Short answers, pulled from the story.
The original Xbox was released on the 15th of November 2001, in North America. It followed in Australia, Europe, and Japan in 2002, with the European launch on the 14th of March 2002, and the Japanese and Asia-Pacific launch on the 22nd of February 2002.
Microsoft developed the Xbox in response to the PlayStation 2, which CEO Bill Gates saw as a threat to the Windows PC market because Sony intended the PS2 to replace the desktop computer in the home. Gates concluded Microsoft needed to enter the console market to compete directly with Sony.
Microsoft lost an accumulative total of $4 billion on the original Xbox. Each unit sold at an initial retail price of $299 but cost $425 to manufacture, meaning a loss of approximately $125 per console sold. The company only turned a profit on the platform at the end of 2004.
The original Xbox sold a total of 24 million units worldwide, with 16 million sold in North America, 6 million in Europe, and 2 million in the Asia-Pacific region. These figures fell short of Microsoft's internal prediction of 50 million units.
The Xbox sold only 474,992 units in Japan over its entire lifetime, far below expectations. Contributing factors included the console's large physical size, which was poorly suited to Japan's smaller living spaces, a high price relative to local competitors, and a library dominated by games aimed at Western audiences.
Xbox Live was a fee-based online gaming service launched on the 15th of November 2002, requiring a broadband connection and a paid subscription. It grew from 100,000 subscribers in its first week to twenty million subscribers by May 2009. Support for the original Xbox on Xbox Live ended on the 14th of April 2010.