It was 2007 when I first started paying attention to then next gen.

Most people that I knew had Xbox 360 but I wasn't interested in it because I still had a backlog of games for PS2.

One day, I decided to sit down and watch my friend play Gears of War, Halo and Ace Combat 6 on it on his projector with a brutal sound system.

He let me play once... I instantly got "gripped" by the controller. I never felt so attached to a controller since Snes's.

Obviously I fell in love with Halo, but the game that sparked my interest the most was Ace Combat 6.

It is one of my most beloved game and "the" main reason I stuck with the Xbox brand.

I'd like to hear your story if you don't mind sharing! C'mon Xbox community.

I went over to my cousin's house and he had the Original XBOX, we started playing Halo and it was so fun, every time I came over we would play Halo or Fusion Frenzy.  I eventually picked one up later that year for christmas.  

Oh yeah, I used to love LAN parties. What happened to that?

I'm not getting an XBO but I got the 360 mostly because all my friends owned one. This was in 2008 when the PS3 was still extremely expensive and I didn't know anyone who bought one. So I bought the 360 that year, didn't get my PS3 until several years later.

The internet. 

Dreamcast alternative. Didn't like PS all that much. Never liked those controllers

OG Xbox had "The internet".

Maybe gamers turned less social?

I had a owned every console since pong....lol...I am 35. Gaming was great and at the time of the XBox I owned a PS2 with a robust library and enjoyed the hell out of it. I had heard of this title called Halo, but couldn't understand what all the fuss was about. In fact, I hadn't even played the original with the exception of a demo Xbox console and Halo I tried at a Radio Shack for like 10 minutes.

Almost 10 years ago I had been at my first duty station with the Marines in San Diego and met a Navy Engineer who I am amazing friends with still today. He owned a XBox and was going crazy about the release of Halo 2. He invited me over and asked if I wanted to try the game and play co-op through the story mode. He gave me a quick background on the Halo story, fired up the console, and off we went.

I was completely floored by how amazing the game was. I fell in love instantly, got an XBox, and have loved the system ever since. I love the Halo series and the Xbox brand.

I have owned each system, each gen and will likely continue the trend this gen (finances permitting). But my preferred console is Xbox and the XBox One comes first before I purchase the others. I can't wait for my Amazon delivery tomorrow.

Correction: The internet got better. 

I was mainly a JRPG kid throughout my gaming life, I was spending the night at my friends house, we were forced to go to his cousin's house and they had the original Xbox. It was the first time I ever saw one as all my friends and I only had Ps2s and GameCubes. He fired up a lil game called Halo and played a little bit of it, he was showing me how if you kill some of the marines they'll start firing at you. I've never seen anything like that at the time so I was impressed but ultimately I didn't think much of the game at the time.

A year later one of my close friends got the original Xbox for christmas and a bunch of games, one of them being Halo. He pretty much forced me to play the campaign and I ended up really liking it, we played some multiplayer and I was horrible! I always came in last place, it was super frustrating but fun. The day Halo 2 came out we beat the game in one sitting and played some multiplayer! I was hooked! Eventually more of my friends got Xbox and Halo, I also got better at the game.

I was still playing PS2 and Gamecube at home though and never got an Xbox, the 360 came out and I went over to me friends house to play it. We played DOA4, I fell in love with the UI and all the features but what really sealed the deal was when Halo 3 came out and I went to my friend's house to play. The graphics and gameplay blew me away, the campaign was great and the multiplayer was fun. Custom games was an entire beast all by itself, lots of fun and interesting games the community made.

Halo 3 was the killer app for me, it was the reason why I purchased an Xbox 360 over a PS3

Well that's my story