With Microsoft celebrating the launch of the very first Xbox console yesterday, we took a look back at the glorious (but short-lived) time when the Xbox was first assembled in our tiny country in 2001. Hungary was also the first console manufacturer in Europe.

It is perhaps hard to believe in 2021, when the video games industry nowadays sees us as a minor consumer country, that 20 years ago, we were the first country in Europe to produce Microsoft’s very first Xbox consoles. Specifically, in Sárvár and Zalaegerszeg, in the Flextronics factories, which Electronics Weekly even wrote about in an article on 6 December 2001, (EW only about the Sárvár factory) with the following title:

“Flextronics assembles a single Xbox in 30 seconds”

The then Origó, taking an MTI article, also mentioned the Zalaegerszeg Xbox production.

“In the 14th largest Hungarian company in terms of sales, the Singaporean parent company has invested about $700 million since 1993 and is planning to invest another $70-80 million this year. This includes the X-Box game console for Microsoft, which will start production in Zalaegerszeg and Sárvár at the end of summer 2001. No Hungarian components are planned for the X-Box in the first phase.”

The Hungarian production was even mentioned in the HWSW at the time, with a special mention in the lead that

“The Xbox is Microsoft’s next-generation gaming console, bringing unprecedented new experiences to video game fans.”

and the 2001 HWSW article also highlighted that Flextronics

“the very first European game console maker.”

Of course, the US console was first launched in the US exactly twenty years ago, but its European launch was not until later, in March 2002, and the first European assembly was in Sárvár.

We could write proudly that “and the rest is history”, but the production of the Xbox moved to China in May 2002 – just a few months after the start of production in Hungary, as the then 24.hu wrote about it under the title “We will not become an Xbox superpower – production moves from Sárvár to China”.

The 24.hu article also added that the Xbox was unsuccessful in Europe, so this was partly the reason why the console, which was not very successful later on, was produced in the much cheaper China:

“The Xboxes produced in Hungary were sold on the European market, but here Microsoft’s product could not achieve serious success against Nintendo and Sony. In fact, the American company, which was otherwise known for its software, was forced to make a significant price cut of almost 40 per cent on the old continent. Because of price competition, and to produce more cheaply, production capacity in Hungary is now being moved to China.”

The article also mentioned that more than 1,000 Hungarian jobs had been lost as a result of Microsoft’s decision.

In 2002, Microsoft planned a press party in Hungary for the launch of the Xbox, to which the then GameStar staff (where I worked as an editor) was invited, but it was cancelled, and the press was not invited, which was a big blunder. The reason (if I remember correctly) was that they didn’t want to officially market Xbox consoles and console games in any form in our country because the video games market is so insignificant in our country. It was also a funny paradox that, although Microsoft consoles were indeed produced in Sárvár for a short time, they were not officially available anywhere in Hungary but could only be ordered from abroad. We had to wait until the next generation, the Xbox 360, came out in 2005 before Microsoft finally took the Hungarian games market a bit more seriously.

By that time, however, the Redmond company had completely buried the “old” Xbox. As soon as the Xbox 360 was released, it was as if the previous generation had never existed, no more games were released, and the old ones were no longer supported in any way. In this respect, it’s a little amusing that they are now so teary-eyed about the ‘glorious past’ when in 2005 they were pretty much trying to forget that the previous Xbox even existed. This was, of course, mostly because Sony’s PlayStation 2 pretty much wiped the floor with the first Xbox, which failed in the market despite releasing some really great games (such as the first Halo). I (BadSector) myself got an Xbox at launch and loved it. I played a lot of titles on it; I’d say it was the best in terms of design, and I didn’t mind the huge controller.

Finally, let’s remember the initially promising console, which has later suffered a rather lousy fate, with this incredibly morbid (but hilarious) advertisement, which caused a massive scandal and was eventually banned:

Source: Electronics Weekly, Origo, 24.hu