Wayne Rooney look perfectly like Wayne Rooney.
And with FIFA 14, you'll get access to Ultimate Team Legends exclusively on Xbox One, bringing legendary players including Pele, Patrick Vieira and Gary Lineker into the game.
Dance Central
Not one for the hard core gamers, but quite possible a title that proved to those more casual players who snapped up the Kinect for Xbox 360 that motion control was the future.
The Kinect, of course, tracks your movement, and when that movement is to the music then you might just find that the rhythm is, as they say, going to get you.
Elder Scrolls
MMOs are all very well, but for many people the chance to participate in a role playing game redolent with dragons and swords and sorcery without having to deal with all those, well let's be honest, annoying other real people is hugely attractive.
The Elder Scrolls series brought us massive worlds, massive monsters and massive levels of brilliant gameplay. Did we mention the dragons?
