General reception of it was pretty good in big part due to Halo, but i can definitely remember for a while on many niche nerdy videogame communities it was cool to rip on the Xbox. It was definitely in big part due to a lot of (not unwarranted) cynicism towards Microsoft from many controversies during those years, including the whole Internet Explorer fiasco that was still fresh in everyones minds. When the next Oddworld game was revealed to be an OG Xbox launch exclusive the shitflinging on the internet was massive. It was almost customary for every webcomic about videogames to throw some jabs about how Lorne Lanning was a sellout and how the Xbox was a soulless corporate attempt for greedy poindexter Bill Gates to pry into the videogame industry. Although by the time of Halo 2's a lot of this cynicism had cooled down.

You also have to remember that this was during the peak of japanese gaming and otaku culture on the Internet, in websites like GameFAQs or old /v/. Xbox's lesser support from japanese companies and more conventional library of games in contrast to all the anime JRPGs, colorful platformers and niche experimental oddball games on Dreamcast, PS2 and Gamecube gave it this stereotype as the "uncool" console for incurious american turbonormies who got the icks from weird japanese stuff and just wanted to smash cars and shoot things.

Honestly a lot of it was really funny in retrospect
http://www.thebestpageintheuniverse.net/c.cgi?u=xbox_suckit

General reception of it was pretty good in big part due to Halo, but i can definitely remember for a while on many niche nerdy videogame communities it was cool to rip on the Xbox. It was definitely in big part due to a lot of (not unwarranted) cynicism towards Microsoft from many controversies during those years, including the whole Internet Explorer fiasco that was still fresh in everyones minds. When the next Oddworld game was revealed to be an OG Xbox launch exclusive the shitflinging on the internet was massive. It was almost customary for every webcomic about videogames to throw some jabs about how Lorne Lanning was a sellout and how the Xbox was a soulless corporate attempt for greedy poindexter Bill Gates to pry into the videogame industry. Although by the time of Halo 2's a lot of this cynicism had cooled down.

You also have to remember that this was during the peak of japanese gaming and otaku culture on the Internet, in websites like GameFAQs or old /v/. Xbox's lesser support from japanese companies and more conventional library of games in contrast to all the anime JRPGs and niche experimental oddball games on Dreamcast, PS2 and Gamecube made it seem like the "uncool" console for american normies who just wanted to smash cars and shoot things.

Honestly a lot of it was really funny in retrospect
http://www.thebestpageintheuniverse.net/c.cgi?u=xbox_suckit